Community areas in Chicago

Census data and other statistics are tied to the areas, which serve as the basis for a variety of urban planning initiatives on both the local and regional levels.

In this effort it was led by sociologists Robert E. Park and Ernest Burgess, who believed that physical contingencies created areas that would inevitably form a common identity.

The areas have become a part of the culture of Chicago, contributing to its perception as a "city of neighborhoods" and breaking it down into smaller regions for easier analysis and local planning.

[1] However, by the 1920s the Social Science Research Committee at the University of Chicago wanted divisions that were more natural and manageable than the arbitrarily-designated and numerous census tracts.

[2] The Chicago Department of Public Health wished to present local differences in birth and death rates; it worked with the committee to produce the list of 75 community areas, which were divided into 935 census tracts.

[1] With the exception of 1970 (whose data was published in 1980[2]), it continued this publication for every subsequent census through 1990, expanding in the 1960s to also cover major suburbs of Chicago.

[a][5] Edgewater was separated from Uptown in 1980 as residents considered being joined to it a detriment to obtaining aid for local improvements.

[2] Chicago was an early adopter of such a system, and as of 1997[update] most cities in the United States still lacked analogous divisions.

[1] For example, the Pilsen and Back of the Yards neighborhoods are much better known than their respective community areas Lower West Side and New City.

a colored map showing the 77 Chicago community areas broken into 9 regions
A map of the 77 community areas, broken down by purported regions. While the areas have official use and definition, the color groupings are unofficial, and such "regions" may be defined differently, grouped differently, or not be used at all.
A list of the 77 Chicago community areas by number; the names are provided in the "List of community areas" section below. The areas are generally numbered from north to south, although the last two are in the north due to historical contingencies.
A map of the community areas by number; see the names of the areas associated with each number in this section.
Five horizontal stripes, arranged from top to bottom white, blue, white, blue, and white. The middle white stripe is the widest, occupying roughly a third of the flag's height, while the other four stripes are roughly equal in width. There are four red six-pointed stars in the middle white stripe.
On the flag of Chicago , three of the stripes reflect the traditional "sides" of the city.