Community areas of Chicago

The city of Chicago is divided into seventy-seven community areas. Census data are tied to the community areas, and they serve as the basis for a variety of urban planning initiatives on both the local and regional levels.

The University of Chicago defined seventy-five community areas during the late 1920s, which at that time corresponded roughly to neighborhoods within the city. In the 1950s, with the city's annexations for O'Hare airport, a seventy-sixth community area was added. Other than the creation of the seventy-seventh community area in 1980 (by separating #77 Edgewater from #3 Uptown), boundaries have never been revised to reflect change but instead have been kept relatively stable to allow comparisons of these areas over time.

Today many of the community areas no longer correspond to any single neighborhood, and some community area names have fallen out of colloquial use. In many cases, the actual character of the community area is quite independent of that of the individual neighborhoods which comprise it.

Community Area designations are useful more than merely as a historical curiosity because they are considered more durable than the names of neighborhoods, which can change over time due to urban redevelopment, gentrification and the constant shuffle and absorption of the immigrant population.

A full list in numerical order and map is available below.

Areas

Chicago community numbering map

Following is a list of the Chicago Community Areas by community area number (see map).

01	Rogers Park	21	Avondale	41	Hyde Park	61	New City
02	West Ridge	22	Logan Square	42	Woodlawn	62	West Elsdon
03	Uptown	23	Humboldt Park	43	South Shore	63	Gage Park
04	Lincoln Square	24	West Town	44	Chatham	64	Clearing
05	North Center	25	Austin	45	Avalon Park	65	West Lawn
06	Lake View	26	West Garfield Park	46	South Chicago	66	Chicago Lawn
07	Lincoln Park	27	East Garfield Park	47	Burnside	67	West Englewood
08	Near North Side	28	Near West Side	48	Calumet Heights	68	Englewood
09	Edison Park	29	North Lawndale	49	Roseland	69	Greater Grand Crossing
10	Norwood Park	30	South Lawndale	50	Pullman	70	Ashburn
11	Jefferson Park	31	Lower West Side	51	South Deering	71	Auburn Gresham
12	Forest Glen	32	Loop	52	East Side	72	Beverly
13	North Park	33	Near South Side	53	West Pullman	73	Washington Heights
14	Albany Park	34	Armour Square	54	Riverdale	74	Mount Greenwood
15	Portage Park	35	Douglas	55	Hegewisch	75	Morgan Park
16	Irving Park	36	Oakland	56	Garfield Ridge	76	O'Hare
17	Dunning	37	Fuller Park	57	Archer Heights	77	Edgewater
18	Montclare	38	Grand Boulevard	58	Brighton Park
19	Belmont Cragin	39	Kenwood	59	McKinley Park
20	Hermosa	40	Washington Park	60	Bridgeport

Alternate geographic breakdowns

Parishes

Another method of neighborhood nomenclature in heavily Catholic neighborhoods of Chicago has been to refer to communities in terms of parishes. For example, one might say, "I live in St. Gertrude's, but he's from Saint Ita's."

Wards

Since 1923 Chicago has been divided into 50 City Council Aldermanic wards.^[1] Each of the 50 areas is represented on the City council by one Alderman and in many social, political and economic contexts, it is reasonable to describe what part of Chicago one is from by who one's alderman is or what ward one lives in. However, using wards as the basis for comparing areas of the city over time has limited utility, due to the fact that the wards need to be redistricted every ten years. The current ward boundaries are mapped here.

Notes

^ Encyclopedia of Chicago Government, City of Chicago. Chicago Historical Society. Retrieved on 2007-01-18.

External links

City of Chicago
History · Neighborhoods · Places and Landmarks · Parks · Architecture · Culture · Theatre · Sports · Media · Colleges and Universities · Flag · Public Schools · Economy · Government · Geography · Climate · Metropolitan Area

Community areas of Chicago
Far North side	Rogers Park • West Ridge • Uptown • Lincoln Square • Edison Park • Norwood Park • Jefferson Park • Forest Glen • North Park • Albany Park • O'Hare • Edgewater
North side	North Center • Lakeview • Lincoln Park • Avondale • Logan Square
Northwest side	Portage Park • Irving Park • Dunning • Montclare • Belmont Cragin • Hermosa
Central, Near North, and Near South side	Near North Side • The Loop • Near South Side
West and Near West side	Humboldt Park • West Town • Austin • West Garfield Park • East Garfield Park • Near West Side • North Lawndale • South Lawndale • Lower West Side
Southwest side	Garfield Ridge • Archer Heights • Brighton Park • McKinley Park • New City • West Elsdon • Gage Park • Clearing • West Lawn • Chicago Lawn • West Englewood • Englewood
South side	Armour Square • Douglas • Oakland • Fuller Park • Grand Boulevard • Kenwood • Washington Park • Hyde Park • Woodlawn • South Shore • Bridgeport • Greater Grand Crossing
Far Southwest side	Ashburn • Auburn Gresham • Beverly • Washington Heights • Mount Greenwood • Morgan Park
Far Southeast side	Chatham • Avalon Park • South Chicago • Burnside • Calumet Heights • Roseland • Pullman • South Deering • East Side • West Pullman • Riverdale • Hegewisch

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