Replacement Migration and the Slow Death of Illinois (1/2)

The state of Illinois was once one of the wealthiest regions in the entire world. Its largest city of Chicago was the second largest American city for nearly 100 years from 1890 to 1982. The hinterlands of Illinois are some of the best agricultural land on the planet, and the state is blessed with borders defined by natural, navigable, rivers and lakes that made it a nexus of freight transport from the 19^th century to the modern era. By every measure, Illinois should be a region of the United States that has only an upward trajectory. It should be filled with economically successful American families and a vibrant, abundant culture. That is not the Illinois of today.

Like most states that compose the great union of the American nation, Illinois has entered a period of steep demographic decline that is seeing its foundational American population—the population that founded, developed, and built Illinois from wilderness to powerhouse—vanish under a tide of demographic change, emigration, and economic decline. This is an incredible shame considering that Illinois gave the nation, and the world, inventions such as the first Blood Bank (1937), spray paint (1947), the automatic dishwasher (1893), the grain silo (1873), the first handheld cellular phone (1983), and much more.

Now, the population responsible for these innovations (the unique American people) are vanishing from the state.

From the state’s settlement until the early 1780s to the 1950s (a span of more than 170 years), the territory and then 21^st state of Illinois had a population that was 95+% White/European and American. The only significant minority to live in Illinois from its settlement onward were the small portion of African Americans who have shared the United States with White Americans since the earliest days of colonization under the British. Illinois was NOT a “diverse” place as we understand it today, and it was not a reflection of the world. It was a European, Christian, thoroughly American outpost of Western civilization. That all began to change with the passage of the 1965 Hart-Celler immigration act and the subsequent decades of both deliberate legal and illegal mass immigration that have come to shape the modern United States.

Between 1960 and 1990, the Hispanic population of Illinois skyrocketed from less than 1% of the state’s demography to 8%. The Hispanic population had grown from a few tens of thousands of individuals to more than 904,000 by the year 1990. Today roughly 2.5 million Hispanics call the state home and comprise roughly 20% of Illinois population. The people of Illinois never voted to be replaced by the masses of Latin America and yet it is happening.

Similarly, the Asian population of Illinois went from roughly 0.2% in 1960 to more than 6% today while the numerical count of Asians in the state has jumped from a few thousand in 1960 to more than 900,000 according to the latest estimates.

Wok This Way: Comptroller Susana Mendoza And Friends Explore Asia On Argyle

These changes have been driven overwhelmingly by mass immigration and subsequent births to immigrants in Illinois

In 1960, about 67% of the state’s population was born in Illinois and more than 95% of the population were American-born. Of the 10.8 million Illinois residents in 1960, only 686,000 had been born abroad. Today there are roughly 2 million foreign-born residents in Illinois and they compose 16% of the state’s population—a staggering increase and indisputable evidence that the American people are being replaced in their own heartland. And it is not just that more foreigners are moving to Illinois, Americans are fleeing the state in droves.

Between 1980 and 2020, more than 1.5 million White Americans packed up and left Illinois. In this time frame the population share of White Americans in the state has declined from 78% to 58% and our latest estimates show that White Americans are now likely 56% of Illinois population as of 2026 and remain in numerical decline due to out-migration for other states. Similarly, the African American population has now entered a state of decline. More than 200,000 African Americans are estimated to have left the state since the 1910s and the African American share of the population has declined from a peak of 15.1% in 1990 to roughly 13.4% today. Their population share is expected to decline with increasing speed as the African American population ages and relocates while African and Black Caribbean immigrants resettle in what were once African American communities (and further back once White American communities) in cities like Chicago.

This brings us onto the subject of Chicago. America’s once second largest city which at its 1950s peak had a population of more than 3.6 million people roughly 90% of whom were White Americans and 9% of whom were African American. It was easily one of the wealthiest, most industrialized, most productive urban areas on the planet and today is roughly akin to a post-apocalyptic wasteland with a city center that has been carefully manicured and preserved in order to attract White tourists. As of 2020, only 31% of the city’s population were White Americans while the African American population fell from a 1990 peak of 39% to a 2020 share of about 28%. Meanwhile the Hispanic population which was less than 1% in 1950 now exceeds 30% and the Asian population has grown from less than 0.5% in the 1950s to 7% as of 2020. The Christian, English speaking, European-descended population that founded and peopled Chicago for more than 150 years has been reduced to a minority in the city of their ancestors. Very soon, Americans (both Black and White) are likely to be reduced to a minority in Chicago altogether.

This state of affairs is unacceptable to say the least. American states and American cities cannot be allowed to become or remain places where Americans are reduced to a minority. Americans deserve sovereignty, independence, and the right to live according to our laws, traditions, and customs without outside interference. In part two, White Papers will outline a raft of policies both state and federal that could be used to reclaim Illinois for the American people and our posterity.