Frank LLoyd Wright Studio Chicago Frontage. Cook County is the most populous county in the U. Cook County was incorporated in 1831 and named for Daniel Pope Cook county recorder, an early Illinois statesman.

It achieved its present boundaries in 1839. Within one hundred years, the county recorded explosive population growth going from a trading post village with a little over 600 residents to four million citizens, rivalling Paris by the Great Depression. There are more than 800 local governmental units and nearly 130 municipalities located wholly or partially within Cook County, the largest of which is Chicago. Geographically, the county is the sixth-largest in Illinois by land area and the largest by total area. It shares the state’s Lake Michigan shoreline with Lake County. Cook County’s population is larger than that of 28 different U. 11 of the 13 Canadian provinces and territories.

Cook County was created on January 15, 1831, out of Putnam County by an act of the Illinois General Assembly. It was the 54th county established in Illinois and was named after Daniel Cook, one of the earliest and youngest statesmen in Illinois history. The population in each county and the split of agriculture compared to residential and industrial activity has changed dramatically over the intervening decades to 2020. The county began with 10,201 people in the Census of 1840, growing rapidly to 5,150,233 people estimated for 2019 by the US Census. Growth was rapid in the 19th century, with the County reaching 2. Cook County is nearly completely developed, with little agricultural land remaining near the outer county boundaries.

According to the 2000 Census there were 1,974,181 households, out of which 30. 65 years of age or older. In the county, the population age distribution was: 26. The median age was 34 years.