AROUND THE GLOBE—ONE CITY AT A TIME
MAP
BY CHAUNCEY HOLLINGSWORTH
FACTS &
FIGURES
MARKET
WATCH
Chicago first gained world prominence in
the late 1800s as the largest U.S. meat
processor, a role it held into the 1950s.
That legacy lives on in the global commodity and futures trading at the Chicago
Board of Trade, along with three other
major financial exchanges.
The city is a major transportation and
distribution hub. It’s also home to the
world’s second-busiest airport, O’Hare
International.
The Globalization and World Cities Study
Group and Network lists Chicago as one
of the world’s prime advertising and legal
service centers.
Like the rest of the United States, though,
the city is caught in the undertow of the
world’s economic crisis. Chicago-area
home prices dropped nearly 25 percent in
January, for example.
Population: More than 2. 8 million people
call Chicago home. More than 20 percent
are foreign-born, and over half of those
foreign-born are from Latin America.
About 12 percent of the city’s residents are
not U.S. citizens.
Language: English dominates, but Spanish
comes in a close second. Chicago is a true
multicultural melting pot, with languages
other than English spoken in more than one-third of homes.
Currency: U.S. Dollar (US$)
US$1 = ¤. 70
US$1 = JPY96.94
