Illinois, the nation’s self-proclaimed most progressive state, is first in tax burden and last in equity and has residents of all demographics leaving in record numbers
Since 2000, over 266,000 African Americans have left Chicago. An overwhelming majority of blacks exiting Chicago are middle-class families with children. Within the black exodus from Chicago, children are overrepresented in the black population’s decline. In comparison to black adults over the same time period, 2000-2020, the number of black children 17 and younger have fallen by nearly 50 percent. How can this startling decline occur in this most progressive of states, whose leaders have portrayed Illinois as a progressive model of success for the nation?
Despite the state and city government’s years-long efforts at promoting racial equality of outcomes — “equity” — the extraordinarily uneven consequences of government policies under Democratic state and local leadership prove these promises to be mere rhetorical flourish. State and local policies, like those of Illinois, directly undermine the four most important elements of improving outcomes for black residents: Public safety, quality public education, taxation, and public services.
Illinois ranks first in tax burden and last in equity
Lamentably, Illinois ranks at or near the bottom among states in terms of racial equity. A 2023 study by WalletHub placed the state dead last in disparity between blacks and whites according to eight measures of prosperity: Poverty rate, homelessness rate, share of unsheltered homeless, labor-force participation rate, homeownership rate, share of executive positions, median annual household income, and unemployment rate.
More troubling for Illinois, the Archbridge Foundation Index ranked the Prairie State the tenth-worst state for social mobility, or a person’s ability to climb the income ladder and out-earn the previous generation. A Wirepoints‘ examination of 2023 U.S. Census Data reported that median black household incomes in Illinois are only 54 percent of white incomes — the 3rd-worst ratio in the nation, behind only Louisiana (52 percent) and Wisconsin (50 percent).
