University of Illinois Urbana‑Champaign

Geographic Region: Municipalities

In Illinois, municipalities include cities, villages, and towns. IECAM uses the term municipality instead of incorporated place for these three types of places.
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There are about 1,295 municipalities in Illinois: roughly 320 cities, 945 villages, and 30 towns. The number of municipalities in Illinois may vary slightly from year to year. The list of municipalities periodically changes as old municipalities are dissolved, new municipalities are incorporated, municipalities undergo boundary changes, or municipalities change their names. Although the number of changes is very small, nevertheless note that

  • the number of municipalities may change from year to year,
  • municipality X in one year may not cover the same geographic area as municipality X the following year, and
  • a municipality may not have the same name from one year to the next.
Source of definition: U.S. Census Bureau, Geography Division. Geographic Terms and Concepts: Place