State of Illinois
Capital city Springfield Biggest city Chicago Surface 140,998 km² Population 12,671,000 Length of highway network 3,640 km First highway 1950 Abbreviation IL Illinois (pronunciation: ˌɪlɨˈnɔɪ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. The state has 12.6 million inhabitants (2021), largely due to the Chicago metropolitan area. The capital is the much smaller Springfield. Illinois has an area of 140,998 square kilometers, making it more than 3 times the size of the Netherlands. Geography Illinois is a state stretched in the north-south direction. The state measures up to 615 kilometers from north to south and 340 kilometers from west to east. Illinois clockwise borders Wisconsin, Michigan (via Lake Michigan), Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, and Iowa. The state is mostly flat, with only limited areas of low hills, most notably in the…