Illinois' sprawling Second Congressional District features a great deal of demographic and economic diversity. Running from the Rust Belt to the Corn Belt, it contains urban, suburban and rural residents.

Made up of Chicago's Far South Side and older southern suburbs, this was once the heart of Chicago's industrial corridor, its landscape dotted with steel mills and factories and crisscrossed by railroads. The steel-reinforced economy has been eroding in recent decades, but the district remains an important transportation hub for rail, highways and Great Lakes shipping.

The district also has historic importance in the labor movement. This is where federal troops broke up the 1894 Pullman strike, and where policemen killed 10 union supporters during 1937's Little Steel strike.

Economically, the district is mostly middle-class, though it contains pockets of poverty as well as prosperity, and virtually all neighborhoods and suburbs are racially diverse. The district's residents are just about evenly divided-half live in the city of Chicago, and the other half in the south suburbs. Additional details about the demographics of the district are available.