The Richest Congressional District in Illinois

The U.S. Census Bureau has just released a new widget called “My Congressional District,” which lists demographics for all 435 districts in the U.S. We looked at Illinois’, to see which was the wealthiest.

Not surprisingly, it’s the northwest and west suburban 6th District, represented by Peter Roskam. The 6th was designed as a GOP ghetto to gather in as many suburban Republicans as possible, so they wouldn’t reduce Democratic majorities in neighboring districts. (The tactic worked: Democratics picked up three suburban congressional seats in 2012.) The 6th district includes Barrington, Hinsdale, Wheaton, Hinsdale and Naperville. You have to pay to live in those ’burbs.
 
The poorest district is the 4th, represented Luis Gutierrez, and drawn to include immigrant populations on the northwest and southwest sides of Chicago. 
 
The most educated district is the 5th, which takes in a large population of young white urbanites on the North Side of Chicago. More than 50 percent of the district’s adults are college graduates. The least educated is the 4th, in which 17.2 percent have college degrees. The 15th District, in Southern Illinois, comes close, with 17.5 percent college graduation rate.
 
Here are the districts, with median household income and college education.
 
6th (Peter Roskam-R): $85,655/ 49.7
14th (Randy Hultgren-R): $77,758/ 37.3
11th (Bill Foster-D): $65,938/ 34.5
10th (Brad Schneider-D): $65,864/ 41.5
5th (Mike Quigley-D): $62,632/ 50.5
8th (Tammy Duckworth-D): $60,073/ 32.6
3rd (Dan Lipinski-D): $56,579/ 24.9
9th (Jan Schakowsky-D): $59,321/ 50.2
18th (Aaron Schock-R): $54,571/ 29.9
16th (Adam Kinzinger-R): $52,101/ 19.8
1st (Bobby Rush-D): $46,468/ 25.6
2nd (Robin Kelley-D): $45,572/ 21.2
7th (Danny Davis-D): $44,535/ 37.1
15th (John Shimkus-R): $45,122/ 17.5
13th (Rodney Davis-R): $44,915/ 28.0
12th (Bill Enyart-D): $42,181/ 20.9
17th (Cheri Bustos-D): $41,194/ 16.7
4th (Luis Gutierrez-D): $39,744/ 17.3
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