In a WirePoints special report on demographics, Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner explore Illinois' Demographic Collapse.

Since the turn of the century, Illinois has been in the midst of a perfect demographic storm. Residents are leaving the state in record numbers. The number of Americans moving into Illinois has hit new lows. Net foreign immigration has fallen by half. And the number of births has dropped by more than 20 percent.

These demographic forces have all combined into a single troubling fact: Illinois is shrinking. The state has lost population five years in a row. In 2018 alone, the state lost 45,000 people, the second-biggest population drop in the country.

According to U.S. Census American Community Survey data, more Illinoisans are leaving the state at the same time that fewer Americans from other states are coming in. (The American Community Survey's [ACS] State-to-State Migration data differs from the full demographic data provided by the Census Bureau's Population Division because they are based on different surveys.