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Pennsylvania and Illinois have always been close to each other population-wise. Illinois took the lead in 2000, and appeared to be pulling away for a few years, but Pennsylvania has closed the gap in recent years. So which state has more to offer? Here are the criteria...
1. Economy
2. Cost of living
3. Government
4. Natural environment
5. Built environment
6. Infrastructure
7. Education
8. Diversity
9. Future outlook
10. Your own thoughts and opinions
Location: Pittsburgh (via Chicago, via Pittsburgh)
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Without Chicago, Illinois would be pretty bad. PA's georgraphy is much better. PA's economy is probably slightly better as well. Although I think Chicago blows away Philly and Pittsburgh in all aspects, I'm giving my vote to PA because overall, it has more to offer as far as scenery and cost of living. Given that, I'd live in Chicago over anywhere in PA hands down.
In Illinois I've been only to Chicago so don't know much about the rest of the state,but PA always has been one of my favorite states.I'd much rather live in PA because of the location,history,things to do,cost of living,also I think PA has better economy and it's not dependent on one big city like IL
PA, there is way more to do outside of Philly than there is outside of Chicago, and the weather is worse in Illinois
I seriously hope you're not including Chicago suburbs in this statement. Some Chicago suburbs are diverse and bustling cities of over 100,000 people. It's different than Pittsburgh and Philly suburbia which is very small and lily white.
Chicago suburbs have everything from super wealthy elite towns (Winitetka) to blighted gang-ridden ghettos (Harvey) to middle class black suburbs (Matteson) to Hispanic enclaves (Cicero) to liberal racially-diverse areas (Oak Park) to industrial cities of over 100,000 people (Joliet) to stereotypical "white" suburbia (Arlington Heights).
What do Pennsylvania suburbs have? Town after town of the same old s***.
For all the flake non Chicago Illinois gets, I give them credit for population growth. Peoria, Springfield, Rockford, Chambana(two cities), and B-N all grew in population, despite being less popular than Chicago. Chicago(the city itself) with all its popularity failed big time in this aspect. And if there wasn't a Chicago, I can imagine Peoria(older than Chicago) would have been bigger, about the size of Minneapolis or St. Paul at least.
Peoria- 115,000
Last edited by Chicagoland60426; 02-27-2011 at 12:23 PM..
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