Chicago Southland

{{Short description|Suburban region of Chicago, Illinois}}

{{About|the region south of Chicago|the southern part of Chicago|South Side, Chicago}}

{{Infobox settlement

| name = Chicago Southland

| image_skyline = File: OrlandSquareMallOutside_January2020.png

| image_caption = Orland Square in Orland Park, Illinois

| seat_type = Largest City

| seat = Orland Park

| population = 2.5 million

| official_name =

| settlement_type = Region}}

The Chicago Southland is a region comprising the south and southwest suburbs of the City of Chicago in the U.S. state of Illinois. Home to roughly 2.5 million residents, this region has been known as the Southland by the local populace and regional media for over 20 years.{{cite web|title=Community - Chicago Southland Chamber of Commerce|url=http://www.chicagosouthlandchamber.com/community.html|website=Chicago Southland Chamber of Commerce|access-date=3 March 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180303225558/http://www.chicagosouthlandchamber.com/community.html|archive-date=3 March 2018}} Despite this relatively recent term, some older native Southlanders and current local advertisements colloquially refer to the Southland as the Southside, meaning on the southern side/border of Chicago as extended into the suburbs since some of them previously lived on Chicago's Southside but moved to the suburbs during post WWII white flight.

There is great racial and economic diversity in the Southland, with low and middle income areas to the north and higher income areas farther south and west.{{Citation needed|date=September 2021}}

The southland is home to much of the region's Black suburban population, with the overwhelming majority residing along Interstate 57, east to the Bishop Ford Expressway and the Indiana state border.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/03/us/03cnccensus.html|title=Black Chicagoans Fuel Growth of South Suburbs|newspaper=The New York Times|date=2 July 2011|last1=Little|first1=Darnell}} The south suburbs are also home to the highest black homeownership rates in the country, with five of its communities ranked in the top ten in 2018.{{Cite web|url=https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2018/08/15/where-black-homeownership-is-the-norm|title = Where Black Homeownership is the Norm}}

The region is also home to a high Polish, Lithuanian, Palestinian, Irish, Dutch, German, and Mexican population.{{Citation needed|date=September 2021}}