Champaign

Formed January 1, 1833 (59^th county)

Champaign County (205,863), Urbana (38,341), Champaign (88,293)

The 2002 addition to the 1901 red brick and stone courthouse matches perfectly.  It is on Main Street between Broadway and Vine avenues.  United States Highway 150 is three blocks north of the courthouse.  Joseph Royer is the designer of the Romanesque style courthouse.  An Administrative Center was built in 1970.  The courthouse features a working clock tower.  A county building and veteran memorials are across the street.  The county was organized on January 1, 1833 from a part of Vermilion County as the 59^th county with Urbana as the only county seat.  The county and county seat are named for Champaign County, Ohio and Urbana, Ohio, its county seat.  Champaign is French for “plain.” 

Champaign County government consists of a sheriff, an executive, an attorney, a coroner, a clerk, a treasurer, and an assessor (executive).  It has 22 Board Members (legislative.)  Eleven Circuit Court Judges serve Champaign, DeWitt, Douglas, Macon, Moultrie, and Piatt counties and a court clerk serves Champaign County (judicial.) The county is in eastern Illinois.  Chicago, Illinois is north and Springfield, Illinois is southwest of the county.  The county center is in Urbana 3.6 miles North of the city center.  The county is surrounded clockwise by Ford, Vermilion, Edgar, Douglas, Piatt, and McLean counties. 

The area of the county is 996 square miles.  It is 5 out of 102 in the state.  It ranks 10 out of 102 in population in the state.  It has a density of 206.7 persons per square mile making it 14 out of 102 in the state.  Champaign County has 85.4% of its population in its incorporated areas.  Interstate Highway 57 crosses the county from north to south from Ford County to Douglas County.  Interstate Highway 72 originates in the county and travels west into Piatt County.  Interstate Highway 74 goes east to west through the county from Vermilion to Piatt counties.  United States Highway 45 parallels Interstate Highway 57 from Ford to Douglas counties.  United States Highway 136 crosses the northern part of the county east to west from Vermilion County to McLean County.  United States Highway 150 parallels Interstate Highway 74 from Vermilion to Piatt counties.  The county is a rectangle.  Urbana is slightly south of center in the county.  The City is Champaign is directly west of Urbana.  Urbana is the county seat and Champaign is the largest city.  Urbana is 18.6% of the county population while Champaign is 42.9% of the county population.  The county and largest city are pronounced SHAM-PANE.  The county seat is pronounced UR-BAN-A.  This county is in the Champaign-Urbana Metropolitan Statistical Area.