The Cook County Assessor’s condominium file: 372,354 condo units in 2025, 63 fewer than in 2010, after a 73.2 percent rise from 1999. Half the growth sat in buildings built from 1999 on; the other half, by our reading, was older buildings converted. Chicago’s townships more than doubled their count.
Cook County’s Shakman-exempt list, positions where by the county’s description political affiliation may be considered in hiring, holds 454 positions; 111 list no incumbent. The Office of the President has 50; Transportation and Highways lists no incumbent for 12 of its 22. Titles and grades counted, no names read.
The Cook County Assessor’s exempt-parcel list, tax year 2025: the City of Chicago holds 16,943 of 93,641 parcels, 819 fewer than in 2022 and fewer each year. By our reading, nine of the ten largest owners are public bodies; the other is the Catholic Bishop of Chicago, with 2,312. Robbins leads the suburban municipal owners.
The Cook County Assessor’s building file, tax year 2025: just over half of the county’s 1.1 million houses and small apartment buildings date from 1954 or earlier, and 2.2 percent from 2010 or later. The middle year is 1925 in Chicago’s townships and 1960 in the suburban ones, and the count has barely grown since 2008.
The Cook County Department of Public Health’s birth file, which excludes Chicago: 22,092 births in suburban Cook County in 2023, 20.7 percent fewer than in 2015, and a general fertility rate down from 58.2 to 46.2 per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44. Every health district fell, the South District most; 104 of 122 suburbs recorded fewer births, including all ten with the most.
Cook County’s public bid-tabulation file, counted solicitation by solicitation: 277 of 1,284 since June 2016 drew exactly one response and 108 drew none - 30.0 percent. The share reached 44.9 percent in 2022 and fell to 28.8 percent in 2025; formal bids above $25,000 drew one response or none 32.7 percent of the time, proposals 11.5 percent. No bid amount or firm name is published.
Cook County’s check register records $6.18 billion paid to suppliers, vendors and other payees in 2025, and one payee name, EVOLENT HEALTH LLC, received $2.76 billion of it - 44.7 percent. A single name has taken more than 41 cents of every register dollar each year since 2018: VALENCE HEALTH through 2022, EVOLENT HEALTH LLC since 2023. The register does not say what the payments bought, and the county’s contracts file has no matching row under either name.
The Cook County Medical Examiner’s case archive, counted with aggregate queries only: 14 heat-related deaths in 2026, the most in any year since the archive began in 2014 and more than the previous high of 8 in 2019 - 11 in Chicago, eight dated July 1 to 4. It is a floor, with 547 summer deaths still pending a cause. Cold remains the larger toll: 653 cold-related deaths from 2015 through 2025 against 49 heat-related.
The Cook County Medical Examiner’s case archive, counted with aggregate queries only: 788 opioid deaths in 2025, the fewest since 2015 and 60.6 percent below 2022’s 2,002, with 577 after incidents in Chicago. This year cannot be read yet: January through May sits 14 below 2025 with 71 cases pending, and 547 deaths from June through September - when the city published four overdose-increase alerts - are still pending.
Chicago police crash reports, counted with aggregate queries: 1,710 people with an incapacitating injury in 2025, the fewest of any full year of citywide records and 25.1 percent below 2023 - a drop among drivers, passengers and pedestrians, while cyclists’ 180 were the second-most in eight years. Through August 15, 2026 injuries are lower again and deaths are ten ahead of 2025. Plus: three city files, three death counts.
