Cook County Tax-Exempt Parcels, By Owner, 2022 To 2025

The City of Chicago holds 16,943 of the 93,641 property-tax-exempt parcels on the Cook County Assessor’s tax-year 2025 list — 18.1 percent — and 819 fewer than in 2022, with fewer in each year since. The ten largest owners hold 42.2 percent of the list. By our reading of the names, nine of those ten are public bodies; the other is the Catholic Bishop of Chicago, with 2,312 parcels, 116 fewer than in 2022.

Property Tax-Exempt Parcels (vgzx-68gb), Cook County Assessor’s Office, tax years 2022 through 2026, retrieved September 18, 2026; last updated September 15, 2026 · parcels counted, not sized or valued — the file carries no area or value · owners grouped by the file’s owner number · no parcel number, address or coordinates read · the 2026 rows are the current tax year’s

Who holds the exempt list?

The 25 largest owners in tax year 2025, grouped by the file’s owner number and shown under the name it carries on the most parcels. The plain names and the public-or-private calls are this desk’s reading, not the file’s. The Land Bank’s count breaks in 2024 (528 parcels, between 1,784 in 2023 and 2,355 in 2025), so its change is not read as a trend.
#	Owner, as the file writes it	Our reading	Public or private (ours)	Parcels, 2022	Parcels, 2025	Change
1	CHICAGO CITY OF	City of Chicago	Public	17,762	16,943	−819
2	COOK COUNTY FOREST PRE	Forest Preserve District of Cook County	Public	3,603	3,626	+23
3	COOK COUNTY	Cook County	Public	3,247	3,249	+2
4	CHICAGO HSING AUTHORTI	Chicago Housing Authority	Public	2,828	2,781	−47
5	COOK COUNTY LAND BANK AUTHORITY	Cook County Land Bank Authority	Public	1,686	2,355	+669
6	CATHOLIC BISHOP CHGO	Catholic Bishop of Chicago	Private	2,428	2,312	−116
7	CHICAGO BOARD OF ED	Chicago Board of Education	Public	2,262	2,290	+28
8	CHICAGO PARK DISTRICT	Chicago Park District	Public	2,233	2,258	+25
9	IL DEPT TRANSPORTATION	Illinois Department of Transportation	Public	2,070	2,070	0
10	CHICAGO TRANSIT AUTHOR	Chicago Transit Authority	Public	1,390	1,590	+200
11	ROBBINS VILLAGE	Village of Robbins	Public	1,242	1,259	+17
12	IL ST TOLL HWY AUTH	Illinois State Toll Highway Authority	Public	1,212	1,247	+35
13	METRO WATER RECLM DIST	Metropolitan Water Reclamation District	Public	1,145	1,160	+15
14	CHICAGO HEIGHTS CITY	City of Chicago Heights	Public	1,011	1,086	+75
15	NATURE CONSERVANCY	The Nature Conservancy	Private	971	985	+14
16	RTA / METRA	Regional Transportation Authority / Metra	Public	926	924	−2
17	STREET	Not explained in the file	Unclear	888	849	−39
18	CALUMET CITY CITY OF	City of Calumet City	Public	772	816	+44
19	UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS	University of Illinois	Public	569	590	+21
20	CALUMET MEM PARK DIST	Calumet Memorial Park District	Public	540	543	+3
21	CHICAGO PUB BLDG COMM	Public Building Commission of Chicago	Public	523	527	+4
22	MARKHAM CITY OF	City of Markham	Public	418	476	+58
23	HARVEY CITY OF	City of Harvey	Public	464	464	0
24	ORLAND PARK VILLAGE	Village of Orland Park	Public	407	419	+12
25	CICERO TOWN	Town of Cicero	Public	369	372	+3

The file’s own description says property of religious, charitable and educational organizations, and of federal, state and local governments, can be eligible for exemption from property taxes. Together the 25 largest owners hold 51,191 parcels, 54.7 percent of the list; the other 5,805 owners hold 42,450. By our reading, 22 of the 25 are public bodies — city, county, regional, state and suburban governments and their agencies — and two are private: the Catholic Bishop of Chicago and The Nature Conservancy. The file does not say what its 17th-largest owner name, “STREET,” covers; it carries 849 parcels.

What changed since 2022

The list grew by 1,225 parcels from 2022 to 2025, from 92,416 to 93,641, while its largest holder shrank. The City of Chicago’s count fell every year, from 17,762 to 16,943, and stands at 16,725 in the 2026 rows so far. The Catholic Bishop of Chicago’s fell every year too, from 2,428 to 2,312, and 2,280 in the 2026 rows. Those are the two largest declines among the 25. Setting aside the Land Bank, whose count breaks, the largest gain is the Chicago Transit Authority’s: 200 parcels, from 1,390 to 1,590.

The file shows a parcel leaving an owner’s exempt count, not why. A sale, a transfer to another owner, a lapse in exempt status or a redrawing of parcel lines would each lower it, and the record does not say which. The city’s own land inventory, a different file analyzed separately on this site, tracks what the city marks as sold.

Chicago and the suburbs

The ten largest suburban municipal owners in tax year 2025: owner names ending in village, city or town, or beginning with village of, other than Chicago’s. Park and school districts are separate owners, and a government listed under more than one owner number is not combined.
Owner, as the file writes it	Parcels, 2022	Parcels, 2025	Change
ROBBINS VILLAGE	1,242	1,259	+17
CHICAGO HEIGHTS CITY	1,011	1,086	+75
CALUMET CITY CITY OF	772	816	+44
MARKHAM CITY OF	418	476	+58
HARVEY CITY OF	464	464	0
ORLAND PARK VILLAGE	407	419	+12
CICERO TOWN	369	372	+3
EVANSTON CITY OF	337	350	+13
PARK FOREST VILLAGE	251	317	+66
ROSEMONT VILLAGE	275	282	+7

Chicago’s eight townships, as the assessor draws them, hold 49,855 of the 93,641 exempt parcels, 53.2 percent. The City of Chicago’s own 16,943 sit almost entirely inside them; 454 lie in suburban townships, 425 of those in Leyden. Among suburban municipal governments, the Village of Robbins holds the most, 1,259 — more than the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority (1,247) or the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (1,160) — followed by Chicago Heights, 1,086, and Calumet City, 816.

What the file confirms, and what it cannot tell you

Confirmed, as listed: which parcels carry exempt status in each tax year, and the owner the file names for each. The file says the Illinois Department of Revenue grants the status, with the Board of Review and the assessor administering it. Not shown: how large any parcel is, what it is worth, what stands on it, or why a parcel joined or left the list. Owner names are abbreviated as written, and one owner number can carry more than one name: the Land Bank’s parcels appear as “COOK COUNTY LAND BANK AUTHORITY” and “COOK COUNTY LAND BANK.” All but 469 of the 2025 parcels carry the assessor’s exempt class code, EX. This page names only the 25 largest owners and the ten largest suburban municipal owners; the remaining owners stay unnamed here, and no parcel number or address was read.

Where the record lives

The Property Tax-Exempt Parcels file sits on Cook County’s data portal and covers tax years from 2022 on. Every figure here was computed from it as retrieved on September 18, 2026.

The bottom line

Twenty-two of the 25 largest holders of Cook County’s tax-exempt parcels are public bodies, by our reading, and the City of Chicago leads them with 16,943 parcels — fewer in each year since 2022. The largest private holder, the Catholic Bishop of Chicago, holds fewer each year too.

Three questions the file can answer

Who holds the most exempt parcels? The City of Chicago, 16,943 in tax year 2025. The most among private owners, by our reading? The Catholic Bishop of Chicago, 2,312. Among suburban municipal governments? The Village of Robbins, 1,259.

Source: the Cook County Assessor’s Property Tax-Exempt Parcels file (vgzx-68gb), tax years 2022 through 2026, retrieved September 18, 2026.
Read: grouped counts by tax year, owner number, owner name, township and class; no parcel number, address, city or coordinates selected.
Owners: grouped by owner number, each shown under the name it carries on the most parcels.
Ours: the plain-English names and the public-or-private calls in the first table.
Not here: acreage, value, land use, and any reason a parcel’s status changed.

Computed by KCM Desk from the Cook County Assessor’s Property Tax-Exempt Parcels file, retrieved September 18, 2026. Human-guided and edited — about this desk. If you spot an error, corrections come first.