Following is a profile of Illinois, latest battleground in the race for the Republican presidential nomination:
Population: 12,869,257
Median age: 35.7
Percentage of population 65 and over: 12.5 percent
Race: 63.7 percent non-Hispanic white, 14.5 percent black, 4.6 percent Asian, 15.8 percent Hispanic or Latino origin
Language other than English spoken at home: 21.7 percent
High school graduate: 86.2 percent
Bachelor's degree or higher: 30.3 percent
Median household income: $55,735
People below poverty level: 12.6 percent
Homeownership rate: 69.2 percent
2008 PRESIDENTIAL RESULTS
General: Barack Obama, 61.9 percent; John McCain, 36.8 percent
Democratic primary: Barack Obama, 64.7 percent; Hillary Clinton, 32.8 percent; John Edwards, 1.9 percent
Republican primary: John McCain, 47.5 percent; Mitt Romney, 28.6 percent; Mike Huckabee, 16.5 percent
VOTES CAST BY PARTY, 2008
Republican: 899,422
Democratic: 2,038,614
QUICK FACTS
llinois' Latino population grew by 32 percent between 2000 and 2010.
Illinois has the highest high-school dropout rate in the nation.
Two of its previous governors are now in federal prison.
McLean County in central Illinois is the country's No. 1 producer of soybeans. North-central LaSalle County ranks first nationally in corn.
Illinois has just under 7,000 units of local government, such as school districts, townships and cities. That's far more than any other state.
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