Rural Illinois is shrinking. 

Over the past decade, all of Illinois’ 21 farm-dependent counties – places where farming makes up a large share of jobs and income – have lost population. 

Meanwhile, the state’s rural areas tied to meatpacking and food manufacturing have seen immigration slow population losses and, in some cases, keep local economies afloat. 

Nationwide, 84% of population growth in the last year came from people born outside of the U.S. In rural areas, that share was even higher at 87%,  according to analysis from Daily Yonder using U.S. Census Data. (The U.S. Census Bureau counts both legal and unauthorized migrants in its data.) 

JBS in Beardstown has long relied on foreign-born workers. However, hundreds of those workers were laid off after President Trump revoked the legal status for over 500,000 migrants living in the U.S. Without work, many of the former JBS workers are wondering what is next, as does a town and a county that continues to see its population decline. 

In Macon County, anchored by Decatur and the global headquarters of Archer Daniels Midland, nearly 1,000 immigrants have arrived in the last four years – but the county has still lost more than 3,000 residents in that time, showing how immigration can slow but not always reverse population loss. 

While two-thirds of Illinois’ land is devoted to farmland, the state’s hundreds of food processing plants also drive its nonmetropolitan economies — and they rely heavily on immigrant workers, both legal and unauthorized. Food manufacturing is concentrated in the Chicagoland region, including Kane, DuPage, Lake, and suburban Cook County. Between 2023 and 2024, over 50,000 migrants arrived from the southern border to Chicago. 

The reliance on immigrant workers makes Trump’s pledge of mass deportations especially significant for communities tied to agriculture and food processing. 

At a meeting with Illinois pork producers in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 12, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., expressed the importance of immigrant labor, as reported by Riverbender.com.  

“Illinois pork production relies heavily on foreign workers, working on the farm, in meat packing plants, in restaurants, and in grocery stores. These are the toughest jobs in the country, it is difficult work, and we need them. These workers are an essential part of pork production,” Durbin said. 

Note: High farming-concentration counties are defined by the USDA as counties where 20% or more of average annual earnings were derived from farming, or 17% or more of jobs were in farming.

Type of work:

Explainer A data-driven story that provides background, definition and detail on a specific topic.