About IIRA -> Strategic Initiative -> Area Served

Area Served

IIRA has responsibility for programming in the 74 non-MSA counties as determined by the Office of Management and Budget and cities with populations smaller than 25,000 especially in sparsely populated areas.

In 1997, Illinois had 1,288 municipal governments, 1,433 townships, and 102 counties. Of the cities, 622 had a population smaller than 1,000 and virtually all of these communities are governed by part-time elected officials with limited formal training in public management and economic development techniques. Cities larger than 25,000, and those with a successful referendum, have Home Rule authority and therefore have expanded authority for making local decisions. For this reason, IIRA focuses its programming mainly on cities smaller than 25,000.