The most significant development in metropolitan Chicago's religious landscape has been the appearance and steady growth of non-Judeo-Christian congregations in the last decades of the twentieth century. Their geographical pattern indicates two dimensions: strong concentrations on Chicago's North Side, which represents the latest "port of entry" for recent immigrant groups establishing themselves in the region, and a widely dispersed metropolitan pattern in which many churches locate with easy access to the freeway network to draw adherents from a wide area.

Author: Michael P. Conzen (Research assistance: Douglas Knox, Lowell Livesay)
Source: Newberry Library