Budget Explorer · City of Chicago

Where the money comes from, and where it goes

Comparable revenue, spending, and debt for City of Chicago, on the same Census classification used for every city, county, and state in the Library — so the figures line up with peers rather than with the government's own budget book. Latest year: FY ending Dec 31, 2023. City of Chicago's own 2026 budget, in its own structure, follows below.

Audited actuals · Census classification · 2.67M residents

At a glance

Total revenue

$14.4B

$5,400 per resident

Total spending

$15.5B

$5,825 per resident

Spending per resident

$5,825

78th percentile of 71

Debt outstanding

$27.5B

$10,324 per resident · 91st percentile of 70

Own-source share

80%

46th percentile of 71

Capital share

10%

18th percentile of 71

Where the money comes from

$14.4B total

Own-source revenue (taxes, charges, interest) versus aid from other governments. Utility and trust revenue are shown alongside general revenue but run on their own books.

Property tax$3.96B28%
General sales tax$507M4%
Selective sales taxes$1.89B13%
License & other taxes$181M1%
Federal aid$1.06B7%
State & local aid$1.68B12%
Charges & fees$2.82B20%
Interest, fines, other$1.50B10%
Utility revenue$804M6%

Own-source share of general revenue 80% · federal aid 8% · property tax is 61% of taxes

Where it goes

$15.5B total

Current operations plus capital outlay, grouped by Census function. Interest on debt and transfers to other governments are broken out so they are not hidden inside services.

General government$6.74B43%
Public safety$2.98B19%
Transportation$2.33B15%
Interest on debt$1.41B9%
Public welfare$624M4%
Utilities (water, power, gas)$538M3%
Environment & housing$418M3%
Health & hospitals$305M2%
Culture & recreation$179M1%

Show top functions with operating vs. capital ▸

Function	Category	Operating	Capital	Total
Financial administration	General government	$4.46B	—	$4.46B
Police protection	Public safety	$2.24B	—	$2.24B
General (unallocable)	General government	$1.43B	$655M	$2.08B
Air transportation	Transportation	$1.21B	$693M	$1.90B
Fire protection	Public safety	$697M	—	$697M
Public welfare	Public welfare	$624M	—	$624M
Water utility	Utilities (water, power, gas)	$414M	$124M	$538M
Highways	Transportation	$421M	—	$421M
Health	Health & hospitals	$305M	—	$305M
Sewerage	Environment & housing	$98M	$102M	$200M
Solid waste management	Environment & housing	$184M	—	$184M
Libraries	Culture & recreation	$121M	—	$121M
General public buildings	General government	$91M	—	$91M
Central staff services	General government	$73M	—	$73M

Trend · 3 fiscal years

Nominal dollars. The Census Bureau cautions that single-government series are edited only for aggregates — read direction, not decimals.

Revenue

+1% over 2 yrs

$14.3B → $14.4B

Spending

+27% over 2 yrs

$12.2B → $15.5B

Debt outstanding

+19% over 2 yrs

$23.2B → $27.5B

How it compares · 71 cities and counties in the Library

Percentile within the cohort on each place's latest Census year. Higher is not better — the last column says what a high reading means so you can decide whether it matters here.

Measure	City of Chicago	Cohort median	Percentile	Higher means
Spending per resident	$5,825	$3,741	78th	more spent per resident
Revenue per resident	$5,400	$3,548	74th	more raised per resident
Taxes per resident	$2,452	$1,328	82nd	heavier own-tax load
Debt per resident	$10,324	$3,865	91st	more borrowed per resident
Own-source share of revenue	80%	81%	46th	less dependent on aid
Federal aid share of revenue	8%	7%	60th	more exposed to federal cuts
Capital share of spending	10%	18%	18th	more building, less operating
Interest share of spending	9%	4%	94th	more spend servicing debt
Debt ÷ annual revenue	1.91×	1.05×	88th	more leveraged

About this data

Census classification categories, not this government's own budget structure. Figures are audited actuals for the fiscal year shown, not the adopted budget.
The Census Bureau edits unit-level data only to produce state and national aggregates and advises against reading it as a precise time series for any single government; treat year-over-year moves under ~5% as noise.
Employee-retirement-system revenue is excluded (published separately by Census). Utility and insurance-trust revenue are shown separately from general revenue.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances (Individual Unit public-use files), unit 172031162236 (Chicago City). Retrieved 2026-09-07. Classification manual.

Spot an error, or know a better source for this place's adopted budget? Suggest an edit on the assessment.

Enacted budget · 2026

City of Chicago's own budget, in its own structure, from its open-data portal. This is the current year — more recent than the Census series above, but only comparable to this city's own history. Totals cover 40 departments and 27,975 budgeted positions.

$18.7B total

Finance General$8.19B44%
Chicago Police Department13,727 pos$2.11B11%
Chicago Department of Transportation368 pos$1.84B10%
Chicago Department of Aviation1,215 pos$1.67B9%
Chicago Fire Department5,137 pos$902M5%
Department of Water Management414 pos$773M4%
Department of Family and Support Services392 pos$653M3%
Department of Fleet and Facility Management197 pos$503M3%
Department of Streets and Sanitation347 pos$350M2%
Chicago Department of Public Health759 pos$335M2%
Department of Housing122 pos$173M1%
Department of Planning and Development194 pos$146M1%
All other (28)$1.03B6%

The appropriation ordinance as passed. Chicago publishes one dataset per year, so the year is fixed by the dataset rather than a column.
Source: Budget - 2026 Budget Ordinance - Appropriations (socrata open data), retrieved 2026-09-07. Re-run this query.

Looking for how this fits City of Chicago's capacity to deliver? The fiscal dimension, binding constraint, and pathways live in the City of Chicago capacity assessment.