Enjoy Our Micro-Urban City
Featuring an extensive park system, a world-class library, urban shopping choices and a variety of living accommodations, Champaign offers urban perks with smaller city comforts. Whether you’re a resident, visitor, or just curious, you’ll soon discover Champaign is the perfect place to live, work, play, and visit!
Community Resources
Work
A very diverse work environment—health care, office and banking, University of Illinois, Parkland College, light manufacturing, retail, government and social services—offers many employment opportunities and career advancement options. High technology and research jobs are abundant in the community and the thriving and innovative University Research Park.
Play
There’s always something to do in Champaign. As an arts and culture hub, we’re home to acclaimed film and music festivals, along with world-class performances at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. We also play host to University of Illinois sporting events, and high school football, basketball, and wrestling state tournaments. The Champaign Park District hosts a variety of festivals, holiday celebrations and family-friendly events. Excellent local parks, youth sports programs and miles of walking and biking opportunities make this a great place for families and individuals to have fun and stay healthy. Area lakes and rivers for boating, fishing, canoeing, camping and nature park areas for hiking all add to the fun.
For those looking for shopping, dining and entertaining venues, our community boasts both urban-downtown and campustown, a regional mall, and many neighborhood destinations. If that’s not enough, there’s always time to explore the charming small-town festivals and parks in our outlying communities.
Visiting Champaign
Located conveniently near Chicago, Indianapolis, and St. Louis, Champaign is an easy place to visit on your next trip to the Midwest. Find resources for those new to Champaign on the Visitor’s Resource page. For a more detailed introduction to Champaign, see Champaign’s profile page on the Champaign County Economic Development site.
Learning
Enjoy a lifetime of world class educational opportunities in Champaign. Widely known as home to the University of Illinois, the City of Champaign hosts a number of other outstanding educational resources.
History
Founded in 1855 with the arrival of the Illinois Central Railroad, the City of Champaign acquired a city charter in 1860 and has enjoyed a long history of continued growth. Learn more by visiting our History page.
Still Growing
The City of Champaign encompasses approximately 22.3 square miles of land and is a home-rule municipality of more than 89,000 residents. Through leadership, partnership, and support Champaign continues to grow. A blend of manufacturing, logistics, healthcare, education, and high-tech research industries provide opportunities to nurture, grow, and maintain a business. Our online Business Portal is a great place to start when looking for Champaign business and economic development information.
The City of Champaign operates under the Council-Manager form of government, has approximately 536 full and part-time employees, and an annual budget of approximately $193 million, excluding transfers. The City’s mission is to provide responsive, caring, cost effective service in partnership with our community.
Getting Around
Whether traveling by plane, train, or automobile, there are tons of transportation options in and around Champaign. We’re a proud bike-friendly community with an award-winning public transit system too.
