Chicago’s Urban Forest
Urban forests often consist of a wide range of native and non-native tree species, many of which have been planted in maintained areas such as yards and along city streets.
When most people think of the City of Chicago, they probably picture a modern-looking skyline rising above Lake Michigan, congested urban streets, and iconic architecture. Trees might not immediately jump to mind. However, they form a vast ecosystem amidst the urban footprint that benefits city residents in many ways.
Chicago’s urban forest represents a vast natural infrastructure investment. Aside from their beauty, city trees provide benefits such as cleaning pollutants from the air, absorbing stormwater runoff, and reducing energy use. By knowing more about the urban forest, stakeholders can actually get a good idea of just how much money trees save residents of Chicago every year. Further, these trees offer additional benefits – cooling shade amidst summer heat, wildlife habitat, and green space for individuals’ mental health and community well-being.
Recent data collection and analysis from the USDA Forest Service tells a complex story of this green infrastructure within the City of Chicago, where more than 4 million trees deliver millions of dollars in environmental services each year.
Chicago’s Urban Forest by the Numbers
- Approximately 4.5 million trees (at least 1-inch in diameter) are estimated to be growing in the city.
- Of trees with a diameter of 5 inches and larger, Norway maple, silver maple and honey locust are the most common.
- Urban trees store 775,000 tons of carbon, valued at $128.7 million in value.
- Annually, 77,000 tons of CO₂ are removed from the atmosphere, equivalent to approximately 15,200 cars being taken off the road for a year.
Understanding Chicago’s Green Infrastructure
The Forest Service began inventorying the nation’s forests nearly a century ago, compiling a National Forest Inventory program that now includes an Urban Inventory and Analysis program.
“FIA’s goal is to include some of the nation’s largest cities while also ensuring each state has at least one city in the program. We are currently operational in 44 cities,” said Mark Majewsky, a supervisory forester with the Forest Service’s Northern Research Station.
Urban areas in the United States cover just 2.7% of the nation’s land but these places house nearly 81% of the country’s population. With this concentration of inhabitants, the benefits of urban forests area felt by many.
The Urban Forest Inventory and Analysis program collects its data using standardized methods to account for trees on both public and private land. This consistently compiled information helps cities to plan and manage their urban forests.
“The Forest Inventory & Analysis Program is continually improving our methods of collecting and analyzing data and our delivery of data,” says Mark Majewsky.
Tree Distribution Across Chicago
Chicago’s 4.5 million trees are not uniformly distributed throughout the city. Nearly 69% are classified as small saplings, measuring between one and five inches in diameter, while 18% of recorded trees are considered large, exceeding 11 inches in diameter.
Species composition shines a light on variety of trees found within the urban area:
- Common buckthorn accounts for 41.5% of all trees
- White mulberry represents 13.1%
- Siberian elm makes up 6.6%
- Boxelder comprises 5.5%
- Norway Maple constitutes 5%
Tree coverage in Chicago averages 16.1%. Three quarters of the city’s trees grow on public land, with the remainder being found on privately owned parcels.
What’s next?
The work isn’t done after just one round of inventory and data analysis. A single snapshot of a forest’s status and health is useful, but even greater value comes from repeated measurements over time that can be analyzed to reveal trends. Urban FIA field crews have already started remeasuring these research plots and will complete Chicago’s second full remeasurement in 2026. Each additional inventory leads to a better understanding of the urban forest landscape.
Resources
Curious about your city’s tree census? Find more information about your city’s forest inventory with the My City’s Trees application.
Interested in creating estimates or reports with the most current data for your city? Try this user-friendly tool to create customized summaries of current Urban FIA estimates: Urban Forest Stats.
Learn more about the Urban Forest Inventory and Analysis Program.
Read the Chicago report:
Sjana L. Schanning, Christina Herrick, Robert E. Hoehn, Katie Jennings, Alex Young, . 2025. Chicago’s urban forest, 2019. Resource Bulletin NRS-135. Madison, WI: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northern Research Station. 91 p. https://doi.org/10.2737/NRS-RB-135.