Essex, Illinois
13 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1923 and the latest in 1991. It stands in Essex Township. It lies in ZIP code area 60935. The Survey maps it on the Essex quadrangle. 841 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 589 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresEssex grew from 802 to 841 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 802 | |
| 2020 | 841 | +39 (+5%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
7 surveys from 13 printed sheetsMatched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.
- 1923 USGS Herscher quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1925 USGS Herscher quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1958 USGS Aurora quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1961 USGS Aurora quadrangle1:250000
- 1973 USGS Essex quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1985 USGS Ottawa quadrangle1:100000
- 1991 USGS Ottawa quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
6 since 2009Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 6 fires within 5 miles of Essex in 2009, burning about 124 acres in total. None started naturally. 5 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Reported cause | Fires |
|---|---|
| Arson/incendiarism | 5 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 May 2009 | Arson/incendiarism | 5.0 acres | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | BRACE9 |
| 23 April 2009 | Arson/incendiarism | 7.0 acres | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | MAZONIA4 |
| 16 April 2009 | Arson/incendiarism | 7.0 acres | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | MAZONIA3 |
| 11 April 2009 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | MAZONIA2 |
| 17 March 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 100 acres | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | PERINO |
| 15 March 2009 | Arson/incendiarism | 4.0 acres | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | MAZONIA |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
2 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Essex: 2 past producers. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Clay, Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bice Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| N.Ill.Coal Co.Clay Shale Pit 2 | Clay | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
8 since 2003Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Essex in 8 storm reports between 2003 and 2025: 5 hail, 2 thunderstorm wind, 1 tornado. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Essex | - | Fascia was peeled off of a house. |
| June 2008 | Tornado (EF1) | Essex | - | A tornado touched down just west of 17000W, just south of County Line Road, in far northwest Kankakee County. The tornado uprooted large trees and snapped a small hardwood tree before crossing into southwest Will County. |
| July 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Essex | - | Large tree limbs were blown down. |
| September 2021 | Hail | Essex | - | no account filed |
| July 2013 | Hail | Essex | - | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Hail | Essex | - | no account filed |
| April 2003 | Hail | Essex | - | no account filed |
| July 2003 | Hail | Essex | - | no account filed |
Nearest settlements
The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clarke City | 3.3 miles | 13 | |
| Frielings | 4.0 miles | 11 | |
| Union Hill | 5.2 miles | 11 | |
| Bonfield | 7.1 miles | 11 | |
| Goodrich | 8.2 miles | 12 | |
| Buckingham | 9.0 miles | 11 | |
| Herscher | 10.0 miles | 12 | |
| Lehigh | 10.0 miles | 12 |
Elsewhere
Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.
| Wikipedia article on Essex | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2562545 | The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0). |
Provenance
This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 408061. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.






