Bensenville, Illinois

Bensenville is a village located near O'Hare International Airport in DuPage County, Illinois, with a portion of the town in Cook County. As of the 2020 census, the village population was 18,813.

First known as Tioga, it was formally established as Bensenville in 1873 along the Milwaukee Road (now Canadian Pacific) right-of-way. The community is named after Bensen, Germany, a village in the municipality of Sudwalde. A post office was established in 1873, but because there was an existing "Benson", the suffix "ville" was added.

The Edge Ice Arena is located in Bensenville, former home of the Chicago Steel junior ice hockey team and practices for the Chicago Blackhawks of the National Hockey League (NHL).

The Churchville School in Bensenville is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

History

The Barker-Karpis Gang used a house on May Street to hide kidnap victims William Hamm Jr. in 1933 and Edward Bremer in 1934, who they had kidnapped from Saint Paul, Minnesota. In 2007, homes and businesses were acquired by the City of Chicago for its O'Hare Modernization Program.

Geography

According to the 2021 census gazetteer files, Bensenville has a total area of , of which (or 99.09%) is land and (or 0.91%) is water.

Demographics

Historical population

Census	Pop.	Template:Sronly	%±
1880	136		—
1890	295		%
1900	374		%
1910	443		%
1920	650		%
1930	1,680		%
1940	1,869		%
1950	3,754		%
1960	9,141		%
1970	12,956		%
1980	16,106		%
1990	17,767		%
2000	20,703		%
2010	18,352		%
2020	18,813		%
U.S. Decennial Census

Racial and ethnic composition

Bensenville village, Illinois – Racial and ethnic composition
Note: the US Census treats Hispanic/Latino as an ethnic category. This table excludes Latinos from the racial categories and assigns them to a separate category. Hispanics/Latinos may be of any race.

Race / Ethnicity (NH = Non-Hispanic)	Pop 2000	Pop 2010	Pop 2020	% 2000	% 2010	% 2020
White alone (NH)	10,779	7,857	7,065	52.06%	42.81%	37.55%
Black or African American alone (NH)	537	590	735	2.59%	3.21%	3.91%
Native American or Alaska Native alone (NH)	21	31	23	0.10%	0.17%	0.12%
Asian alone (NH)	1,307	872	921	6.31%	4.75%	4.90%
Pacific Islander alone (NH)	5	2	0	0.02%	0.01%	0.00%
Other race alone (NH)	36	41	54	0.17%	0.22%	0.29%
Mixed race or Multiracial (NH)	328	178	317	1.58%	0.97%	1.69%
Hispanic or Latino (any race)	7,690	8,781	9,698	37.14%	47.85%	51.55%
Total	20,703	18,352	18,813	100.00%	100.00%	100.00%

2020 census

As of the 2020 census, Bensenville had a population of 18,813 people, with 4,274 families residing in the village. The median age was 37.0 years. 23.1% of residents were under the age of 18 and 14.0% were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females, there were 105.3 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 104.1 males age 18 and over.

100.0% of residents lived in urban areas, while 0.0% lived in rural areas.

There were 6,538 households, of which 34.5% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 45.0% were married-couple households, 23.5% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 23.9% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 27.0% of all households were made up of individuals, and 11.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.

There were 6,864 housing units, of which 4.7% were vacant. The homeowner vacancy rate was 0.8% and the rental vacancy rate was 6.2%.

Demographic estimates

In an earlier estimate, 35.84% of households were non-families. The average household size was 3.40 and the average family size was 2.70.

In an earlier estimate, 9.4% of residents were between the ages of 18 and 24, 28.8% were between 25 and 44, and 25.5% were between 45 and 64.

Income and poverty

The median income for a household in the village was $64,401, and the median income for a family was $77,151. Males had a median income of $39,310 versus $32,728 for females. The per capita income for the village was $27,530. About 7.4% of families and 10.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 19.6% of those under age 18 and 6.7% of those age 65 or over.

Economy

Top employers

According to Bensenville's 2023 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, the top employers in the village are:

#	Employer	# of Employees
1	US Foods	400
2	Fortune Fish & Gourmet	350
3	Expeditors International	300
4	AMTAB Manufacturing Co.	250
5	Victor Envelope Manufacturing Co.	220
6	Allmetal, Inc	200
6	Chicago White Metal Casting, Inc.	200
7	Ewing-Doherty Mechanical Inc.	200
8	UPS Freight Services	200
8	The Protectoseal Co.	200

Education

Bensenville School District 100:

• Fenton High School which serves both Bensenville and Wood Dale

Bensenville School District 2:

• Blackhawk Middle School
• Tioga School
• W.A. Johnson School

Private:

• Zion-Concord Lutheran School, Private 3-year-old Preschool through 8th grade.

Transportation

File:Midwest Hiawatha 1943.jpg

The "Midwest Hiawatha" traveling through Bensenville, 1943

Bensenville has a station on Metra's Milwaukee District West Line, which provides daily rail service between Elgin and Chicago (at Union Station). From there, passengers can connect to Amtrak trains.

Pace provides bus service on Routes 223, 319 and 332 connecting Bensenville to Elmhurst, Rosemont, and other destinations.

In popular culture

Bensenville is the site of Victory Auto Wreckers, a auto recycling facility on Green Street which has repeatedly aired the "door-falling-off-the-car" commercial, starring Bob Zajdel, on Chicago television stations since 1981.

Bensenville is mentioned by name in the movie Flatliners, and a scene was filmed at the old green house that was next to Blackhawk Junior High School in 1990.

Sister cities

• Template:Flagicon Zihuatanejo, Guerrero, Mexico

Notable people

• Daren Dochterman is an art designer and illustrator for over 35 feature films.
• Marcin Kleczynski, Polish-born Malwarebytes CEO who grew up in Bensenville.
• Richard Oruche, basketball player for the Nigerian National Basketball Team.
• William A. Redmond was a Democratic member of the Illinois House of Representatives.
• Genevieve "Audrey" Wagner was a baseball player in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League