Illinois Residents Get A Shocking Number Of Robocalls Every Day

Not everyone in Illinois is getting buried in scam/spam/robocalls, but a really large portion of our state's population sure is.

When it comes to unwanted robocalls, residents of Illinois are under siege. According to the latest report from U.S. PIRG Education Fund, the nation is receiving an average of 2.56 billion scam and telemarketing calls per month in 2025, which is nearly a 20 percent increase from 2024.

While national figures are crazy-huge, state-specific data for our state tells an even more direct story for Illinoisans. In 2024, Illinois logged roughly 109,989 robocall complaints, which calculates to about 858 complaints per 100,000 residents.

That places Illinois among the top five highest in the country for complaint rate. A study from January of 2024 showed that Illinois residents received more than 1.6 billion robocalls and 13.2 billion robo-texts in 2023 alone.

Here's What That All Means On A Day-By-Day Basis

If you divide 858 complaints per 100,000 residents by the typical population breakdown, it suggests that for every 10,000 Illinoisans, roughly 86 filed a formal complaint last year. While not everyone complains, the high rate underscores how common the nuisance is. Combine that with the 1.6 billion-plus calls, and you get a rough idea: many of us here in Illinois are receiving multiple unwanted calls per week, if not per day.

Here are some breakdowns for Northern Illinois:

• In area code 815 (covering much of northern Illinois outside the immediate Chicago metro like Joliet, Plainfield, Shorewood, Lockport), there were about 469,000 robocalls a day reported.

• Also in that same 2020 report for area code 815: with a population of around 1.5 million, there were about 9.8 million in one month, which works out to an average of about 6.4 unwanted calls per person per month.

• For area code 312 (central Chicago): 15.2 million robocalls in one month for a population of around 3 million, which works out to around 5.2 unwanted calls per person per month.

Here's What You Can Do To Protect Yourself And Your Family

Since we know that robocalls/spam calls/spam calls are not about to stop, you can take some steps on your own to make sure you're not taken in by a scammer or team of scammers:

Reporting matters: filing complaints helps regulators track and act on trends.