Today, Russian immigrants in the third largest metropolis in the USA can be divided into two main groups: ethnic Russians and Russian Jews. Historically, the term "Russians" has been used ambiguously by US immigration services, including everyone arriving from the Russian Empire, whether they were Belarusians, Ukrainians, Poles, Jews, or even Germans. This has created significant difficulties in accurately counting the number of Russian immigrants who settled in Chicago throughout its history.

However, it is known that nearly 300,000 Russian speakers live in Chicago, making this group the largest in the Midwest. Many immigrants from the CIS countries and other former Soviet republics have also chosen Chicago as their new home. Most Russian-speaking residents are concentrated in the West Ridge area.