Biohazard Cleanup Near Wintergreen Two Normal, IL

Normal is a town in McLean County in central Illinois, the smaller of the Bloomington–Normal twin cities and the seventh most populous Illinois community outside the Chicago metropolitan area.

Normal is home to Illinois State University, which was founded in 1857 as Illinois State Normal University and is the oldest public university in Illinois.

The town is quite literally named after the university: chartered as the town of Normal in 1865, it took its name from the 'normal school' (teacher-training college) that had opened there — and Abraham Lincoln, acting as attorney for the state Board of Education, drew up the legal bond that secured the school's founding.

Normal's population was 52,736 at the 2020 census, and Census Bureau figures count about 20,390 households in the town.

Because so many residents are students, only about 55 percent of Normal's homes are owner-occupied, one of the lowest rates for an Illinois city of its size.

Illinois State University enrolls more than 20,000 students, and its entire campus is designated the Fell Arboretum, a certified arboretum named for university founder Jesse W. Fell.

Illinois State is home to the Gamma Phi Circus, founded in 1929 and recognized as the oldest collegiate circus in the world.

Normal is also home to Heartland Community College, giving the town two institutions of higher education.

Electric vehicle maker Rivian bought Normal's former Mitsubishi auto plant in 2017 for about $16 million and began building its electric pickup trucks, SUVs, and Amazon delivery vans there in 2021; the plant had originally opened in 1988 as the Diamond-Star Motors joint venture between Chrysler and Mitsubishi.

Normal was an EV pioneer even before Rivian: in 2011 the town branded itself 'EVTown' to promote early adoption of electric cars.