As the Washington Post reports, city of Chicago population decreases are in line with those found in other big cities during the decade so far, with USA Today noting that, should present trends continue, three-quarters of large US cities will fare worse in the aughts than they did in the 90s. Elaborating on the local situation, the Sun-Times points out that, following the boom between 1990 and 2000, this is the fourth straight year of a net loss of residents; in a related story, USAT looks closer and observes that, while Chicago may be losing population, Joliet, Naperville and Aurora are growing by some very healthy percentages.