Evanston (formerly Ridgeville, Illinois) is a city on Lake Michigan in Cook County, Illinois directly north of Chicago, east of Skokie, and south of Wilmette. The city was first settled in 1836, and as of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 74,239. Evanston is part of Chicago's affluent North Shore region.

After being chosen as the home for Northwestern University, the city was incorporated in 1863, and named after John Evans, the University's founder. During the 1960s Northwestern University changed the city's shoreline with a 74 acre (300,000 m²) lakefill.

Today, the city is home to Northwestern University and other educational institutions as well as headquarters of Alpha Phi International women's fraternity, Rotary International, the National Lekotek Center, the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, the Sigma Chi Fraternity and the Woman's Christian Temperance Union.

Evanston is also the birthplace of Tinkertoys, automobile racing, and (allegedly) the ice cream sundae.

Evanston has a council-manager system of government and is divided into nine wards, each of which is represented by an Alderman, or member of the Evanston City Council. Its current mayor is Lorraine H. Morton. The city government has often had a shaky relationship with Northwestern University, which does not pay property taxes to the city. This is due to the founding charter of Northwestern University, signed in 1851, which granted the school a permanent exemption from paying property taxes. This shaky relationship has led to tension over building codes, law enforcement, and politics. Recently, factions of the city government have made efforts to divide Northwestern's campus into several different wards, possibly to dilute its students' voting potency.

The CTA's Purple Line, part of the Chicago 'L' sytem, runs through Evanston. From its terminal at Howard in Chicago, the line heads north to the South Blvd, Main, Dempster, Davis, Foster, Noyes, and Central stations, before terminating at Linden in Wilmette. Metra's North Line also serves Evanston, with stations at Main Street, Davis Street and Central Street. The CTA's Yellow Line also runs through the city, though it only stops at Howard.