Effingham is a city in and the county seat of Effingham County, Illinois, United States. It is in South Central Illinois. Its population was 12,252 at the 2020 census. The city is part of the Effingham, IL Micropolitan Statistical Area. The city bills itself as "The Crossroads of Opportunity" because of its location at the intersection of two major Interstate highways: I-57 running from Chicago to Sikeston, Missouri, and I-70 running from Utah to Maryland. It is also served by U.S. Route 45, which runs from Ontonagon, Michigan to Mobile, Alabama, U.S. Route 40, the historic National Road, which stretches from Atlantic City, New Jersey to Silver Summit, Utah, and Illinois routes 32 and 33 also run through the city. It is also a major railroad junction, the crossing of the Illinois Central main line from Chicago to Memphis with the Pennsylvania Railroad line from Indianapolis to St. Louis. For this reason, Effingham has a much broader range of restaurants and lodging facilities than other typical towns of its size. Geography Effingham is located at (39.120903, −88.545909). According to the 2010 census, Effingham has a total area of , of which (or 99.39%) is land and (or 0.61%) is water. Effingham is served by a total of 5 highways, only 2 of them being interstates. Interstate 57 comes into Effingham County with Edgewood, Illinois. It officially comes into Effingham was a cross Directional T interchange with Interstate 70 west towards St. Louis. It runs concurrently with Interstate 57 as it goes through the city's southside exits. It makes its first with W Fayette Avenue and then takes a short curve east and makes a half diamond and half partial cloverleaf interchange with N Keller Drive and Illinois Route 33. After the interchange, it makes an interchange with U.S. Route 45 and the concurrency ends with a last Directional T interchange with Interstate 70. This time, Interstate 70 runs off east towards Indianapolis making Interstate 57 continue its route towards Mattoon, Illinois, Champaign, Illinois, and finally Chicago. Demographics As of the 2000 United States Census, there were 12,384 people, 5,330 households, and 3,187 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 5,660 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 93.31% White, 3.8% African American, 0.19% Native American, 0.59% Asian, 0.38% from other races, and 0.69% from two or more