About the town » Peoria, Peoria County, Illinois, United States

Peoria is the largest city on the Illinois River and the county seat of Peoria County, Illinois, in the United States. Established in 1691 by the French explorer Henri de Tonti, Peoria is the oldest European settlement in Illinois, and is named after the Peoria tribe. As of the 2010 census, the city was the seventh-most populated in Illinois, with a population of 115,007. The Peoria Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 373,590 in 2011. Peoria is the headquarters for Caterpillar Inc. , one of the 30 companies composing the Dow Jones Industrial Average.