Photo: David Wilson · CC BY 4.0Where Aledo earns its living
10% of workers work from home; Illinois has 16%. Jobs and income earn Aledo C+; getting around on foot earns it B. About two in five stay in Aledo for work; outside it, Rock Island is the main destination (7%, 20 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The work figures that set Aledo apart
What’s behind Aledo’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Aledo is better than 41% of U.S. towns, #559 of 768 in Illinois. Unemployment holds Aledo’s grade up (3.8%, U.S. 5.2%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 36% of U.S. towns).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Aledo could be anywhere from D to B+.
From Aledo, about 19 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Aledo workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,629 commuters (the 10% who work from home are left out). Across Illinois: 78% drive alone, 7% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Who works in Aledo, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 957 residents head out to work, 649 work right here, and 1,215 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.16 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
The places Aledo commutes to
Where Aledo clocks in
7% of workers
6% of workers
4% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
Jobs in Aledo: what the 1,864 are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Aledo, 2013 → 2023: 1,659 → 1,864. Big swings can come from how a large employer reports its locations, not only from real openings or closings.
Primary jobs covered by unemployment insurance (not the self-employed). Pay is monthly earnings. LEHD 2023.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Aledo’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How far it is to work from Aledo
About 22% show a job over 50 miles away. Some of that is real, and some is employers that report every worker at a head office, so a few long commutes are on paper only.
Straight-line distance from each worker’s home block to their main job’s block. LEHD 2023.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
For most of Aledo, work means a drive
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Aledo is more walkable than 64% of U.S. towns, #442 of 768 in Illinois. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 4.2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 10.8% across Illinois, on an EPA index of 6.9.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,804 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service: no data. EPA’s transit file has no stops for most of this county (its agencies had not published schedules in the format EPA used in 2020). That is missing data, not a finding that there is no bus or train.
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 2.7% of Aledo households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Aledo’s commuters take a bus or train.
Aledo next to U.S. towns of 2,500 to 4,700: 2,524th of 4,221 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Mission Hills KS | 3,522 | $250K | 1.2% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 23 | Deer Park IL | 3,647 | $174K | 1.3% | 2.3% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 101 | Lakewood IL | 4,293 | $174K | 3.5% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,522 | Sparta MI | 4,255 | $61K | 9.3% | 6.7% | 9% | C+ |
| 2,523 | New Madrid MO | 2,586 | $58K | 12.3% | 0.7% | 27% | C+ |
| 2,524 | Aledo IL | 3,506 | $72K | 12.6% | 3.8% | 40% | C+ |
| 2,525 | Oconto Falls WI | 3,012 | $51K | 9.7% | 2.9% | 19% | C+ |
| 2,526 | White Pigeon Township MI | 3,893 | $71K | 15.3% | 4.3% | 7% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,221 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 18% | D− |
Census ACS 2020–24 (income, poverty, unemployment), Census LEHD (work in town), TownRatings Jobs & income grades. Each town links to its Work & commute page.
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Aledo, the top three, the last and three more from Illinois.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Two sources, two years. Trips, distances and jobs based here: Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs, where the employer reports them. Income, poverty, unemployment, commute time and how people travel: Census ACS 2020–24 averages.
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Aledo: questions
What is the median household income in Aledo?
$72,292 (±$20,707) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Aledo?
12.6%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Aledo?
19 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 10% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Aledo work?
40% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Rock Island (7%, 20 mi), Davenport (6%, 26 mi), Moline (4%, 24 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Aledo walkable?
Aledo is more walkable than 64% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 6.9 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Aledo without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Aledo, from the people who make the trip.
More of Aledo
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2023, primary jobs. Commute time, working from home and working out of state: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates. Distances are straight lines between home and work; real drives run longer. Walkability index, job access and transit service: U.S. EPA Smart Location Database. The two grades are our own summaries of these figures, not official ratings.