St. Anne's Episcopal Church · Photo: Nyttend · Public domainHousehold incomes put Anna near the very bottom of U.S. towns
The two grades for Anna are D for jobs and income and A− for walkability. Measured by household income, Anna is among the lowest-earning towns in the country. Poverty touches 34.3% of residents; Illinois has 11.8%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Anna, in brief
Anna is where the jobs are
Anna has 2,496 jobs, 1.6 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Commutes from Anna are quick
The average trip to work takes 20 minutes, against 28 across Illinois. That’s about 61 hours a year less on the road than the typical Illinois worker. Time on the road ↓
Fewer than half of Anna workers earn over $40,000 a year
44% of Anna’s working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 19% earn $1,250 a month or less. The jobs ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey.
Inside Anna’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Anna is better than 6% of U.S. towns, #759 of 768 in Illinois. Job access by car holds Anna’s grade up (ahead of 38% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($33,137, U.S. $80,734).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Anna could be anywhere from D− to C.
A workday in Anna: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 1,134 residents head out to work, 431 work right here, and 2,065 people come in from elsewhere.
About 5,000 people are in Anna on a workday afternoon, 23% more than live here.
1.6 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
A commute of about 20 minutes in Anna
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Anna workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,570 commuters (the 6% 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.
The 2,496 jobs based in Anna
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Anna, 2013 → 2023: 2,248 → 2,496. 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 Anna’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Where the people who work in Anna live
Where Anna clocks in
9% of workers
5% of workers
3% 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.
Short hops and long hauls from Anna
About 24% 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.
Anna is easy on foot, hard by bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Anna is more walkable than 84% of U.S. towns, #217 of 768 in Illinois. Both inputs place Anna near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,664 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). 21.3% of Anna households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 4% of Anna’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Anna compares with U.S. towns of 2,900 to 5,500
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Mission Hills KS | 3,522 | $250K | 1.2% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Ho-Ho-Kus NJ | 4,313 | $250K | 0.0% | 1.7% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 13 | South Barrington IL | 5,071 | $222K | 1.0% | 2.0% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 25 | Deer Park IL | 3,647 | $174K | 1.3% | 2.3% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,786 | Nashville GA | 5,038 | $43K | 21.7% | 6.0% | 32% | D |
| 3,787 | Ozark AR | 3,628 | $48K | 17.8% | 13.0% | 30% | D |
| 3,788 | Anna IL | 4,096 | $33K | 34.3% | 6.7% | 28% | D |
| 3,789 | Frederick OK | 3,371 | $45K | 25.0% | 5.0% | 37% | D |
| 3,790 | Lucerne CA | 3,435 | $57K | 19.4% | 6.7% | 8% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 4,023 | 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 Anna, the top three, the last and three more from Illinois.
The towns around Anna
The biggest share goes to Jonesboro (3%).
Jobs & commute next door
Darker towns draw more of Anna’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
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 Anna: questions
What is the median household income in Anna?
$33,137 (±$6,322) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Anna?
34.3%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Anna?
20 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Anna work?
28% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Carbondale (9%, 18 mi), Marion (5%, 25 mi), Jonesboro (3%, 2 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Anna walkable?
Anna is more walkable than 84% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 8.6 out of 20, and 6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Anna without a car?
4% of commuters take transit and 21% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Anna, from the people who make the trip.
More of Anna
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.