About half of Auburn’s working residents commute to Springfield
For 5% of workers, the job is at home, next to 16% for Illinois as a whole. Jobs and income earn Auburn B−; getting around on foot earns it B. About one in ten work in Auburn; the top destination outside it is Springfield (45%, 16 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Auburn and work: the main findings
Nearly half of Auburn works in Springfield
954 working residents, 45%, have their main job in Springfield, 16 miles away. That’s 5 times as many as work in Auburn itself. The commute map ↓
Auburn empties out on a workday
About 3,100 people are in Auburn on a workday afternoon, 30% fewer than the 4,400 who live here: 1,900 head out to work and 560 come in. Day and night ↓
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.
The figures behind Auburn’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Auburn is better than 52% of U.S. towns, #491 of 768 in Illinois. The poverty rate holds Auburn’s grade up (8.1%, U.S. 12.5%); unemployment pulls it down (5.2%, U.S. 5.2%). It also does well on household income and job access by car.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Auburn could be anywhere from C to A.
Where Auburn’s working residents head each day
Where Auburn clocks in
45% 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.
The daily commute in and out of Auburn
On a workday 1,893 residents head out to work, 207 work right here, and 560 people come in from elsewhere.
About 3,100 people are in Auburn on a workday afternoon, 30% fewer than live here.
0.37 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute 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.
The kinds of work in Auburn
767 jobs are based in Auburn.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Auburn, 2013 → 2023: 865 → 767. 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 Auburn’s own residents hold wherever they work.
From Auburn, about 28 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Auburn workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,878 commuters (the 5% 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.
Miles to work from Auburn
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.
Driving is how Auburn gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Auburn is more walkable than 64% of U.S. towns, #437 of 768 in Illinois. Both inputs place Auburn 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 1,970 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 10.0% of Auburn households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 3% of Auburn’s commuters take a bus or train.
Auburn places 2,020th of 4,000 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 3,100 to 6,000
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 15 | South Barrington IL | 5,071 | $222K | 1.0% | 2.0% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 26 | Deer Park IL | 3,647 | $174K | 1.3% | 2.3% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,018 | Wingate NC | 4,628 | $63K | 17.0% | 5.7% | 3% | B− |
| 2,019 | Waldoboro ME | 5,324 | $69K | 9.6% | 0.7% | 14% | B− |
| 2,020 | Auburn IL | 4,442 | $81K | 8.1% | 5.2% | 10% | B− |
| 2,021 | Bristol NH | 3,251 | $78K | 10.3% | 1.9% | 16% | B− |
| 2,022 | Lyons WI | 3,635 | $84K | 9.8% | 6.0% | 2% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,000 | 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 Auburn, 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 Auburn: questions
What is the median household income in Auburn?
$81,411 (±$13,894) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Auburn?
8.1%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Auburn?
28 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Auburn work?
10% work in town.
Is Auburn walkable?
Auburn is more walkable than 64% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 7.5 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Auburn without a car?
3% of commuters take transit and 10% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Auburn, from the people who make the trip.
More of Auburn
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.