Photo: Nyttend · Public domainBarry has 0.5 jobs for every working resident, so most commute out
Working from home is the commute for 6% of workers (Illinois 16%). There are 307 jobs in Barry for 569 working residents. Barry grades C− for jobs and income and C+ for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Barry stands out on work
Barry’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Barry is Quincy, 24 miles away as the crow flies. 15% of working residents (87) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
A big share show a job far from home
38% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. How far ↓
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; with 569 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Why Barry gets the Jobs & income grade it does
On income, poverty and job access, Barry is better than 24% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Barry’s grade up ($76,042, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 19% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (5.8%) is left out: Barry’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Barry could be anywhere from D to C+.
Miles to work from Barry
About 38% 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.
The daily flow of workers through Barry
On a workday 499 residents head out to work, 70 work right here, and 237 people come in from elsewhere.
About 990 people are in Barry on a workday afternoon, 21% fewer than live here.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
15% of working residents work in Quincy
Where Barry clocks in
15% of workers
12% of workers
6% 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.
What Barry’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Barry, 2013 → 2023: 405 → 307. 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 Barry’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The daily trip from Barry: about 24 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Barry workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 616 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.
In Barry, the car does most of the work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Barry is more walkable than 36% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 10.8% across Illinois.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 652 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). 1.7% of Barry households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Barry’s commuters take a bus or train.
Barry is 3,072nd of 4,866 U.S. towns of 900 to 1,700 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 25 | Tower Lakes IL | 1,201 | $154K | 2.0% | 2.8% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 28 | Third Lake IL | 1,103 | $150K | 2.0% | 2.3% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 33 | Lily Lake IL | 1,073 | $140K | 0.2% | 8.9% | 0% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,070 | Leesville Township MO | 1,065 | $70K | 9.8% | 0.9% | 1% | C− |
| 3,071 | Coats Bend AL | 1,630 | $70K | 18.0% | 1.4% | 0% | C− |
| 3,072 | Barry IL | 1,247 | $76K | 15.3% | 5.8% | 12% | C− |
| 3,073 | Apollo PA | 1,537 | $52K | 18.2% | 5.3% | 2% | C− |
| 3,074 | Vaughn MT | 1,002 | $56K | 8.7% | 1.2% | 2% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,866 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 0% | 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 Barry, 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 Barry: questions
What is the median household income in Barry?
$76,042 (±$14,581) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Barry?
15.3%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Barry?
24 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Barry work?
12% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Quincy (15%, 24 mi), Springfield (12%, 74 mi), Pittsfield (6%, 14 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Barry walkable?
Barry is more walkable than 36% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 7.1 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Barry without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Barry, from the people who make the trip.
More of Barry
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.