Photo: artistmac · CC BY-SA 2.0Unemployment in Belleville (6.1%) is higher than in 75% of U.S. towns
Transit is limited for a town this walkable: about 6.3 trips an hour stop near the typical resident at the evening peak, against 36.9 in Chicago. For jobs and income Belleville is better than 40% of U.S. towns (C+); for walkability it is more walkable than 90% of U.S. towns (A). About one in five work in Belleville; the top destination outside it is St. Louis (12%, 16 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Belleville apart on work
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Belleville
Job access by car holds Belleville’s grade up (ahead of 86% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Belleville could be anywhere from C to B−.
Where Belleville’s working residents head each day
Where Belleville clocks in
12% of workers
5% 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.
Belleville by day and by night
On a workday 14,575 residents head out to work, 3,589 work right here, and 19,470 people come in from elsewhere.
About 45,000 people are in Belleville on a workday afternoon, 12% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.27 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.
What work there is in Belleville: 23,059 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Belleville, 2013 → 2023: 24,788 → 23,059. 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 Belleville’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 25 minutes each way for Belleville’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Belleville workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 17,086 commuters (the 12% 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.
Belleville’s commute, mile by mile
About 15% 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.
Good to walk, short on transit: Belleville
The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 4.8% 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 19,465 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 85% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 52% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 6.3 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 88% 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). 8.2% of Belleville households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 3% of Belleville’s commuters take a bus or train.
849th of 1,086: where Belleville ranks among U.S. towns of 28,000 to 54,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | McLean VA | 49,627 | $250K | 2.9% | 2.3% | 6% | A+ |
| 2 | Southlake TX | 31,175 | $250K | 1.5% | 2.7% | 11% | A+ |
| 3 | Leawood KS | 34,093 | $186K | 3.1% | 2.0% | 9% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 6 | West Deerfield Township IL | 32,111 | $205K | 2.7% | 2.7% | 9% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 12 | New Lenox IL | 28,893 | $141K | 1.5% | 2.9% | 9% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 22 | Bartlett IL | 40,855 | $133K | 4.2% | 2.6% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 847 | Decatur Township IN | 37,678 | $70K | 17.4% | 6.7% | 8% | C+ |
| 848 | Fairfield Township IN | 53,541 | $54K | 16.7% | 3.6% | 38% | C+ |
| 849 | Belleville IL | 40,237 | $64K | 14.6% | 6.1% | 20% | C+ |
| 850 | Middletown NY | 30,098 | $79K | 13.6% | 6.6% | 11% | C+ |
| 851 | Aiken SC | 33,808 | $77K | 17.0% | 5.4% | 26% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,086 | Bullhead City AZ | 43,987 | $51K | 18.7% | 11.5% | 26% | 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 Belleville, the top three, the last and three more from Illinois.
Next door to Belleville
The biggest share goes to Swansea (3%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Belleville workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Belleville | – | C+ | A | 25 min | $63,535 |
| St. Clair Township | under 2% | B | A− | 23 min | $80,309 |
| Stookey Township | under 2% | B | B+ | 23 min | $81,894 |
| Swansea | 3% | B+ | B | 24 min | $91,587 |
| Smithton Township | under 2% | — | — | 26 min | — |
| Centreville Township | under 2% | C− | A | 26 min | $34,675 |
| East St. Louis Township | under 2% | — | — | 23 min | — |
| East St. Louis | 2% | C− | A | 23 min | $35,700 |
| Shiloh Valley Township | under 2% | A | A− | 19 min | $104,772 |
| Freeburg | under 2% | B+ | B+ | 23 min | $92,065 |
| Smithton | under 2% | A | D | 34 min | $135,455 |
Same-state neighbors only. Smithton Township and East St. Louis Township: not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Belleville’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 Belleville: questions
What is the median household income in Belleville?
$63,535 (±$3,030) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Belleville?
14.6%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Belleville?
25 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 12% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Belleville work?
20% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are St. Louis (12%, 16 mi), O'Fallon (5%, 7 mi), Fairview Heights (4%, 6 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Belleville walkable?
Belleville is more walkable than 90% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 12.9 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Belleville without a car?
3% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. 52% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Belleville, from the people who make the trip.
More of Belleville
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.