American State Bank · Photo: Teemu08 · CC BY-SA 3.0Berwyn has 0.4 jobs for every working resident, so most commute out
Employers in Berwyn report 8,246 jobs, and 23,495 of its residents work somewhere. For jobs and income Berwyn is better than 56% of U.S. towns (B); for walkability it is more walkable than 97% of U.S. towns (A+). Transit is limited for a town this walkable: about 6.0 trips an hour stop near the typical resident at the evening peak, against 36.9 in Chicago.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Berwyn, in a few figures
Berwyn and Chicago trade workers both ways
Chicago is the top workplace for Berwyn residents (38%) and also where the most people who work in Berwyn come from (26% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Most Berwyn residents work close to home
67% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home, about two in three. Only 3% work more than 50 miles away. 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.
Where Berwyn’s Jobs & income grade comes from
Job access by car holds Berwyn’s grade up (among the top U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down (6.9%, U.S. 5.2%). It also does well on household income.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Berwyn could be anywhere from B− to B+.
38% of working residents work in Chicago
Where Berwyn clocks in
38% of workers
4% of workers
2% 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.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Berwyn
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.
Berwyn on a workday afternoon
On a workday 22,311 residents head out to work, 1,184 work right here, and 7,062 people come in from elsewhere.
About 40,000 people are in Berwyn on a workday afternoon, 28% 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.
What Berwyn’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Berwyn, 2013 → 2023: 10,722 → 8,246. 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 Berwyn’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Commuting from Berwyn: about 29 minutes a trip
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Berwyn workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 25,282 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.
Berwyn is more walkable than most U.S. towns, with limited transit
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 28,796 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). Nearly all residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 88% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 6.0 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 87% 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). 9.0% of Berwyn households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 6% of Berwyn’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Berwyn ranks: 493rd of 776 U.S. towns of 39,000 to 74,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | McLean VA | 49,627 | $250K | 2.9% | 2.3% | 6% | A+ |
| 2 | Fulshear TX | 64,630 | $187K | 1.6% | 2.8% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Liberty Township OH | 40,625 | $187K | 1.6% | 2.5% | 8% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 11 | Bartlett IL | 40,855 | $133K | 4.2% | 2.6% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 14 | New Lenox Township IL | 45,290 | $133K | 3.9% | 2.7% | 11% | A+ |
| 15 | Oswego IL | 39,948 | $124K | 2.6% | 2.6% | 8% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 491 | North Bergen Township NJ | 61,483 | $79K | 12.3% | 6.2% | 10% | B |
| 492 | Haverstraw NY | 40,462 | $89K | 14.4% | 5.7% | 10% | B |
| 493 | Berwyn IL | 55,001 | $78K | 10.9% | 6.9% | 5% | B |
| 494 | Hollister CA | 45,695 | $112K | 7.9% | 5.6% | 24% | B |
| 495 | Blacksburg VA | 45,104 | $50K | 42.7% | 3.1% | 47% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 776 | 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 Berwyn, the top three, the last and three more from Illinois.
The towns around Berwyn
The biggest share goes to Cicero (4%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Berwyn workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Berwyn | – | B | A+ | 29 min | $78,408 |
| Berwyn Township | under 2% | — | — | 29 min | — |
| Cicero | 4% | B− | A+ | 29 min | $70,842 |
| North Riverside | under 2% | A− | A | 29 min | $77,170 |
| Proviso Township | under 2% | B+ | A+ | 29 min | $82,097 |
| Riverside Township | under 2% | A+ | A+ | 31 min | $121,944 |
Same-state neighbors only. Berwyn Township: not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Berwyn’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 Berwyn: questions
What is the median household income in Berwyn?
$78,408 (±$6,616) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Berwyn?
10.9%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Berwyn?
29 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 12% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Berwyn work?
5% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Chicago (38%, 6 mi), Cicero (4%, 2 mi), Oak Park (2%, 3 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Berwyn walkable?
Berwyn is more walkable than 97% of U.S. towns (Walkability A+): an EPA walkability index of 14.3 out of 20, and 9% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Berwyn without a car?
6% of commuters take transit and 9% of households have no car. 88% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Berwyn, from the people who make the trip.
More of Berwyn
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.