Photo: Tyler Warren · CC BY 2.0Bethalto has lower household incomes than 66% of U.S. towns
12.3% of residents live below the poverty line (Illinois 11.8%). Bethalto grades B− for jobs and income and B for walkability. About one in ten work in Bethalto itself; outside it, Edwardsville draws the most (10%, 8 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Bethalto, in a few figures
Bethalto’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Bethalto is better than 51% of U.S. towns, #495 of 768 in Illinois. Job access by car holds Bethalto’s grade up (ahead of 78% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($64,775, U.S. $80,734). It also does well on unemployment.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Bethalto could be anywhere from C to A−.
The trip to work from Bethalto: about 23 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Bethalto workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,950 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.
Bethalto quiets down on a workday
On a workday 3,876 residents head out to work, 356 work right here, and 2,442 people come in from elsewhere.
About 7,800 people are in Bethalto on a workday afternoon, 16% fewer than live here.
0.66 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.
Out of Bethalto to work: where people go
Where Bethalto clocks in
10% of workers
9% of workers
7% 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 Bethalto’s employers do
2,798 jobs are based in Bethalto.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Bethalto, 2013 → 2023: 2,692 → 2,798. 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 Bethalto’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Half of Bethalto commutes less than 13 miles
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.
For most of Bethalto, work means a drive
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Bethalto is more walkable than 62% of U.S. towns, #457 of 768 in Illinois. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 2.3% 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 4,494 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). 3.2% of Bethalto households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 2% of Bethalto’s commuters take a bus or train.
Bethalto next to U.S. towns of 6,400 to 12,400: 1,659th of 2,886 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| 2 | Pimmit Hills VA | 6,589 | $173K | 1.6% | 1.3% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Braddock VA | 6,536 | $212K | 0.9% | 1.0% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 9 | Long Grove IL | 8,343 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 23 | Riverside IL | 8,939 | $154K | 3.3% | 1.9% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 61 | Itasca IL | 9,488 | $114K | 2.0% | 2.6% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,657 | Fruitland ID | 7,213 | $65K | 8.8% | 1.8% | 18% | B− |
| 1,658 | East Huntingdon Township PA | 7,587 | $68K | 9.1% | 4.4% | 12% | B− |
| 1,659 | Bethalto IL | 9,202 | $65K | 12.3% | 4.0% | 8% | B− |
| 1,660 | Mulvane KS | 7,030 | $74K | 8.5% | 6.0% | 9% | B− |
| 1,661 | Hackettstown NJ | 10,185 | $93K | 9.4% | 8.2% | 10% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 2,886 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 14% | 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 Bethalto, the top three, the last and three more from Illinois.
The towns around Bethalto
The biggest share goes to Wood River (4%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Bethalto workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bethalto | – | B− | B | 23 min | $64,775 |
| Rosewood Heights | under 2% | A− | B | 28 min | $72,102 |
| Wood River | 4% | B | B | 24 min | $62,703 |
| Wood River Township | under 2% | B− | B | 23 min | $62,083 |
| Foster Township | under 2% | B | D | 27 min | $110,625 |
| Moro | under 2% | — | — | 19 min | — |
| Fort Russell Township | under 2% | B+ | C+ | 30 min | $73,179 |
| Moro Township | under 2% | B+ | C− | 31 min | $100,243 |
Same-state neighbors only. Moro: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Bethalto’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 Bethalto: questions
What is the median household income in Bethalto?
$64,775 (±$7,328) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Bethalto?
12.3%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Bethalto?
23 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 12% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Bethalto work?
8% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Edwardsville (10%, 8 mi), Alton (9%, 6 mi), St. Louis (7%, 21 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Bethalto walkable?
Bethalto is more walkable than 62% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 8.0 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Bethalto without a car?
2% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Bethalto, from the people who make the trip.
More of Bethalto
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.