Blue Mound has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.1 for each
7% of workers have no commute at all, against 16% across Illinois. There are 60 jobs in Blue Mound, and 441 of its residents work somewhere. For jobs and income Blue Mound is better than 43% of U.S. towns (C+); for walkability it is more walkable than 50% of U.S. towns (B−).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Blue Mound: the figures worth knowing
43% of Blue Mound works in Decatur
190 working residents, 43%, have their main job in Decatur, 15 miles away. That’s 22 times as many as work in Blue Mound itself. The commute map ↓
Blue Mound is a place people come home to
There are 60 jobs based in Blue Mound, about one for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Blue Mound has about 700 people in it, 35% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
A big share show a job far from home
30% 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 441 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
The figures behind Blue Mound’s Jobs & income grade
The poverty rate holds Blue Mound’s grade up (8.7%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 36% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (5.1%) is left out: Blue Mound’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, Blue Mound could be anywhere from C− to B+.
Where people from Blue Mound work
Where Blue Mound clocks in
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.
In and out of Blue Mound on a workday
On a workday 433 residents head out to work, 8 work right here, and 52 people come in from elsewhere.
About 700 people are in Blue Mound on a workday afternoon, 35% 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.
The distance from Blue Mound to work
About 30% 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.
Making and building: 30% of jobs based in Blue Mound
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Blue Mound, 2013 → 2023: 104 → 60. 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 Blue Mound’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Blue Mound’s commute takes about 28 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Blue Mound workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 364 commuters (the 7% 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.
Most of Blue Mound commutes by car
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 6.3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 10.8% across Illinois, on an EPA index of 4.7.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 391 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). 1.9% of Blue Mound households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Blue Mound’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 3,771 U.S. towns of 800 to 1,500, Blue Mound comes 1,516th 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 21 | Tower Lakes IL | 1,201 | $154K | 2.0% | 2.8% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 23 | Third Lake IL | 1,103 | $150K | 2.0% | 2.3% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 28 | Lily Lake IL | 1,073 | $140K | 0.2% | 8.9% | 0% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,514 | Bennington Township KS | 1,269 | $86K | 8.6% | 2.7% | 6% | C+ |
| 1,515 | Bakersfield VT | 1,307 | $83K | 7.3% | 4.9% | 2% | C+ |
| 1,516 | Blue Mound IL | 1,078 | $70K | 8.7% | 5.1% | 2% | C+ |
| 1,517 | Conway Springs KS | 1,141 | $73K | 11.2% | 2.2% | 6% | C+ |
| 1,518 | Nebraska Township IL | 1,298 | $79K | 8.7% | 1.8% | 6% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,771 | 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 Blue Mound, 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 Blue Mound: questions
What is the median household income in Blue Mound?
$70,329 (±$13,966) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Blue Mound?
8.7%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Blue Mound?
28 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Blue Mound work?
2% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Decatur (43%, 14 mi), Springfield (5%, 29 mi), Macon (3%, 6 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Blue Mound walkable?
Blue Mound is more walkable than 50% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 4.7 out of 20, and 6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Blue Mound 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 Blue Mound, from the people who make the trip.
More of Blue Mound
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.