Buffalo Grove Lime Kiln · Photo: Andy McMurray · CC BY 2.5Buffalo Township has 0.5 jobs for every working resident, so most commute out
Working from home is the commute for 8% of workers; Illinois has 16%. Employers in Buffalo Township report 588 jobs for 1,165 working residents. For jobs and income Buffalo Township is better than 32% of U.S. towns (C); for walkability it is more walkable than 74% of U.S. towns (B+).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What’s behind Buffalo Township’s Jobs & income grade
Unemployment holds Buffalo Township’s grade up (2.9%, U.S. 5.2%); the poverty rate pulls it down (19.3%, U.S. 12.5%).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Buffalo Township could be anywhere from D to B+.
Who leaves Buffalo Township for work, and who comes in
On a workday 1,034 residents head out to work, 131 work right here, and 457 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,000 people are in Buffalo Township on a workday afternoon, 22% 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 Dixon
Where Buffalo Township clocks in
15% of workers
10% of workers
8% 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.
Factories, building and farms: 28% of the jobs in Buffalo Township
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Buffalo Township, 2013 → 2023: 565 → 588. 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 Buffalo Township’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Time on the road from Buffalo Township: about 26 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Buffalo Township workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,050 commuters (the 8% 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.
Buffalo Township’s commute, mile by mile
About 25% 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.
For most of Buffalo Township, work means a drive
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 5.6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 10.8% across Illinois, on an EPA index of 7.3.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,139 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). 4.5% of Buffalo Township households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Buffalo Township’s commuters take a bus or train.
3,269th of 5,083: where Buffalo Township ranks among U.S. towns of 1,800 to 3,500
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 32 | Prestbury IL | 2,045 | $165K | 1.9% | 0.0% | 0% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 60 | Wayne IL | 2,278 | $162K | 2.1% | 2.7% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,267 | Little Flock AR | 3,039 | $61K | 13.2% | 7.1% | 1% | C |
| 3,268 | South Roxana IL | 1,849 | $60K | 22.3% | 5.7% | 1% | C |
| 3,269 | Buffalo Township IL | 2,617 | $63K | 19.3% | 2.9% | 11% | C |
| 3,270 | Fayette MO | 2,848 | $58K | 16.9% | 2.5% | 25% | C |
| 3,271 | Walbridge OH | 3,076 | $55K | 13.3% | 6.9% | 2% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 5,083 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Buffalo Township, the top three, the last and three more from Illinois.
Buffalo Township and the towns next door
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Buffalo Township workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Buffalo Township | – | C | B+ | 26 min | $63,080 |
| Eagle Point Township | under 2% | — | — | 28 min | — |
| Woosung Township | under 2% | — | — | 23 min | — |
| Lincoln Township | under 2% | — | — | 29 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Eagle Point Township, Woosung Township and Lincoln Township: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Buffalo Township’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 Buffalo Township: questions
What is the median household income in Buffalo Township?
$63,080 (±$17,020) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Buffalo Township?
19.3%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Buffalo Township?
26 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Buffalo Township work?
11% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Dixon (15%, 11 mi), Polo (10%, 1 mi), Sterling (8%, 14 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Buffalo Township walkable?
Buffalo Township is more walkable than 74% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 7.3 out of 20, and 6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Buffalo Township without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Buffalo Township, from the people who make the trip.
More of Buffalo Township
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.