Photo: Ben Jacobson (Kranar Drogin) · CC BY 2.5Unemployment in Byron (3.0%) is lower than in 70% of U.S. towns
6% of workers work from home; Illinois has 16%. For jobs and income Byron is better than 60% of U.S. towns (B); for walkability it is more walkable than 85% of U.S. towns (A−). About one in seven stay in Byron for work; outside it, Rockford is the main destination (24%, 14 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jobs and commuting in Byron: the gist
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Byron
Unemployment holds Byron’s grade up; the poverty rate pulls it down (10.5%, U.S. 12.5%). It also does well on household income and job access by car.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Byron could be anywhere from C to A.
Inside Byron’s 1,398 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Byron, 2013 → 2023: 1,374 → 1,398. 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 Byron’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Byron by day and by night
On a workday 1,532 residents head out to work, 218 work right here, and 1,180 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (0.80 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.
Commuting out of Byron: the destinations
Where Byron clocks in
24% of workers
4% of workers
4% 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.
Getting to work from Byron takes about 26 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Byron workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,579 commuters (the 6% 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.
The distance from Byron to work
About 24% 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.
Byron 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 1,673 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). 7.6% of Byron households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Byron’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Byron ranks: 1,751st of 4,430 U.S. towns of 2,600 to 5,100
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Mission Hills KS | 3,522 | $250K | 1.2% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 14 | South Barrington IL | 5,071 | $222K | 1.0% | 2.0% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 25 | Deer Park IL | 3,647 | $174K | 1.3% | 2.3% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,749 | Clearspring Township IN | 4,713 | $88K | 5.9% | 4.4% | 7% | B |
| 1,750 | Benton Township IN | 3,276 | $94K | 7.2% | 5.2% | 6% | B |
| 1,751 | Byron IL | 3,777 | $79K | 10.5% | 3.0% | 12% | B |
| 1,752 | Belville NC | 3,199 | $82K | 10.7% | 3.5% | 1% | B |
| 1,753 | Jim Thorpe PA | 4,531 | $73K | 7.6% | 3.4% | 18% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 4,430 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 18% | 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 Byron, 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 Byron: questions
What is the median household income in Byron?
$78,852 (±$10,006) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Byron?
10.5%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Byron?
26 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Byron work?
12% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Rockford (24%, 14 mi), Oregon (4%, 8 mi), Rockvale Township (4%, 5 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Byron walkable?
Byron is more walkable than 85% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 8.9 out of 20, and 6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Byron without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Byron, from the people who make the trip.
More of Byron
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.