Magnolia Manor · Photo: MuZemike · CC BY-SA 3.0Households in Cairo have lower incomes than those in 95% of U.S. towns
Working from home is the commute for 6% of workers, where Illinois as a whole has 16%. 19.0% of residents live below the poverty line (Illinois 11.8%). The two grades for Cairo are D− for jobs and income and C for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The short version on getting to work from Cairo
A big share show a job far from home
44% 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 ↓
Fewer jobs are based in Cairo than ten years ago
Jobs counted in Cairo fell from 927 in 2013 to 499 in 2023, −46%. That can be real closings or a large employer now reporting its workers at another address; the data can’t tell the two apart. The jobs ↓
Fewer than half of Cairo workers earn over $40,000 a year
36% of Cairo’s working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 20% earn $1,250 a month or less. The jobs ↓
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 586 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Why Cairo gets the Jobs & income grade it does
On income, poverty and job access, Cairo is better than 4% of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Cairo’s grade.
Unemployment (14.6%) is left out: Cairo’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, Cairo could be anywhere from D− to C−.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Cairo
About 44% 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.
What work there is in Cairo: 499 jobs
499 jobs are based in Cairo.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Cairo, 2013 → 2023: 927 → 499. 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 Cairo’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who commutes out of Cairo, and who commutes in
On a workday 472 residents head out to work, 114 work right here, and 385 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 (0.85 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 Cairo: the destinations
Where Cairo clocks in
6% of workers
3% of workers
3% 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.
Each way, about 37 minutes from Cairo
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 11.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Cairo workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 518 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 commute in Cairo is mostly behind the wheel
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Cairo is more walkable than 34% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: hardly any 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 552 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). 18.5% of Cairo households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Cairo’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Cairo compares with U.S. towns of 1,100 to 2,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 24 | Tower Lakes IL | 1,201 | $154K | 2.0% | 2.8% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 27 | Third Lake IL | 1,103 | $150K | 2.0% | 2.3% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 37 | Bannockburn IL | 1,308 | $214K | 5.1% | 1.8% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,969 | Sparta Township PA | 1,884 | $58K | 33.9% | 14.2% | 4% | D− |
| 4,970 | Mount Gay-Shamrock WV | 1,166 | $52K | 27.5% | 3.5% | 10% | D− |
| 4,971 | Cairo IL | 1,515 | $42K | 19.0% | 14.6% | 19% | D− |
| 4,972 | Clay City KY | 1,174 | $24K | 39.5% | 5.3% | 4% | D− |
| 4,973 | Forsyth MT | 1,652 | $40K | 14.1% | 4.1% | 36% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,397 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 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 Cairo, 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 Cairo: questions
What is the median household income in Cairo?
$41,912 (±$8,310) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Cairo?
19.0%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Cairo?
37 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Cairo work?
19% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Cape Girardeau (6%, 29 mi), Carbondale (3%, 50 mi), Paducah (3%, 30 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Cairo walkable?
Cairo is more walkable than 34% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 8.1 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Cairo without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 18% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Cairo, from the people who make the trip.
More of Cairo
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.