Photo: TCP04 · CC BY 4.0Most of Chenoa commutes out: there are 0.3 jobs for every working resident
Jobs and income earn Chenoa C−; getting around on foot earns it B. There are 264 jobs in Chenoa, and 829 of its residents work somewhere. Only 3% work in Chenoa itself; outside it, Bloomington draws the most (26%, 22 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Chenoa and work: the main findings
The four measures behind Chenoa’s grade
On income, poverty and job access, Chenoa is better than 22% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Chenoa’s grade up (ahead of 44% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (21.3%, U.S. 12.5%).
Unemployment (3.4%) is left out: Chenoa’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Chenoa could be anywhere from D to B.
Short hops and long hauls from Chenoa
About 21% 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.
Who leaves Chenoa for work, and who comes in
On a workday 804 residents head out to work, 25 work right here, and 239 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,100 people are in Chenoa on a workday afternoon, 33% 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.
Where Chenoa’s working residents head each day
Where Chenoa clocks in
26% of workers
12% 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.
Jobs in Chenoa: what the 264 are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Chenoa, 2013 → 2023: 211 → 264. 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 Chenoa’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The trip to work from Chenoa: about 26 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Chenoa workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 613 commuters (the 10% 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.
Getting around Chenoa: mostly by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Chenoa is more walkable than 59% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Chenoa near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 684 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). 2.3% of Chenoa households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Chenoa’s commuters take a bus or train.
Chenoa next to U.S. towns of 1,200 to 2,300: 3,914th of 5,760 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Hewlett Harbor NY | 1,332 | $250K | 1.9% | 7.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 24 | Tower Lakes IL | 1,201 | $154K | 2.0% | 2.8% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 34 | Bannockburn IL | 1,308 | $214K | 5.1% | 1.8% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 39 | Prestbury IL | 2,045 | $165K | 1.9% | 0.0% | 0% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,912 | Bethel Island CA | 1,864 | $75K | 34.6% | 35.5% | 2% | C− |
| 3,913 | Nokomis IL | 2,133 | $60K | 9.4% | 4.1% | 17% | C− |
| 3,914 | Chenoa IL | 1,705 | $66K | 21.3% | 3.4% | 3% | C− |
| 3,915 | Dassel MN | 1,524 | $60K | 13.3% | 0.8% | 12% | C− |
| 3,916 | Silver Bay MN | 1,767 | $69K | 9.9% | 2.8% | 30% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,760 | 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 Chenoa, 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 Chenoa: questions
What is the median household income in Chenoa?
$65,769 (±$11,454) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Chenoa?
21.3%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Chenoa?
26 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 10% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Chenoa work?
3% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Bloomington (26%, 22 mi), Normal (12%, 20 mi), Lexington (7%, 7 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Chenoa walkable?
Chenoa is more walkable than 59% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 7.0 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Chenoa without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Chenoa, from the people who make the trip.
More of Chenoa
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.