Households in Cobden earn less than those in 92% of U.S. towns
For jobs and income Cobden is better than 6% of U.S. towns (D); for walkability it is more walkable than 71% of U.S. towns (B+). The poverty rate is 28.8% (Illinois 11.8%). At home: 5% of workers have no commute at all (Illinois 16%).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Cobden’s Jobs & income grade comes from
Job access by car holds Cobden’s grade up (ahead of 30% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down.
Unemployment (4.0%) is left out: Cobden’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, Cobden could be anywhere from D− to D.
The daily commute in and out of Cobden
On a workday 317 residents head out to work, 10 work right here, and 226 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.
0.72 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
14% of working residents work in Anna
Where Cobden clocks in
14% of workers
13% 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.
Making and building: 32% of jobs based in Cobden
236 jobs are based in Cobden.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Cobden, 2013 → 2023: 243 → 236. 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 Cobden’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 25 minutes each way, quicker than most of Illinois
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Cobden workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 319 commuters (the 5% 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.
Miles to work from Cobden
About 22% 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.
Getting around Cobden: mostly by car
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 6.0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 10.8% across Illinois, on an EPA index of 6.9.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 335 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). 4.7% of Cobden households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 4% of Cobden’s commuters take a bus or train.
Cobden is 2,771st of 3,133 U.S. towns of 700 to 1,400 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 19 | Tower Lakes IL | 1,201 | $154K | 2.0% | 2.8% | <1% | A+ |
| 20 | Third Lake IL | 1,103 | $150K | 2.0% | 2.3% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 24 | Lily Lake IL | 1,073 | $140K | 0.2% | 8.9% | 0% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,769 | Scenic AZ | 1,379 | $29K | 12.5% | 10.4% | 3% | D |
| 2,770 | Kenwood OK | 1,284 | $58K | 18.5% | 6.6% | 0% | D |
| 2,771 | Cobden IL | 1,024 | $46K | 28.8% | 4.0% | 3% | D |
| 2,772 | Irvington KY | 1,396 | $48K | 27.1% | 4.2% | 1% | D |
| 2,773 | Stafford Township KS | 1,072 | $44K | 14.2% | 3.1% | 20% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 3,133 | 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 Cobden, 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 Cobden: questions
What is the median household income in Cobden?
$46,458 (±$13,232) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Cobden?
28.8%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Cobden?
25 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Cobden work?
3% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Anna (14%, 5 mi), Carbondale (13%, 13 mi), Marion (8%, 22 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Cobden walkable?
Cobden is more walkable than 71% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 6.9 out of 20, and 6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Cobden without a car?
4% of commuters take transit and 5% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Cobden, from the people who make the trip.
More of Cobden
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.