Photo: Adam Moss · CC BY-SA 2.0Colchester’s household incomes are lower than in 68% of U.S. towns
For 4% of workers, the job is at home; Illinois has 16%. 7.8% of residents are in poverty, next to 11.8% for Illinois as a whole. Jobs and income earn Colchester C; getting around on foot earns it C+.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Colchester apart on work
Colchester and Macomb trade workers both ways
Macomb is the top workplace for Colchester residents (34%) and also where the most people who work in Colchester come from (17% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Commutes from Colchester are quick
The average trip to work takes 16 minutes, against 28 across Illinois. That’s about 92 hours a year less on the road than the typical Illinois worker. Time on the road ↓
Colchester makes and builds things
42% of the jobs based in Colchester are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Colchester residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 24%. 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 429 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Where Colchester’s Jobs & income grade comes from
On income, poverty and job access, Colchester is better than 32% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Colchester’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 17% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (3.8%) is left out: Colchester’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, Colchester could be anywhere from D to B−.
34% of working residents work in Macomb
Where Colchester clocks in
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.
About 16 minutes each way, quicker than most of Illinois
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Colchester workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 536 commuters (the 4% 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.
Goods jobs make up 42% of work in Colchester
402 jobs are based in Colchester.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Colchester, 2013 → 2023: 403 → 402. 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 Colchester’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who leaves Colchester for work, and who comes in
On a workday 390 residents head out to work, 39 work right here, and 363 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 (0.94 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.
Miles to work from Colchester
About 28% 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 Colchester, work means a drive
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Colchester is more walkable than 38% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Colchester 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 559 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). 5.5% of Colchester households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 2% of Colchester’s commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, Colchester is 1,672nd of 3,133 U.S. towns of 700 to 1,400
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,670 | Carroll Township MO | 1,075 | $62K | 5.1% | 4.8% | 11% | C |
| 1,671 | Albion WI | 1,158 | $68K | 9.0% | 2.5% | 1% | C |
| 1,672 | Colchester IL | 1,070 | $64K | 7.8% | 3.8% | 9% | C |
| 1,673 | Canaan CT | 1,091 | $90K | 16.0% | 2.1% | 15% | C |
| 1,674 | Adams Township IN | 1,245 | $71K | 25.7% | 3.4% | 1% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 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 Colchester, 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 Colchester: questions
What is the median household income in Colchester?
$63,981 (±$6,416) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Colchester?
7.8%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Colchester?
16 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Colchester work?
9% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Macomb (34%, 6 mi), Carthage (3%, 18 mi), Emmet Township (3%, 6 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Colchester walkable?
Colchester is more walkable than 38% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 6.0 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Colchester without a car?
2% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Colchester, from the people who make the trip.
More of Colchester
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.