Photo: Ken Lund from Reno, Nevada, USA · CC BY-SA 2.0About half of Downs’ working residents commute to Bloomington
Jobs & income B+: better than 70% of U.S. towns on income, poverty and job access.
Walkability C−: more walkable than 21% of U.S. towns.
Household incomes here are higher than in 84% of U.S. towns. Working residents average 20 minutes each way (Illinois 28, U.S. 26). Only 3% work in Downs; the top destination outside it is Bloomington (50%, 7 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Downs
More than half of Downs works in Bloomington
280 working residents, 50%, have their main job in Bloomington, 6.8 miles away. That’s 17 times as many as work in Downs itself. The commute map ↓
Most Downs residents work close to home
62% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home. How far ↓
Commutes from Downs are quick
The average trip to work takes 20 minutes, against 28 across Illinois. That’s about 61 hours a year less on the road than the typical Illinois worker. Time on the road ↓
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 564 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What’s behind Downs’ Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Downs is better than 70% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Downs’ grade up ($110,625, U.S. $80,734); the poverty rate pulls it down (10.8%, U.S. 12.5%). It also does well on job access by car.
Unemployment (1.7%) is left out: Downs’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, Downs could be anywhere from B− to A.
50% of working residents work in Bloomington
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
Where Downs clocks in
50% of workers
13% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
Half of Downs commutes less than 8 miles
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
About 16% 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.
About 20 minutes each way, quicker than most of Illinois
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Downs workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 613 commuters (the 18% who work from home are left out). Across Illinois: 78% drive alone, 7% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
Downs quiets down on a workday
On a workday 547 residents head out to work, 17 work right here, and 397 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,000 people are in Downs on a workday afternoon, 13% fewer than live here.
0.73 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.
What the 414 jobs in Downs are
414 jobs are based in Downs. Here is what they are, next to the jobs Downs’s own residents hold wherever they work.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Downs, 2013 → 2023: 240 → 414. 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.
Most trips from Downs start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Downs is more walkable than 21% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 1.6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 10.8% across Illinois, on an EPA index of 4.7.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 745 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 0.0 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). 2.1% of Downs households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Downs’ commuters take a bus or train.
Downs is 704th of 4,312 U.S. towns of 800 to 1,600 on jobs and income
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Downs, the top three, the last and three more from Illinois.
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 23 | Tower Lakes IL | 1,201 | $154K | 2.0% | 2.8% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 25 | Third Lake IL | 1,103 | $150K | 2.0% | 2.3% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 30 | Lily Lake IL | 1,073 | $140K | 0.2% | 8.9% | 0% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 702 | St. George KS | 1,165 | $101K | 5.3% | 1.1% | 0% | B+ |
| 703 | Liberty UT | 1,484 | $107K | 4.0% | 1.5% | 1% | B+ |
| 704 | Downs IL | 1,173 | $111K | 10.8% | 1.7% | 3% | B+ |
| 705 | Monroe Township IN | 1,163 | $108K | 4.7% | 1.7% | 2% | B+ |
| 706 | Shrewsbury Township NJ | 1,078 | $81K | 10.9% | 2.2% | 0% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,312 | 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.
Downs and the towns next door
The biggest share goes to Old Town Township (1%). Darker towns draw more of Downs’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Downs workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Downs | – | B+ | C− | 20 min | $110,625 |
| Downs Township | under 1% | — | — | 21 min | — |
| Old Town Township | 1% | A− | C− | 26 min | $148,516 |
Same-state neighbors only. Downs Township: not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
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 Downs: questions
What is the median household income in Downs?
$110,625 (±$12,323) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Downs?
10.8%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Downs?
20 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 18% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Downs work?
3% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Bloomington (50%, 7 mi), Normal (13%, 10 mi), Peoria (4%, 45 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Downs walkable?
Downs is more walkable than 21% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 4.7 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Downs 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 Downs, from the people who make the trip.
More of Downs
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.