Photo: TCP04 · CC BY 4.0Earning a living in Dwight
About one in five work in Dwight itself; outside it, Morris draws the most (6%, 19 miles). The two grades for Dwight are C+ for jobs and income and A− for walkability. For 3% of workers, the job is at home, against 16% across Illinois.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Dwight
Stores, warehouses and trucking
57% of the jobs in Dwight are in trade, transport and utilities, against 31% of the jobs its residents hold. The jobs ↓
Few Dwight workers work from home
Only 3% of workers work from home, against 16% across Illinois. Almost everyone here travels to a job. Time on the road ↓
Dwight has added jobs fast
Jobs based in Dwight went from 1,278 in 2013 to 1,895 in 2023, +48%. 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; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
The figures behind Dwight’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Dwight is better than 40% of U.S. towns, #567 of 768 in Illinois. All four inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Dwight’s grade.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Dwight could be anywhere from C− to B+.
The 1,895 jobs based in Dwight
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Dwight, 2013 → 2023: 1,278 → 1,895. 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 Dwight’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Dwight’s commute takes about 29 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Dwight workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,966 commuters (the 3% 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.
Who leaves Dwight for work, and who comes in
On a workday 1,138 residents head out to work, 324 work right here, and 1,571 people come in from elsewhere.
About 4,400 people are in Dwight on a workday afternoon, 11% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.30 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.
The places Dwight commutes to
Where Dwight clocks in
6% of workers
5% of workers
4% 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.
How far it is to work from Dwight
About 31% 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.
Dwight is more walkable than most U.S. towns, with limited transit
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Dwight is more walkable than 78% of U.S. towns, #286 of 768 in Illinois. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 9.0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 10.8% across Illinois, on an EPA index of 7.2.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 2,020 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). 11.0% of Dwight households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Dwight’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 2,800 to 5,400, Dwight ranks 2,567th of 4,177 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Mission Hills KS | 3,522 | $250K | 1.2% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Ho-Ho-Kus NJ | 4,313 | $250K | 0.0% | 1.7% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 13 | South Barrington IL | 5,071 | $222K | 1.0% | 2.0% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 25 | Deer Park IL | 3,647 | $174K | 1.3% | 2.3% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,565 | Vernon Township OH | 3,035 | $81K | 10.8% | 6.1% | 1% | C+ |
| 2,566 | Westminster VT | 2,932 | $71K | 8.8% | 4.3% | 12% | C+ |
| 2,567 | Dwight IL | 4,005 | $71K | 11.7% | 4.5% | 22% | C+ |
| 2,568 | Edwardsville KS | 4,748 | $73K | 14.9% | 8.7% | 6% | C+ |
| 2,569 | Grafton ND | 4,023 | $63K | 14.4% | 0.8% | 53% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,177 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 18% | 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 Dwight, 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 Dwight: questions
What is the median household income in Dwight?
$71,184 (±$6,590) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Dwight?
11.7%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Dwight?
29 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Dwight work?
22% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Morris (6%, 19 mi), Pontiac (5%, 18 mi), Chicago (4%, 64 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Dwight walkable?
Dwight is more walkable than 78% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 7.2 out of 20, and 9% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Dwight without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 11% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Dwight, from the people who make the trip.
More of Dwight
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.