Photo: IvoShandor · CC BY-SA 3.0Unemployment in Fairbury (0.9%) is lower than in 95% of U.S. towns
About one in five stay in Fairbury for work; outside it, Pontiac is the main destination (11%, 12 miles). For jobs and income Fairbury is better than 74% of U.S. towns (B+); for walkability it is more walkable than 79% of U.S. towns (A−). Poverty touches 2.1% of residents (Illinois 11.8%).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Fairbury stands out on work
The figures behind Fairbury’s Jobs & income grade
The poverty rate holds Fairbury’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 30% of U.S. towns). It also does well on unemployment.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Fairbury could be anywhere from B to A−.
About 15 minutes each way for Fairbury’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 4.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Fairbury workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,493 commuters (the 9% 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.
Fairbury by day and by night
On a workday 1,418 residents head out to work, 308 work right here, and 1,126 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 (0.83 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.
Out of Fairbury to work: where people go
Where Fairbury clocks in
11% of workers
7% 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.
What work there is in Fairbury: 1,434 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Fairbury, 2013 → 2023: 1,482 → 1,434. 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 Fairbury’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How far it is to work from Fairbury
About 26% 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.
Good to walk, short on transit: Fairbury
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,642 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 Fairbury households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Fairbury’s commuters take a bus or train.
Fairbury next to U.S. towns of 2,500 to 4,900: 1,096th of 4,474 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 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Mission Hills KS | 3,522 | $250K | 1.2% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 23 | Deer Park IL | 3,647 | $174K | 1.3% | 2.3% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 103 | Lakewood IL | 4,293 | $174K | 3.5% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,094 | Mount Joy Township PA | 3,881 | $94K | 8.0% | 1.4% | 5% | B+ |
| 1,095 | Saylorville IA | 3,366 | $118K | 3.7% | 11.4% | 2% | B+ |
| 1,096 | Fairbury IL | 3,597 | $71K | 2.1% | 0.9% | 18% | B+ |
| 1,097 | Magnolia NJ | 4,415 | $101K | 6.9% | 6.2% | 2% | B+ |
| 1,098 | Deep River CT | 4,468 | $90K | 8.2% | 3.1% | 11% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,474 | 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 Fairbury, 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 Fairbury: questions
What is the median household income in Fairbury?
$70,962 (±$14,527) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Fairbury?
2.1%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Fairbury?
15 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 9% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Fairbury work?
18% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Pontiac (11%, 12 mi), Bloomington (7%, 30 mi), Normal (4%, 30 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Fairbury walkable?
Fairbury is more walkable than 79% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 8.9 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Fairbury without a car?
1% 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 Fairbury, from the people who make the trip.
More of Fairbury
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.