Photo: formulanone · CC BY-SA 2.0Farmer City’s household incomes are lower than in 63% of U.S. towns
Working from home is the commute for 7% of workers, against 16% across Illinois. 8.2% of residents are in poverty, where Illinois as a whole has 11.8%. For jobs and income Farmer City is better than 49% of U.S. towns (B−); for walkability it is more walkable than 45% of U.S. towns (B−).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Farmer City stands out on work
Breaking down the Jobs & income grade for Farmer City
The poverty rate holds Farmer City’s grade up; household income pulls it down ($67,067, U.S. $80,734). It also does well on job access by car.
Unemployment (9.2%) is left out: Farmer City’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, Farmer City could be anywhere from C to B+.
Jobs in Farmer City: what the 475 are
475 jobs are based in Farmer City.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Farmer City, 2014 → 2024: 707 → 475. 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 2024.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Farmer City’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who works in Farmer City, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 591 residents head out to work, 103 work right here, and 372 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,600 people are in Farmer City on a workday afternoon, 12% fewer than live here.
0.68 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 2024, primary jobs.
15% of working residents work in Champaign
Where Farmer City clocks in
15% of workers
7% 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 26 minutes to work from Farmer City
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Farmer City workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 764 commuters (the 7% 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.
How far Farmer City goes to work
About 29% 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 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Most of Farmer City commutes by car
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 821 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). 1.6% of Farmer City households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Farmer City’s commuters take a bus or train.
Farmer City places 2,117th of 5,343 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 1,300 to 2,400
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 1% | A+ |
| 2 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Hewlett Harbor NY | 1,332 | $250K | 1.9% | 7.2% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 31 | Bannockburn IL | 1,308 | $214K | 5.1% | 1.8% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 36 | Prestbury IL | 2,045 | $165K | 1.9% | 0.0% | 0% | A+ |
| 37 | Port Barrington IL | 1,584 | $150K | 2.7% | 2.9% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,115 | Woodruff WI | 2,082 | $82K | 6.0% | 1.2% | 7% | B− |
| 2,116 | Hazelhurst WI | 1,323 | $85K | 5.1% | 2.0% | 4% | B− |
| 2,117 | Farmer City IL | 1,797 | $67K | 8.2% | 9.2% | 15% | B− |
| 2,118 | Sterling KS | 2,303 | $55K | 5.7% | 2.4% | 31% | B− |
| 2,119 | Patton Village TX | 2,069 | $78K | 21.5% | 7.4% | <1% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,343 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 7% | 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 Farmer City, 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 2024, 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 Farmer City: questions
What is the median household income in Farmer City?
$67,067 (±$15,827) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Farmer City?
8.2%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Farmer City?
26 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Farmer City work?
15% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Champaign (15%, 22 mi), Urbana (7%, 25 mi), Santa Anna Township (4%, 1 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Farmer City walkable?
Farmer City is more walkable than 45% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 6.4 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Farmer City without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Farmer City, from the people who make the trip.
More of Farmer City
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2024, 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.