Photo: Ben Jacobson (Kranar Drogin) · CC BY 2.5Forreston Township has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.5 for each
459 jobs are based in Forreston Township, against 874 working residents. For jobs and income Forreston Township is better than 56% of U.S. towns (B); for walkability it is more walkable than 42% of U.S. towns (C+). 6% of workers have no commute at all, against 16% across Illinois.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Why Forreston Township gets the Jobs & income grade it does
The poverty rate holds Forreston Township’s grade up (5.5%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 40% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (5.5%) is left out: Forreston Township’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, Forreston Township could be anywhere from C+ to B+.
Who commutes out of Forreston Township, and who commutes in
On a workday 794 residents head out to work, 80 work right here, and 379 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,500 people are in Forreston Township on a workday afternoon, 21% fewer than live here.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
18% of working residents work in Freeport
Where Forreston Township clocks in
18% of workers
9% of workers
9% 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 Forreston Township’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Forreston Township, 2013 → 2023: 345 → 459. 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 Forreston Township’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Getting to work from Forreston Township takes about 26 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Forreston Township workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 789 commuters (the 6% 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.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Forreston Township
About 24% 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.
Few in Forreston Township walk, bike or ride to work
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 5.0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 10.8% across Illinois, on an EPA index of 4.3.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 838 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). 6.4% of Forreston Township households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Forreston Township’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 1,400 to 2,600, Forreston Township ranks 1,763rd of 5,234 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 31 | Prestbury IL | 2,045 | $165K | 1.9% | 0.0% | 0% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 33 | Port Barrington IL | 1,584 | $150K | 2.7% | 2.9% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,761 | Madison Township IN | 1,728 | $84K | 9.1% | 8.3% | 4% | B |
| 1,762 | Watertown TN | 1,691 | $68K | 7.3% | 5.5% | 2% | B |
| 1,763 | Forreston Township IL | 1,952 | $72K | 5.5% | 5.5% | 9% | B |
| 1,764 | Brown Township IN | 2,567 | $83K | 8.3% | 4.9% | 1% | B |
| 1,765 | Mifflin Township PA | 2,365 | $61K | 10.7% | 0.7% | 6% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 5,234 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Forreston Township, the top three, the last and three more from Illinois.
Forreston Township and its neighbors
The biggest share goes to Forreston (9%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Forreston Township workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forreston Township | – | B | C+ | 26 min | $72,061 |
| Maryland Township | under 2% | — | — | 31 min | — |
| Cherry Grove-Shannon Township | under 2% | C− | B+ | 27 min | $74,191 |
| Forreston | 9% | B | B | 27 min | $70,676 |
Same-state neighbors only. Maryland Township: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Forreston Township’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
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 Forreston Township: questions
What is the median household income in Forreston Township?
$72,061 (±$12,338) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Forreston Township?
5.5%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Forreston Township?
26 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Forreston Township work?
9% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Freeport (18%, 9 mi), Rockford (9%, 30 mi), Forreston (9%, 4 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Forreston Township walkable?
Forreston Township is more walkable than 42% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 4.3 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Forreston Township 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 Forreston Township, from the people who make the trip.
More of Forreston Township
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.