Most of Girard commutes out: there are 0.5 jobs for every working resident
393 jobs are based in Girard, against 741 working residents. For jobs and income Girard is better than 7% of U.S. towns (D); for walkability it is more walkable than 82% of U.S. towns (A−). Measured by household income, Girard is behind 87% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Girard at work: what stands out
Why Girard gets the Jobs & income grade it does
Job access by car holds Girard’s grade up (ahead of 32% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (31.0%, U.S. 12.5%).
Unemployment (2.4%) is left out: Girard’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, Girard could be anywhere from D− to C−.
Short hops and long hauls from Girard
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.
How a workday changes Girard
On a workday 683 residents head out to work, 58 work right here, and 335 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,400 people are in Girard on a workday afternoon, 20% 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.
26% of working residents work in Springfield
Where Girard clocks in
26% of workers
5% 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.
The kinds of work in Girard
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Girard, 2013 → 2023: 493 → 393. 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 Girard’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Girard’s commute takes about 25 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Girard workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 675 commuters (the 12% 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.
Girard is easy on foot, hard by bus
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 771 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). 6.2% of Girard households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Girard’s commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, Girard is 5,378th of 6,085 U.S. towns of 1,200 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% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Hewlett Harbor NY | 1,332 | $250K | 1.9% | 7.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 25 | Tower Lakes IL | 1,201 | $154K | 2.0% | 2.8% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 35 | Bannockburn IL | 1,308 | $214K | 5.1% | 1.8% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 40 | Prestbury IL | 2,045 | $165K | 1.9% | 0.0% | 0% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,376 | Springfield CO | 1,293 | $48K | 12.5% | 0.8% | 58% | D |
| 5,377 | Lapwai ID | 1,251 | $57K | 19.4% | 3.4% | 29% | D |
| 5,378 | Girard IL | 1,768 | $50K | 31.0% | 2.4% | 8% | D |
| 5,379 | Roundup MT | 2,075 | $58K | 16.6% | 10.7% | 42% | D |
| 5,380 | Badin NC | 1,915 | $53K | 19.6% | 7.4% | <1% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 6,085 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 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.
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Girard, the top three, the last and three more from Illinois.
Girard and its neighbors
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Girard workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Girard | – | D | A− | 25 min | $50,300 |
| Girard Township | under 2% | C | B+ | 26 min | $52,370 |
| Nilwood Township | under 2% | — | — | 29 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Nilwood Township: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Girard’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 Girard: questions
What is the median household income in Girard?
$50,300 (±$15,566) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Girard?
31.0%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Girard?
25 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 12% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Girard work?
8% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Springfield (26%, 25 mi), Virden (6%, 4 mi), Carlinville (5%, 13 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Girard walkable?
Girard is more walkable than 82% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 8.5 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Girard without a car?
0% 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 Girard, from the people who make the trip.
More of Girard
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.