Photo: Crosbiesmith · CC BY-SA 4.0Hickory Hills has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.5 for each
Employers in Hickory Hills report 3,127 jobs; 5,940 of its residents have a job. For jobs and income Hickory Hills is better than 57% of U.S. towns (B); for walkability it is more walkable than 91% of U.S. towns (A). Transit is limited for a town this walkable: about 2.2 trips an hour stop near the typical resident at the evening peak, against 36.9 in Chicago.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Hickory Hills
Jobs & income in Hickory Hills: the grade in detail
Job access by car holds Hickory Hills’ grade up (ahead of 98% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down (6.1%, U.S. 5.2%). It also does well on household income.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Hickory Hills could be anywhere from C+ to A.
26% of working residents work in Chicago
Where Hickory Hills clocks in
26% 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.
Who commutes out of Hickory Hills, and who commutes in
On a workday 5,687 residents head out to work, 253 work right here, and 2,874 people come in from elsewhere.
About 11,000 people are in Hickory Hills 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 2024, primary jobs.
The kinds of work in Hickory Hills
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Hickory Hills, 2014 → 2024: 3,470 → 3,127. 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 Hickory Hills’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Time on the road from Hickory Hills: about 30 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Hickory Hills workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 6,175 commuters (the 11% 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.
Half of Hickory Hills commutes less than 12 miles
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.
Walkable streets, thin transit: Hickory Hills
The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 4.8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 10.8% across Illinois.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 6,949 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 88% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 42% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 2.2 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 70% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 5.2% of Hickory Hills households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 2% of Hickory Hills’ commuters take a bus or train.
Hickory Hills is 1,247th of 2,227 U.S. towns of 10,000 to 19,000 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Beverly Hills MI | 10,449 | $177K | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | New Albany OH | 11,803 | $238K | 1.4% | 0.9% | 10% | A+ |
| 3 | Plain Township OH | 13,257 | $219K | 2.1% | 0.8% | 10% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 19 | Western Springs IL | 13,588 | $230K | 1.3% | 3.1% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 30 | La Grange IL | 15,935 | $160K | 4.6% | 2.2% | 6% | A+ |
| 31 | Riverside Township IL | 16,083 | $122K | 4.5% | 1.8% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,245 | Claiborne LA | 13,308 | $72K | 11.3% | 3.1% | 4% | B |
| 1,246 | Gloucester Point VA | 11,109 | $74K | 7.5% | 3.4% | 6% | B |
| 1,247 | Hickory Hills IL | 14,101 | $77K | 11.4% | 6.1% | 4% | B |
| 1,248 | Rockton Township IL | 16,144 | $77K | 9.4% | 4.7% | 10% | B |
| 1,249 | North Fair Oaks CA | 13,100 | $105K | 13.0% | 8.4% | 4% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 2,227 | Douglas AZ | 16,038 | $42K | 27.8% | 12.3% | 28% | 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 Hickory Hills, the top three, the last and three more from Illinois.
Hickory Hills and its neighbors
The biggest share goes to Bridgeview (4%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Hickory Hills workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hickory Hills | – | B | A | 30 min | $77,262 |
| Palos Hills | 2% | A− | A | 35 min | $83,533 |
| Bridgeview | 4% | C+ | A | 31 min | $66,655 |
| Justice | under 2% | C | A | 32 min | $57,170 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Hickory Hills’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 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 Hickory Hills: questions
What is the median household income in Hickory Hills?
$77,262 (±$14,599) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Hickory Hills?
11.4%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Hickory Hills?
30 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 11% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Hickory Hills work?
4% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Chicago (26%, 11 mi), Bridgeview (4%, 2 mi), Bedford Park (2%, 4 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Hickory Hills walkable?
Hickory Hills is more walkable than 91% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 13.3 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Hickory Hills without a car?
2% of commuters take transit and 5% of households have no car. 42% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Hickory Hills, from the people who make the trip.
More of Hickory Hills
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.