Ina draws 928 commuters a day, with 2.2 jobs for every working resident
Jobs and income earn Ina D; getting around on foot earns it C−. 944 jobs are based in Ina for 429 working residents. Household incomes here are lower than in 83% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Ina
Ina is where the jobs are
Ina has 944 jobs, 2.2 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
37% of Ina works in Mount Vernon
157 working residents, 37%, have their main job in Mount Vernon, 11 miles away. That’s 9 times as many as work in Ina itself. The commute map ↓
Commutes from Ina are quick
The average trip to work takes 15 minutes, against 28 across Illinois. That’s about 100 hours a year less on the road than the typical Illinois worker. Time on the road ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; with 429 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Jobs & income in Ina: the grade in detail
On income, poverty and job access, Ina is better than 13% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Ina’s grade up (ahead of 36% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (19.7%, U.S. 12.5%).
Unemployment (13.9%) is left out: Ina’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, Ina could be anywhere from D to C+.
In and out of Ina on a workday
On a workday 413 residents head out to work and 16 work right here.
About 2,100 people are in Ina on a workday afternoon, 32% more 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.
Who travels to work in Ina, and from where
Where Ina clocks in
37% of workers
2% 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 15 minutes each way, quicker than most of Illinois
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 4.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Ina workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 221 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.
Services make up most of the work in Ina
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Ina, 2013 → 2023: 880 → 944. 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 Ina’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How far Ina’s workers travel
About 35% 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 Ina walk, bike or ride to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Ina is more walkable than 23% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: hardly any 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 236 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). 2.7% of Ina households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Ina’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Ina is 4,840th among 6,161 U.S. towns of 1,100 to 2,200
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 27 | Tower Lakes IL | 1,201 | $154K | 2.0% | 2.8% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 30 | Third Lake IL | 1,103 | $150K | 2.0% | 2.3% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 40 | Bannockburn IL | 1,308 | $214K | 5.1% | 1.8% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,838 | Graniteville SC | 2,056 | $39K | 37.3% | 11.1% | 2% | D |
| 4,839 | Mountain Village CO | 1,234 | $53K | 21.6% | 4.3% | 49% | D |
| 4,840 | Ina IL | 1,612 | $54K | 19.7% | 13.9% | 4% | D |
| 4,841 | Sigourney IA | 1,951 | $58K | 14.8% | 8.3% | 18% | D |
| 4,842 | Thomas OK | 1,129 | $63K | 13.7% | 3.5% | 16% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 6,161 | 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 Ina, 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 Ina: questions
What is the median household income in Ina?
$54,000 (±$22,513) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Ina?
19.7%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Ina?
15 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Ina work?
4% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Mount Vernon (37%, 11 mi), Dodds Township (4%, 7 mi), Springfield (2%, 120 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Ina walkable?
Ina is more walkable than 23% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 7.0 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Ina without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Ina, from the people who make the trip.
More of Ina
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.