Photo: Neva O'Laughlin · CC BY-SA 3.0Inverness has some of the highest household incomes of any U.S. town
Poverty touches 2.6% of residents, against 11.8% across Illinois. Household incomes here are among the highest in the country. Jobs and income earn Inverness A+; getting around on foot earns it B+.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Inverness apart on work
A lot of Inverness works from home
30% of Inverness workers work from home, against 16% across Illinois. Time on the road ↓
Inverness’ biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Inverness is Chicago, 29 miles away as the crow flies. 18% of working residents (632) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Nearly all the work in Inverness is services
87% of the jobs based here are in services, such as health care, schools and offices. Only 5% are in factories, building or farms. The jobs ↓
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.
How Inverness earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Inverness is better than 98% of U.S. towns, #21 of 768 in Illinois. Household income is its strongest input ($207,434, U.S. $80,734); unemployment ranks lowest, though still above most U.S. towns (3.3%, U.S. 5.2%). It also does well on the poverty rate and unemployment and job access by car.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Inverness could be anywhere from A to A+.
The trip to work from Inverness: about 26 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Inverness workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,219 commuters (the 29% 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 many miles Inverness commutes
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.
Inverness is a services town
1,960 jobs are based in Inverness.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Inverness, 2013 → 2023: 2,109 → 1,960. 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 Inverness’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The daily commute in and out of Inverness
On a workday 3,424 residents head out to work, 63 work right here, and 1,897 people come in from elsewhere.
About 5,900 people are in Inverness on a workday afternoon, 21% fewer than live here.
0.56 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 2023, primary jobs.
18% of working residents work in Chicago
Where Inverness clocks in
18% of workers
8% 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.
Most of Inverness commutes by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Inverness is more walkable than 71% of U.S. towns, #375 of 768 in Illinois. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 4.8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 10.8% across Illinois, on an EPA index of 7.3.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 3,147 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 1.4 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 63% 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). 0.0% of Inverness households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 5% of Inverness’ commuters take a bus or train.
81st of 3,083: where Inverness ranks among U.S. towns of 5,200 to 10,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 13 | Long Grove IL | 8,343 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 25 | Riverside IL | 8,939 | $154K | 3.3% | 1.9% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 36 | Northfield IL | 5,632 | $162K | 3.2% | 2.2% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 79 | Lincolnshire IL | 7,963 | $186K | 5.2% | 2.2% | 5% | A+ |
| 80 | Worth Township IN | 6,688 | $123K | 4.1% | 0.8% | 5% | A+ |
| 81 | Inverness IL | 7,418 | $207K | 2.6% | 3.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 82 | Wyoming OH | 8,807 | $165K | 2.7% | 2.6% | 5% | A+ |
| 83 | Bellbrook OH | 7,563 | $112K | 3.3% | 0.6% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,083 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 14% | 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 Inverness, the top three, the last and three more from Illinois.
Inverness and its neighbors: 11% work next door
The biggest share goes to Palatine (6%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Inverness workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inverness | – | A+ | B+ | 26 min | $207,434 |
| Palatine | 6% | A− | A− | 28 min | $97,819 |
| Hoffman Estates | 3% | A− | A− | 29 min | $106,806 |
| South Barrington | under 2% | A+ | A− | 29 min | $221,575 |
| Barrington Hills | under 2% | A | A− | 30 min | $205,074 |
| Palatine Township | under 2% | A− | A− | 27 min | $104,916 |
| Barrington | 2% | A+ | A | 31 min | $147,989 |
| Barrington Township | under 2% | A | A | 29 min | $183,663 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Inverness’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 Inverness: questions
What is the median household income in Inverness?
$207,434 (±$31,528) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Inverness?
2.6%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Inverness?
26 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 30% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Inverness work?
2% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Chicago (18%, 29 mi), Schaumburg (8%, 6 mi), Palatine (6%, 3 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Inverness walkable?
Inverness is more walkable than 71% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 7.3 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Inverness without a car?
5% of commuters take transit and 0% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Inverness, from the people who make the trip.
More of Inverness
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.