Photo: Dennisyerger84 · CC BY-SA 4.0Households in Joliet earn more than those in 70% of U.S. towns
Poverty touches 11.1% of residents; Illinois has 11.8%. Jobs and income earn Joliet B; getting around on foot earns it B+. About one in seven stay in Joliet for work; outside it, Chicago is the main destination (12%, 33 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jobs and commuting in Joliet: the gist
Joliet’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Joliet is Chicago, 33 miles away as the crow flies. 12% of working residents (8,379) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Joliet draws workers from far and wide
The 51,026 jobs in Joliet are filled from a wide area. Joliet’s own residents hold 22% and the ten next-biggest home towns 22%; the other 56% come from many towns beyond those. The commute map ↓
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 Joliet earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Joliet is better than 64% of U.S. towns, #383 of 768 in Illinois. Job access by car holds Joliet’s grade up (ahead of 91% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down (5.5%, U.S. 5.2%). It also does well on household income.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Joliet could be anywhere from B to B+.
Short hops and long hauls from Joliet
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.
Where the trip to work from Joliet ends
Where Joliet clocks in
12% of workers
4% 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 Joliet, and who commutes in
On a workday 58,570 residents head out to work, 11,323 work right here, and 39,703 people come in from elsewhere.
About 133,000 people are in Joliet on a workday afternoon, 12% fewer than live here.
0.73 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.
The 51,026 jobs based in Joliet
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Joliet, 2013 → 2023: 49,586 → 51,026. 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 Joliet’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The daily trip from Joliet: about 29 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Joliet workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 68,817 commuters (the 9% 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.
Driving is how Joliet gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Joliet is more walkable than 72% of U.S. towns, #362 of 768 in Illinois. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 2.2% 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 75,476 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 54% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 30% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 1.9 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 68% 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). 5.9% of Joliet households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Joliet’s commuters take a bus or train.
These are town averages; neighborhoods differ.
Ranked on jobs and income, Joliet is 94th among 225 U.S. towns of 107,000 to 206,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pearland TX | 129,930 | $119K | 4.1% | 3.3% | 10% | A+ |
| 2 | Smithtown NY | 116,847 | $153K | 4.2% | 3.9% | 16% | A |
| 3 | Berkeley CA | 121,911 | $108K | 17.3% | 5.6% | 21% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 6 | Naperville IL | 153,114 | $155K | 4.4% | 4.5% | 17% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 14 | Lisle Township IL | 119,740 | $119K | 5.0% | 4.5% | 11% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 20 | Downers Grove Township IL | 149,599 | $117K | 6.2% | 4.3% | 14% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 92 | Elgin IL | 115,476 | $90K | 9.8% | 6.1% | 20% | B |
| 93 | Columbia MO | 130,851 | $66K | 19.3% | 4.0% | 69% | B |
| 94 | Joliet IL | 152,241 | $92K | 11.1% | 5.5% | 16% | B |
| 95 | Escondido CA | 146,030 | $92K | 12.2% | 4.7% | 17% | B |
| 96 | Buckeye AZ | 125,445 | $99K | 8.0% | 4.9% | 8% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 225 | Macon-Bibb County GA | 157,556 | $51K | 24.7% | 8.1% | 53% | 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 Joliet, the top three, the last and three more from Illinois.
Joliet and the towns next door
The biggest share goes to Plainfield (4%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Joliet workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Joliet | – | B | B+ | 29 min | $92,201 |
| Ridgewood | under 2% | C+ | B− | 29 min | $92,500 |
| Preston Heights | under 2% | C | A− | 23 min | $51,625 |
| Crystal Lawns | under 2% | A | A | 28 min | $82,033 |
| Ingalls Park | under 2% | C | A | 26 min | $57,917 |
| Plainfield | 4% | A | B+ | 33 min | $144,000 |
| New Lenox | 2% | A+ | A− | 33 min | $140,865 |
| Rockdale | under 2% | C | A+ | 25 min | $59,135 |
| Crest Hill | 2% | B− | B+ | 28 min | $73,033 |
| Shorewood | under 2% | A− | B | 35 min | $122,105 |
| Sunnyland | under 2% | B+ | C | 30 min | $90,813 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Joliet’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 Joliet: questions
What is the median household income in Joliet?
$92,201 (±$3,443) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Joliet?
11.1%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Joliet?
29 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 9% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Joliet work?
16% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Chicago (12%, 33 mi), Bolingbrook (4%, 12 mi), Naperville (4%, 16 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Joliet walkable?
Joliet is more walkable than 72% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 10.1 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Joliet without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. 30% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Joliet, from the people who make the trip.
More of Joliet
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.