Photo: MrHarman at English Wikipedia · Public domainKankakee has lower household incomes than 90% of U.S. towns
Jobs and income earn Kankakee D; getting around on foot earns it A−. 25.5% of residents are in poverty, against 11.8% across Illinois. 5% of workers have no commute at all, where Illinois as a whole has 16%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Kankakee: the figures worth knowing
Kankakee’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Kankakee is Chicago, 52 miles away as the crow flies. 9% of working residents (867) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Commutes from Kankakee are quick
The average trip to work takes 22 minutes, against 28 across Illinois. That’s about 46 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.
How Kankakee earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Kankakee is better than 15% of U.S. towns, #723 of 768 in Illinois. Job access by car holds Kankakee’s grade up (ahead of 67% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Kankakee could be anywhere from D to C.
The commute from Kankakee, by distance
About 29% 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 long Kankakee spends getting to work: about 22 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Kankakee workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 9,036 commuters (the 5% 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.
Who works in Kankakee, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 7,374 residents head out to work, 2,311 work right here, and 11,541 people come in from elsewhere.
About 28,000 people are in Kankakee on a workday afternoon, 18% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.43 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
9% of working residents work in Chicago
Where Kankakee clocks in
9% of workers
7% 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.
65% of the jobs in Kankakee pay over $3,333 a month
13,852 jobs are based in Kankakee.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Kankakee, 2013 → 2023: 15,295 → 13,852. 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 Kankakee’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Walkable streets, thin transit: Kankakee
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Kankakee is more walkable than 80% of U.S. towns, #275 of 768 in Illinois. Both inputs place Kankakee near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 9,478 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). 14.7% of Kankakee households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 3% of Kankakee’s commuters take a bus or train.
Where Kankakee sits among U.S. towns of 16,000 to 32,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | West Springfield VA | 22,532 | $163K | 1.9% | 1.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Mountain Brook AL | 21,661 | $201K | 3.2% | 1.2% | 8% | A+ |
| 3 | Lake Forest IL | 19,731 | $235K | 3.5% | 1.8% | 12% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 8 | Deerfield IL | 19,642 | $182K | 2.8% | 2.7% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 16 | Geneva IL | 21,138 | $144K | 3.8% | 1.8% | 13% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,696 | Greeneville TN | 16,141 | $50K | 18.5% | 8.4% | 44% | C− |
| 1,697 | Mattoon IL | 16,667 | $52K | 21.3% | 6.5% | 33% | D |
| 1,698 | Kankakee IL | 23,400 | $48K | 25.5% | 7.6% | 24% | D |
| 1,699 | Elizabeth City NC | 19,622 | $52K | 13.3% | 7.0% | 35% | D |
| 1,700 | Anniston AL | 20,930 | $47K | 20.6% | 6.4% | 28% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 1,780 | Douglas AZ | 16,038 | $42K | 27.8% | 12.3% | 29% | 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 Kankakee, the top three, the last and three more from Illinois.
Next door to Kankakee
The biggest share goes to Bradley (7%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Kankakee workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kankakee | – | D | A− | 22 min | $47,514 |
| Bradley | 7% | B+ | A− | 24 min | $67,420 |
| Kankakee Township | 1% | — | — | 22 min | — |
| Aroma Township | under 2% | B− | C− | 24 min | $74,740 |
Same-state neighbors only. Kankakee Township: not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Kankakee’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 Kankakee: questions
What is the median household income in Kankakee?
$47,514 (±$3,599) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Kankakee?
25.5%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Kankakee?
22 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Kankakee work?
24% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Chicago (9%, 52 mi), Bradley (7%, 4 mi), Bourbonnais (5%, 6 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Kankakee walkable?
Kankakee is more walkable than 80% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 8.0 out of 20, and 6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Kankakee without a car?
3% of commuters take transit and 15% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Kankakee, from the people who make the trip.
More of Kankakee
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.