Photo: Jaylon Vermost · CC BY 4.0At 8.9%, unemployment in Kewanee is higher than in 92% of U.S. towns
Working from home is the commute for 7% of workers, where Illinois as a whole has 16%. The two grades for Kewanee are D for jobs and income and B+ for walkability. Household incomes here are lower than in 87% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Kewanee in brief
Commutes from Kewanee are quick
The average trip to work takes 19 minutes, against 28 across Illinois. That’s about 69 hours a year less on the road than the typical Illinois worker. Time on the road ↓
Most jobs in Kewanee go to people who live here
Of the 3,838 jobs based in Kewanee, 46% are held by Kewanee residents. In most towns, people from elsewhere hold most of the local jobs. Day and night ↓
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.
Where Kewanee’s Jobs & income grade comes from
Job access by car holds Kewanee’s grade up (ahead of 26% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Kewanee could be anywhere from D− to C−.
Time on the road from Kewanee: about 19 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Kewanee workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 4,459 commuters (the 7% 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 leaves, who stays, who comes in
On a workday 2,789 residents head out to work, 1,764 work right here, and 2,074 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (0.84 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.
Where Kewanee goes to work
Where Kewanee clocks in
3% of workers
3% 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.
The 3,838 jobs based in Kewanee
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Kewanee, 2013 → 2023: 3,803 → 3,838. 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 Kewanee’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Kewanee
About 22% 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.
Kewanee is a driving town
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Kewanee is more walkable than 70% of U.S. towns, #389 of 768 in Illinois. Both inputs place Kewanee 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 4,788 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). 14.0% of Kewanee households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Kewanee’s commuters take a bus or train.
Where Kewanee sits among U.S. towns of 8,000 to 16,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| 2 | Beverly Hills MI | 10,449 | $177K | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Ladue MO | 8,934 | $250K | 1.1% | 1.7% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 7 | Long Grove IL | 8,343 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 19 | Riverside IL | 8,939 | $154K | 3.3% | 1.9% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 32 | Western Springs IL | 13,588 | $230K | 1.3% | 3.1% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,603 | Susanville CA | 12,816 | $62K | 17.6% | 9.3% | 59% | D |
| 2,604 | McMinnville TN | 13,943 | $47K | 20.7% | 9.0% | 24% | D |
| 2,605 | Kewanee IL | 12,115 | $51K | 17.9% | 8.9% | 39% | D |
| 2,606 | Somerset KY | 12,695 | $35K | 27.2% | 8.7% | 47% | D |
| 2,607 | Brownsville TN | 9,301 | $43K | 25.7% | 8.6% | 37% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 2,695 | Roma TX | 11,543 | $25K | 37.1% | 12.4% | 22% | 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 Kewanee, 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 Kewanee: questions
What is the median household income in Kewanee?
$50,886 (±$5,389) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Kewanee?
17.9%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Kewanee?
19 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Kewanee work?
39% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Geneseo (3%, 19 mi), Moline (3%, 34 mi), Peoria (3%, 37 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Kewanee walkable?
Kewanee is more walkable than 70% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 7.5 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Kewanee without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 14% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Kewanee, from the people who make the trip.
More of Kewanee
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.