With 0.4 jobs for every working resident, most of Kingston works elsewhere
191 jobs are based in Kingston, against 474 working residents. Jobs and income earn Kingston B+; getting around on foot earns it C. Only 1% stay in Kingston for work; outside it, DeKalb is the main destination (10%, 12 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The work figures that set Kingston apart
Breaking down the Jobs & income grade for Kingston
On income, poverty and job access, Kingston is better than 74% of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Kingston’s grade. It also does well on household income and job access by car.
Unemployment (15.6%) is left out: Kingston’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, Kingston could be anywhere from B− to A.
How long Kingston spends getting to work: about 33 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 10.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Kingston workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 575 commuters (the 11% 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.
A workday in Kingston: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 467 residents head out to work, 7 work right here, and 184 people come in from elsewhere.
About 820 people are in Kingston on a workday afternoon, 26% fewer 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.
Commuting out of Kingston: the destinations
Where Kingston clocks in
10% 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.
Jobs in Kingston: what the 191 are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Kingston, 2013 → 2023: 128 → 191. 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 Kingston’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How far it is to work from Kingston
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.
Kingston is a driving town
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Kingston is more walkable than 30% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 2.1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 10.8% across Illinois, on an EPA index of 5.1.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 643 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). 0.0% of Kingston households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Kingston’s commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, Kingston is 479th of 3,771 U.S. towns of 800 to 1,500
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 21 | Tower Lakes IL | 1,201 | $154K | 2.0% | 2.8% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 23 | Third Lake IL | 1,103 | $150K | 2.0% | 2.3% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 28 | Lily Lake IL | 1,073 | $140K | 0.2% | 8.9% | 0% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 477 | Utica IN | 1,298 | $85K | 9.4% | 2.7% | 1% | B+ |
| 478 | Lancaster Township IN | 1,169 | $88K | 2.6% | 1.5% | 1% | B+ |
| 479 | Kingston IL | 1,103 | $88K | 7.0% | 15.6% | 1% | B+ |
| 480 | Rosendale WI | 1,042 | $96K | 6.7% | 3.3% | 4% | B+ |
| 481 | Clear Creek Township NE | 1,303 | $85K | 6.2% | 1.9% | 3% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,771 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 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 Kingston, 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 Kingston: questions
What is the median household income in Kingston?
$88,295 (±$18,299) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Kingston?
7.0%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Kingston?
33 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 11% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Kingston work?
1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are DeKalb (10%, 12 mi), Rockford (7%, 19 mi), Sycamore (6%, 8 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Kingston walkable?
Kingston is more walkable than 30% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 5.1 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Kingston without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 0% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Kingston, from the people who make the trip.
More of Kingston
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.