Photo: Adam Moss · CC BY-SA 2.0La Harpe has 0.3 jobs for every working resident, so most commute out
La Harpe has 168 jobs; 493 of its residents have a job. The two grades for La Harpe are D for jobs and income and B+ for walkability. Measured by household income, La Harpe is behind 89% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The figures behind La Harpe’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, La Harpe is better than 12% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds La Harpe’s grade up (12.9%, U.S. 12.5%); household income pulls it down ($49,205, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (1.0%) is left out: La Harpe’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, La Harpe could be anywhere from D− to C.
La Harpe by day and by night
On a workday 445 residents head out to work, 48 work right here, and 120 people come in from elsewhere.
About 800 people are in La Harpe on a workday afternoon, 29% 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.
15% of working residents work in Macomb
Where La Harpe clocks in
7% 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.
What La Harpe’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in La Harpe, 2013 → 2023: 270 → 168. 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 La Harpe’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Time on the road from La Harpe: about 29 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of La Harpe workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 547 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.
How many miles La Harpe commutes
About 28% 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.
The commute in La Harpe is mostly behind the wheel
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, La Harpe is more walkable than 67% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 7.9% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 10.8% across Illinois, on an EPA index of 6.2.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 574 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). 13.4% of La Harpe households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of La Harpe’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 800 to 1,500, La Harpe ranks 2,992nd of 3,771 on jobs and income
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,990 | Babson Park FL | 1,093 | $48K | 14.4% | 0.0% | 1% | D |
| 2,991 | Ricardo TX | 1,132 | $70K | 40.1% | 0.0% | 1% | D |
| 2,992 | La Harpe IL | 1,124 | $49K | 12.9% | 1.0% | 10% | D |
| 2,993 | Elephant Butte NM | 1,456 | $53K | 10.7% | 5.3% | 7% | D |
| 2,994 | Malvern OH | 1,092 | $31K | 26.6% | 4.3% | 3% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 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 La Harpe, 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 La Harpe: questions
What is the median household income in La Harpe?
$49,205 (±$3,975) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in La Harpe?
12.9%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from La Harpe?
29 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in La Harpe work?
10% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Macomb (15%, 17 mi), Carthage (7%, 14 mi), Burlington (7%, 17 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is La Harpe walkable?
La Harpe is more walkable than 67% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 6.2 out of 20, and 8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around La Harpe without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 13% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from La Harpe, from the people who make the trip.
More of La Harpe
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.