Photo: ProfDEH · CC BY-SA 3.0Lacon Township has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.6 for each
7% of workers have no commute at all, next to 16% for Illinois as a whole. Lacon Township has 585 jobs for 1,038 working residents. Jobs and income earn Lacon Township C−; getting around on foot earns it D.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jobs & income in Lacon Township: the grade in detail
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Lacon Township is better than 25% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Lacon Township’s grade up ($69,340, U.S. $80,734); unemployment pulls it down (6.8%, U.S. 5.2%).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Lacon Township could be anywhere from D to B.
How a workday changes Lacon Township
On a workday 892 residents head out to work, 146 work right here, and 439 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,800 people are in Lacon Township on a workday afternoon, 20% 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.
Where Lacon Township goes to work
Where Lacon Township clocks in
12% 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 kinds of work in Lacon Township
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Lacon Township, 2013 → 2023: 516 → 585. 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 Lacon Township’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The trip to work from Lacon Township: about 31 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 10 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Lacon Township workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 911 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.
How far Lacon Township goes to work
About 27% 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.
Few in Lacon Township walk, bike or ride to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Lacon Township is more walkable than 14% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Lacon Township 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 976 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). 4.1% of Lacon Township households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Lacon Township’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 1,600 to 3,100, Lacon Township ranks 3,737th of 5,328 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 30 | Prestbury IL | 2,045 | $165K | 1.9% | 0.0% | 0% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 61 | Wayne IL | 2,278 | $162K | 2.1% | 2.7% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,735 | Sac City IA | 1,993 | $57K | 18.2% | 2.5% | 27% | C− |
| 3,736 | Winlock WA | 2,640 | $80K | 14.9% | 10.6% | 7% | C− |
| 3,737 | Lacon Township IL | 2,284 | $69K | 13.4% | 6.8% | 14% | C− |
| 3,738 | Mount Olive Township IL | 3,019 | $63K | 12.6% | 6.1% | 6% | C− |
| 3,739 | Deep River Township MI | 2,076 | $59K | 16.4% | 2.9% | 7% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,328 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Lacon Township, the top three, the last and three more from Illinois.
Lacon Township and its neighbors
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Lacon Township workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lacon Township | – | C− | D | 31 min | $69,340 |
| Steuben Township | under 2% | C+ | C+ | 29 min | $66,477 |
| Chillicothe Township | under 2% | A− | B− | 21 min | $69,036 |
| Richland Township | under 2% | — | — | 25 min | — |
| Hopewell Township | under 2% | — | — | 36 min | — |
| Partridge Township | under 2% | — | — | 35 min | — |
| Henry Township | under 2% | — | — | 28 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Richland Township, Hopewell Township and Partridge Township: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Henry Township: not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Lacon Township’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 Lacon Township: questions
What is the median household income in Lacon Township?
$69,340 (±$7,839) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Lacon Township?
13.4%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Lacon Township?
31 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Lacon Township work?
14% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Peoria (16%, 19 mi), Lacon (12%, 3 mi), Toluca (3%, 14 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Lacon Township walkable?
Lacon Township is more walkable than 14% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 5.4 out of 20, and <1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Lacon Township without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Lacon Township, from the people who make the trip.
More of Lacon Township
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.