Photo: ProfDEH · CC BY-SA 3.0Most of Lacon commutes out: there are 0.5 jobs for every working resident
8% of workers have no commute at all, against 16% across Illinois. There are 437 jobs in Lacon for 842 working residents. Jobs and income earn Lacon C−; getting around on foot earns it C−.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Lacon, in a few figures
How Lacon earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Lacon is better than 25% of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Lacon’s grade.
Unemployment (5.3%) is left out: Lacon’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, Lacon could be anywhere from C− to C+.
Commuting from Lacon: about 33 minutes a trip
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 10.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Lacon workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 733 commuters (the 8% 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.
Lacon by day and by night
On a workday 742 residents head out to work, 100 work right here, and 337 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,400 people are in Lacon on a workday afternoon, 22% 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.
16% of working residents work in Peoria
Where Lacon clocks in
2% 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 Lacon: what the 437 are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Lacon, 2013 → 2023: 446 → 437. 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’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Lacon’s commute, mile by mile
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.
In Lacon, most people drive to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Lacon is more walkable than 19% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 10.8% across Illinois.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 796 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). 5.1% of Lacon households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Lacon’s commuters take a bus or train.
Lacon places 3,753rd of 5,656 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 1,300 to 2,500
| # | 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 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 33 | Bannockburn IL | 1,308 | $214K | 5.1% | 1.8% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 38 | Prestbury IL | 2,045 | $165K | 1.9% | 0.0% | 0% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,751 | Saxapahaw NC | 1,301 | $59K | 15.1% | 0.0% | <1% | C− |
| 3,752 | Monette AR | 1,679 | $54K | 10.4% | 9.9% | 7% | C− |
| 3,753 | Lacon IL | 1,822 | $63K | 14.8% | 5.3% | 12% | C− |
| 3,754 | Gowanda NY | 2,444 | $52K | 16.9% | 3.2% | 17% | C− |
| 3,755 | Ross Township IL | 1,418 | $64K | 10.6% | 2.6% | 2% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,656 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 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 Lacon, 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 Lacon: questions
What is the median household income in Lacon?
$63,162 (±$5,966) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Lacon?
14.8%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Lacon?
33 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Lacon work?
12% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Peoria (16%, 22 mi), Toluca (2%, 14 mi), Chillicothe (2%, 9 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Lacon walkable?
Lacon is more walkable than 19% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 5.9 out of 20, and <1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Lacon without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 5% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Lacon, from the people who make the trip.
More of Lacon
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.