Photo: Ben Jacobson (Kranar Drogin) · CC BY 2.5With 0.3 jobs for every working resident, most of Leaf River Township works elsewhere
Jobs and income earn Leaf River Township B+; getting around on foot earns it C. 168 jobs are based in Leaf River Township for 518 working residents. 3% of workers have no commute at all, next to 16% for Illinois as a whole.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Leaf River Township
Why Leaf River Township gets the Jobs & income grade it does
On income, poverty and job access, Leaf River Township is better than 68% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Leaf River Township’s grade up (5.4%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 44% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income.
Unemployment (2.6%) is left out: Leaf River Township’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, Leaf River Township could be anywhere from B− to A−.
A commute of about 30 minutes in Leaf River Township
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Leaf River Township workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 589 commuters (the 3% 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 Leaf River Township for work, and who comes in
On a workday 511 residents head out to work, 7 work right here, and 161 people come in from elsewhere.
About 730 people are in Leaf River Township on a workday afternoon, 33% 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.
20% of working residents work in Rockford
Where Leaf River Township clocks in
20% of workers
9% of workers
4% 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.
67% of the jobs in Leaf River Township pay over $3,333 a month
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Leaf River Township, 2013 → 2023: 72 → 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 Leaf River Township’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Leaf River Township’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 Leaf River Township, most people drive to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Leaf River Township is more walkable than 34% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 4.1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 10.8% across Illinois, on an EPA index of 3.7.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 605 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). 7.4% of Leaf River Township households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 2% of Leaf River Township’s commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, Leaf River Township is 688th 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 686 | Greenbush Township MN | 1,333 | $106K | 8.1% | 2.6% | 1% | B+ |
| 687 | Illini Township IL | 1,282 | $99K | 6.9% | 4.0% | 2% | B+ |
| 688 | Leaf River Township IL | 1,076 | $86K | 5.4% | 2.6% | 1% | B+ |
| 689 | Ridgeville Township OH | 1,099 | $84K | 5.1% | 0.0% | 5% | B+ |
| 690 | Atglen PA | 1,403 | $120K | 13.8% | 4.4% | 1% | 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 Leaf River Township, the top three, the last and three more from Illinois.
Leaf River Township and its neighbors
The biggest share goes to Rockvale Township (4%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Leaf River Township workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leaf River Township | – | B+ | C | 30 min | $85,833 |
| Maryland Township | under 2% | — | — | 31 min | — |
| Rockvale Township | 4% | A | D | 30 min | $125,156 |
| Seward Township | under 2% | — | — | 20 min | — |
| Byron Township | under 2% | A− | B | 28 min | $90,069 |
| Ridott Township | under 2% | B | C+ | 22 min | $83,214 |
Same-state neighbors only. Maryland Township and Seward Township: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Leaf River 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 Leaf River Township: questions
What is the median household income in Leaf River Township?
$85,833 (±$9,479) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Leaf River Township?
5.4%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Leaf River Township?
30 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Leaf River Township work?
1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Rockford (20%, 18 mi), Byron (9%, 7 mi), Oregon (4%, 10 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Leaf River Township walkable?
Leaf River Township is more walkable than 34% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 3.7 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Leaf River Township without a car?
2% of commuters take transit and 7% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Leaf River Township, from the people who make the trip.
More of Leaf River 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.