Unemployment in Loves Park (6.3%) is higher than in 77% of U.S. towns
9% of workers work from home (Illinois 16%). For jobs and income Loves Park is better than 35% of U.S. towns (C+); for walkability it is more walkable than 42% of U.S. towns (C+). About one in ten work in Loves Park; the top destination outside it is Rockford (36%, 6 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Loves Park: the figures worth knowing
Loves Park trades workers with the towns around it
Loves Park has about as many jobs (12,034) as working residents (11,134), but they are mostly different people: 9,853 residents leave for work each day while 10,753 people come in. Only 11% of the jobs in Loves Park are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
A lot of Loves Park works one town over
41% of working residents work in a town that borders Loves Park: Rockford (36%) and Machesney Park (5%). Next door ↓
Loves Park makes and builds things
48% of the jobs based in Loves Park are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Loves Park residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 24%. The jobs ↓
Commutes from Loves Park are quick
The average trip to work takes 22 minutes, against 28 across Illinois. That’s about 46 hours a year less on the road than the typical Illinois worker. Time on the road ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey.
Income, poverty and work: Loves Park’s grade explained
Job access by car holds Loves Park’s grade up; unemployment pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Loves Park could be anywhere from C to B−.
How many people are in Loves Park by day
On a workday 9,853 residents head out to work, 1,281 work right here, and 10,753 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.08 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Loves Park makes things: 48% of its jobs are in goods
12,034 jobs are based in Loves Park.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Loves Park, 2013 → 2023: 12,421 → 12,034. 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 Loves Park’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The trip to work from Loves Park: about 22 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Loves Park workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 10,609 commuters (the 9% 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.
Where the trip to work from Loves Park ends
Where Loves Park clocks in
36% 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.
Short hops and long hauls from Loves Park
About 24% 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.
For most of Loves Park, work means a drive
The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.1% 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 11,629 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 6.2% of Loves Park households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Loves Park’s commuters take a bus or train.
Loves Park is 1,250th of 1,577 U.S. towns of 17,000 to 32,000 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | West Springfield VA | 22,532 | $163K | 1.9% | 1.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Mountain Brook AL | 21,661 | $201K | 3.2% | 1.2% | 8% | A+ |
| 3 | Lake Forest IL | 19,731 | $235K | 3.5% | 1.8% | 12% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 8 | Deerfield IL | 19,642 | $182K | 2.8% | 2.7% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 15 | Geneva IL | 21,138 | $144K | 3.8% | 1.8% | 13% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,248 | Stephenville TX | 21,793 | $53K | 20.0% | 7.3% | 34% | C+ |
| 1,249 | Zion IL | 24,447 | $63K | 16.0% | 6.7% | 6% | C+ |
| 1,250 | Loves Park IL | 23,712 | $62K | 14.4% | 6.3% | 12% | C+ |
| 1,251 | Weathersfield Township OH | 24,277 | $52K | 14.8% | 4.8% | 13% | C+ |
| 1,252 | Terrell TX | 23,921 | $66K | 15.9% | 7.6% | 18% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,577 | Nogales AZ | 19,495 | $43K | 28.0% | 15.7% | 37% | 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 Loves Park, the top three, the last and three more from Illinois.
Loves Park and its neighbors: 41% work next door
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Loves Park workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Loves Park | – | C+ | C+ | 22 min | $61,868 |
| Machesney Park | 5% | C+ | C+ | 22 min | $75,489 |
| Rockford | 36% | C− | B | 22 min | $54,752 |
| Harlem Township | under 2% | B− | C+ | 23 min | $77,883 |
| Argyle | under 2% | — | — | 23 min | — |
| Owen Township | under 2% | A | D− | 27 min | $95,370 |
| Belvidere Township | under 2% | — | — | 24 min | — |
| Rockford Township | under 2% | — | — | 22 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Argyle: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Belvidere Township and Rockford Township: not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Rockford. Darker towns draw more of Loves Park’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 Loves Park: questions
What is the median household income in Loves Park?
$61,868 (±$4,073) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Loves Park?
14.4%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Loves Park?
22 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 9% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Loves Park work?
12% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Rockford (36%, 6 mi), Machesney Park (5%, 2 mi), Chicago (4%, 76 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Loves Park walkable?
Loves Park is more walkable than 42% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 7.4 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Loves Park without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Loves Park, from the people who make the trip.
More of Loves Park
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.