Photo: Teemu08 at en.wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0Earning a living in Lyons
Transit is limited for a town this walkable: about 3.3 trips an hour stop near the typical resident at the evening peak, against 36.9 in Chicago. Jobs and income earn Lyons B; getting around on foot earns it A+. Only 4% work in Lyons itself; outside it, Chicago draws the most (28%, 7 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Lyons, in brief
Why Lyons gets the Jobs & income grade it does
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Lyons is better than 57% of U.S. towns, #450 of 768 in Illinois. Job access by car holds Lyons’ grade up (among the top U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (14.0%, U.S. 12.5%).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Lyons could be anywhere from C to A.
The places Lyons commutes to
Where Lyons clocks in
28% of workers
3% of workers
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.
A workday in Lyons: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 4,300 residents head out to work, 173 work right here, and 2,667 people come in from elsewhere.
About 8,800 people are in Lyons on a workday afternoon, 16% fewer than live here.
0.63 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Inside Lyons’ 2,840 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Lyons, 2013 → 2023: 2,750 → 2,840. 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 Lyons’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Commuting from Lyons: about 28 minutes a trip
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Lyons workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,814 commuters (the 19% 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.
Short hops and long hauls from Lyons
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.
Lyons is easy on foot, hard by bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Lyons is more walkable than 98% of U.S. towns, #26 of 768 in Illinois. Both inputs place Lyons 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 4,719 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). Nearly all residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 55% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 3.3 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 77% 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). 8.9% of Lyons households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 7% of Lyons’ commuters take a bus or train.
Lyons places 1,525th of 2,878 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 7,000 to 14,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| 2 | Beverly Hills MI | 10,449 | $177K | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Ladue MO | 8,934 | $250K | 1.1% | 1.7% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 7 | Long Grove IL | 8,343 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 16 | Riverside IL | 8,939 | $154K | 3.3% | 1.9% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 31 | Western Springs IL | 13,588 | $230K | 1.3% | 3.1% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,523 | North Fair Oaks CA | 13,100 | $105K | 13.0% | 8.4% | 4% | B |
| 1,524 | Connerton FL | 7,650 | $124K | 5.0% | 8.7% | 1% | B |
| 1,525 | Lyons IL | 10,433 | $71K | 14.0% | 4.6% | 4% | B |
| 1,526 | Wood River IL | 10,224 | $63K | 13.9% | 2.9% | 7% | B |
| 1,527 | Pleasant Hill IA | 11,239 | $91K | 8.9% | 8.2% | 3% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 2,878 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 14% | 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 Lyons, the top three, the last and three more from Illinois.
Work in the towns next to Lyons
The biggest share goes to Brookfield (1%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Lyons workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lyons | – | B | A+ | 28 min | $70,993 |
| McCook | under 2% | — | — | 22 min | — |
| Riverside | under 2% | A+ | A+ | 33 min | $153,686 |
| Lyons Township | under 2% | B+ | A+ | 30 min | $92,619 |
| Riverside Township | under 2% | A+ | A+ | 31 min | $121,944 |
| Brookfield | 1% | A | A+ | 33 min | $110,295 |
| Summit | under 2% | B− | A+ | 29 min | $61,863 |
| Forest View | under 2% | — | — | 25 min | — |
| Stickney Township | under 2% | B | A | 30 min | $78,454 |
Same-state neighbors only. McCook: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Forest View: not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Lyons’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 Lyons: questions
What is the median household income in Lyons?
$70,993 (±$12,586) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Lyons?
14.0%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Lyons?
28 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 19% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Lyons work?
4% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Chicago (28%, 7 mi), Cicero (3%, 4 mi), Hodgkins (2%, 4 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Lyons walkable?
Lyons is more walkable than 98% of U.S. towns (Walkability A+): an EPA walkability index of 14.5 out of 20, and 11% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Lyons without a car?
7% of commuters take transit and 9% of households have no car. 55% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Lyons, from the people who make the trip.
More of Lyons
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.