Illinois Traction System Mackinaw Depot · Photo: Ammodramus · CC0Mackinaw’s household incomes are lower than in 62% of U.S. towns
Below the poverty line: 8.2% of residents (Illinois 11.8%). The two grades for Mackinaw are B− for jobs and income and B for walkability. Home is the office for 6% of workers; Illinois has 16%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Income, poverty and work: Mackinaw’s grade explained
On income, poverty and job access, Mackinaw is better than 54% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Mackinaw’s grade up (ahead of 61% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($67,292, U.S. $80,734). It also does well on the poverty rate.
Unemployment (2.8%) is left out: Mackinaw’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Mackinaw could be anywhere from C to A−.
Who commutes out of Mackinaw, and who commutes in
On a workday 760 residents head out to work, 100 work right here, and 509 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,600 people are in Mackinaw on a workday afternoon, 14% fewer than live here.
0.71 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.
15% of working residents work in Peoria
Where Mackinaw clocks in
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.
Inside Mackinaw’s 609 jobs
609 jobs are based in Mackinaw.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Mackinaw, 2013 → 2023: 585 → 609. 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 Mackinaw’s own residents hold wherever they work.
A commute of about 24 minutes in Mackinaw
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Mackinaw workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 866 commuters (the 6% 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.
The commute from Mackinaw, by distance
About 25% 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 Mackinaw, most people drive to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Mackinaw is more walkable than 63% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Mackinaw 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 920 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). 4.2% of Mackinaw households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Mackinaw’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 1,300 to 2,500, Mackinaw ranks 1,968th of 5,656 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 | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,966 | Muniz TX | 1,601 | $91K | 20.7% | 3.8% | 0% | B− |
| 1,967 | Lubeck WV | 1,495 | $71K | 5.1% | 9.7% | <1% | B− |
| 1,968 | Mackinaw IL | 1,851 | $67K | 8.2% | 2.8% | 12% | B− |
| 1,969 | Trail Creek IN | 1,987 | $78K | 6.6% | 6.8% | 1% | B− |
| 1,970 | Upper Frankford Township PA | 2,309 | $78K | 10.9% | 3.6% | 1% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 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 Mackinaw, the top three, the last and three more from Illinois.
Around Mackinaw: the bordering towns
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Mackinaw workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mackinaw | – | B− | B | 24 min | $67,292 |
| Heritage Lake | under 3% | A− | D− | 32 min | $133,048 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Mackinaw’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 Mackinaw: questions
What is the median household income in Mackinaw?
$67,292 (±$21,344) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Mackinaw?
8.2%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Mackinaw?
24 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Mackinaw work?
12% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Peoria (15%, 20 mi), Morton (8%, 8 mi), Normal (4%, 19 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Mackinaw walkable?
Mackinaw is more walkable than 63% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 7.1 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Mackinaw without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Mackinaw, from the people who make the trip.
More of Mackinaw
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.