Photo: Dual Freq · CC BY 2.5Milford has lower household incomes than 91% of U.S. towns
4% of workers have no commute at all, where Illinois as a whole has 16%. Below the poverty line: 26.8% of residents, next to 11.8% for Illinois as a whole. Milford grades D− for jobs and income and B− for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Milford apart on work
A big share show a job far from home
33% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. How far ↓
Few Milford workers work from home
Only 4% of workers work from home, against 16% across Illinois. Almost everyone here travels to a job. 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; with 498 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Jobs & income in Milford: the grade in detail
On income, poverty and job access, Milford is better than 2% of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Milford’s grade.
Unemployment (4.2%) is left out: Milford’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, Milford could be anywhere from D− to D.
How far it is to work from Milford
About 33% 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.
Commuting from Milford: about 25 minutes a trip
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Milford workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 430 commuters (the 4% 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.
How many people are in Milford by day
On a workday 446 residents head out to work, 52 work right here, and 162 people come in from elsewhere.
About 830 people are in Milford on a workday afternoon, 25% fewer than live here.
0.43 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.
11% of working residents work in Watseka
Where Milford clocks in
11% of workers
7% 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.
What work there is in Milford: 214 jobs
214 jobs are based in Milford.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Milford, 2013 → 2023: 291 → 214. 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 Milford’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Most trips from Milford start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Milford is more walkable than 46% 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 5.2.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 446 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). 7.6% of Milford households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Milford’s commuters take a bus or train.
Where Milford sits among 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,636 | Clay Township MO | 1,126 | $50K | 27.7% | 1.5% | 11% | D− |
| 3,637 | Cascade ID | 1,018 | $54K | 32.0% | 8.8% | 27% | D− |
| 3,638 | Milford IL | 1,116 | $47K | 26.8% | 4.2% | 10% | D− |
| 3,639 | Grayville IL | 1,483 | $46K | 29.8% | 8.5% | 7% | D− |
| 3,640 | Tylertown MS | 1,486 | $33K | 34.2% | 11.6% | 18% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 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 Milford, 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 Milford: questions
What is the median household income in Milford?
$46,827 (±$9,973) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Milford?
26.8%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Milford?
25 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Milford work?
10% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Watseka (11%, 10 mi), Hoopeston (7%, 12 mi), Danville (4%, 34 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Milford walkable?
Milford is more walkable than 46% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 5.2 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Milford without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Milford, from the people who make the trip.
More of Milford
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.