Photo: Dual Freq · CC BY 2.5Fewer people are out of work in Monticello (0.5%) than in 97% of U.S. towns
Monticello grades A for jobs and income and C+ for walkability. For 7% of workers, the job is at home, where Illinois as a whole has 16%. Measured by household income, Monticello is ahead of 76% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Monticello: the figures worth knowing
Why Monticello gets the Jobs & income grade it does
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Monticello is better than 86% of U.S. towns, #161 of 768 in Illinois. Unemployment is its strongest input; job access by car ranks lowest, though still above most U.S. towns (ahead of 51% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income and the poverty rate and job access by car.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Monticello could be anywhere from B+ to A.
Monticello’s commute takes about 23 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Monticello workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,221 commuters (the 7% 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 commutes out of Monticello, and who commutes in
On a workday 2,159 residents head out to work, 643 work right here, and 1,573 people come in from elsewhere.
About 5,500 people are in Monticello on a workday afternoon, 10% fewer than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (0.79 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.
18% of working residents work in Champaign
Where Monticello clocks in
18% of workers
8% 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 Monticello: 2,216 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Monticello, 2013 → 2023: 1,698 → 2,216. 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 Monticello’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Monticello’s commute, mile by mile
About 22% 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 Monticello, the car does most of the work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Monticello is more walkable than 44% of U.S. towns, #581 of 768 in Illinois. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.3% 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 3,454 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). 2.3% of Monticello households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Monticello’s commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, Monticello is 527th of 3,307 U.S. towns of 4,300 to 8,200
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Ho-Ho-Kus NJ | 4,313 | $250K | 0.0% | 1.7% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 13 | South Barrington IL | 5,071 | $222K | 1.0% | 2.0% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 37 | Northfield IL | 5,632 | $162K | 3.2% | 2.2% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 76 | Grandwood Park IL | 5,262 | $127K | 2.8% | 2.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 525 | Southgate FL | 5,772 | $80K | 4.8% | 2.1% | 3% | A |
| 526 | Whitemarsh Island GA | 6,886 | $102K | 3.9% | 3.3% | 4% | A |
| 527 | Monticello IL | 6,080 | $99K | 5.7% | 0.5% | 23% | A |
| 528 | Crestwood KY | 6,582 | $108K | 8.1% | 2.7% | 3% | A |
| 529 | Swarthmore PA | 6,561 | $152K | 1.8% | 7.7% | 10% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 3,307 | 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 Monticello, 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 Monticello: questions
What is the median household income in Monticello?
$99,449 (±$7,901) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Monticello?
5.7%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Monticello?
23 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Monticello work?
23% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Champaign (18%, 17 mi), Urbana (8%, 21 mi), Decatur (6%, 23 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Monticello walkable?
Monticello is more walkable than 44% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 8.5 out of 20, and <1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Monticello without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Monticello, from the people who make the trip.
More of Monticello
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.