Photo: PeteBobb · CC BY-SA 3.0Mount Carroll’s household incomes are lower than in 76% of U.S. towns
Home is the office for 7% of workers, next to 16% for Illinois as a whole. 14.1% of residents live below the poverty line, where Illinois as a whole has 11.8%. Mount Carroll grades C− for jobs and income and A− for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Mount Carroll’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Mount Carroll’s grade.
Unemployment (3.2%) is left out: Mount Carroll’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, Mount Carroll could be anywhere from D to C+.
In and out of Mount Carroll on a workday
On a workday 567 residents head out to work, 95 work right here, and 310 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,200 people are in Mount Carroll on a workday afternoon, 18% fewer than live here.
0.61 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 Savanna
Where Mount Carroll clocks in
11% of workers
5% of workers
5% 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 Mount Carroll’s employers do
405 jobs are based in Mount Carroll.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Mount Carroll, 2013 → 2023: 492 → 405. 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 Mount Carroll’s own residents hold wherever they work.
From Mount Carroll, about 26 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Mount Carroll workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 737 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.
Where in the region Mount Carroll works
About 21% 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.
Good to walk, short on transit: Mount Carroll
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Mount Carroll is more walkable than 81% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Mount Carroll 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 789 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). 2.7% of Mount Carroll households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Mount Carroll’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 5,877 U.S. towns of 1,000 to 1,900, Mount Carroll comes 4,340th on jobs and income
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 29 | Tower Lakes IL | 1,201 | $154K | 2.0% | 2.8% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 32 | Third Lake IL | 1,103 | $150K | 2.0% | 2.3% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 37 | Lily Lake IL | 1,073 | $140K | 0.2% | 8.9% | 0% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,338 | Rock River Township MI | 1,230 | $63K | 10.8% | 5.4% | 6% | C− |
| 4,339 | Lawrence Township PA | 1,618 | $60K | 15.9% | 6.9% | 7% | C− |
| 4,340 | Mount Carroll IL | 1,432 | $59K | 14.1% | 3.2% | 14% | C− |
| 4,341 | Williamsburg PA | 1,196 | $51K | 13.9% | 4.3% | 13% | C− |
| 4,342 | Loretto PA | 1,135 | $64K | 36.4% | 8.4% | 4% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,877 | 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 Mount Carroll, the top three, the last and three more from Illinois.
Around Mount Carroll: the bordering towns
The biggest share goes to Salem Township (3%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Mount Carroll workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mount Carroll | – | C− | A− | 26 min | $58,500 |
| Mount Carroll Township | under 2% | C | A− | 28 min | $53,558 |
| Salem Township | 3% | — | — | 26 min | — |
| Freedom Township | under 2% | — | — | 27 min | — |
| Woodland Township | under 2% | — | — | 33 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Salem Township, Freedom Township and Woodland Township: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Mount Carroll’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 Mount Carroll: questions
What is the median household income in Mount Carroll?
$58,500 (±$12,577) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Mount Carroll?
14.1%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Mount Carroll?
26 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Mount Carroll work?
14% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Savanna (11%, 8 mi), Freeport (5%, 22 mi), Clinton (5%, 22 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Mount Carroll walkable?
Mount Carroll is more walkable than 81% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 8.4 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Mount Carroll without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Mount Carroll, from the people who make the trip.
More of Mount Carroll
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.