Soulsby Service Station · Photo: Marcin Wichary from San Francisco, U.S.A. · CC BY 2.0Mount Olive has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.3 for each
Household incomes here are lower than in 80% of U.S. towns. There are 288 jobs in Mount Olive, and 952 of its residents work somewhere. Jobs and income earn Mount Olive C−; getting around on foot earns it D.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work and commuting in Mount Olive, in brief
Mount Olive is a place people come home to
There are 288 jobs based in Mount Olive, about three for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Mount Olive has about 1,300 people in it, 34% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
Few Mount Olive 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 952 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Where Mount Olive’s Jobs & income grade comes from
On income, poverty and job access, Mount Olive is better than 16% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Mount Olive’s grade up (ahead of 37% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (17.8%, U.S. 12.5%).
Unemployment (7.9%) is left out: Mount Olive’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 Olive could be anywhere from D to C.
The daily commute in and out of Mount Olive
On a workday 885 residents head out to work, 67 work right here, and 221 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,300 people are in Mount Olive on a workday afternoon, 34% fewer than live here.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
About 26 minutes to work from Mount Olive
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Mount Olive workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 638 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.
8% of working residents work in Litchfield
Where Mount Olive clocks in
8% 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.
The kinds of work in Mount Olive
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Mount Olive, 2013 → 2023: 286 → 288. 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 Olive’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Mount Olive’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.
Most of Mount Olive commutes by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Mount Olive is more walkable than 13% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: hardly any 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 664 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). 11.4% of Mount Olive households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Mount Olive’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Mount Olive ranks: 4,029th of 5,234 U.S. towns of 1,400 to 2,600
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 31 | Prestbury IL | 2,045 | $165K | 1.9% | 0.0% | 0% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 33 | Port Barrington IL | 1,584 | $150K | 2.7% | 2.9% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,027 | West Hammond NM | 2,236 | $49K | 11.7% | 8.5% | 1% | C− |
| 4,028 | Palmview South TX | 1,819 | $29K | 42.7% | 15.0% | <1% | C− |
| 4,029 | Mount Olive IL | 1,936 | $56K | 17.8% | 7.9% | 7% | C− |
| 4,030 | St. Stephen SC | 1,623 | $65K | 16.5% | 6.1% | 3% | C− |
| 4,031 | Leonard TX | 2,212 | $55K | 18.4% | 7.3% | 7% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,234 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Olive, 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 Mount Olive: questions
What is the median household income in Mount Olive?
$55,625 (±$13,832) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Mount Olive?
17.8%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Mount Olive?
26 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Mount Olive work?
7% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Litchfield (8%, 8 mi), Springfield (8%, 50 mi), St. Louis (5%, 41 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Mount Olive walkable?
Mount Olive is more walkable than 13% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 5.9 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Mount Olive without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 11% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Mount Olive, from the people who make the trip.
More of Mount Olive
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.