Photo: Adam Moss from Macomb, IL, United States · CC BY-SA 2.0Mount Sterling draws 3,818 commuters a day, with 5.2 jobs for every working resident
Jobs and income earn Mount Sterling C; getting around on foot earns it A. Mount Sterling has 4,089 jobs, against 786 working residents. Measured by household income, Mount Sterling is behind 75% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Mount Sterling apart on work
Mount Sterling fills up on a workday
Mount Sterling has 4,089 jobs, 5.2 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 5,500 people are in town, more than double the 2,200 who live here. Day and night ↓
Stores, warehouses and trucking
88% of the jobs in Mount Sterling are in trade, transport and utilities, against 40% of the jobs its residents hold. The jobs ↓
Jobs in Mount Sterling have more than doubled in ten years
Jobs based in Mount Sterling went from 1,174 in 2013 to 4,089 in 2023, +248%. The jobs ↓
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 786 working residents, small shifts move the shares; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
Inside Mount Sterling’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Mount Sterling is better than 33% of U.S. towns. Unemployment holds Mount Sterling’s grade up (3.1%, U.S. 5.2%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 24% of U.S. towns).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Mount Sterling could be anywhere from D to B.
Who leaves Mount Sterling for work, and who comes in
On a workday 515 residents head out to work and 271 work right here.
About 5,500 people are in Mount Sterling on a workday afternoon, 153% more 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.
76% of the jobs in Mount Sterling pay over $3,333 a month
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Mount Sterling, 2013 → 2023: 1,174 → 4,089. 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 Sterling’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Commuting in to Mount Sterling: where workers come from
Where Mount Sterling clocks in
8% of workers
4% 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.
A commute of about 14 minutes in Mount Sterling
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 4.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Mount Sterling workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 895 commuters (the 9% 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.
Half of Mount Sterling commutes less than 20 miles
About 32% 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.
Walkable streets, thin transit: Mount Sterling
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Mount Sterling is more walkable than 89% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Mount Sterling 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 983 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). 14.6% of Mount Sterling households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Mount Sterling’s commuters take a bus or train.
Mount Sterling next to U.S. towns of 1,500 to 2,900: 3,207th of 5,404 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 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 30 | Prestbury IL | 2,045 | $165K | 1.9% | 0.0% | 0% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 32 | Port Barrington IL | 1,584 | $150K | 2.7% | 2.9% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,205 | Lick Township OH | 2,652 | $46K | 18.4% | 0.0% | 5% | C |
| 3,206 | Gumlog GA | 2,382 | $69K | 11.4% | 3.6% | 3% | C |
| 3,207 | Mount Sterling IL | 2,155 | $59K | 12.3% | 3.1% | 34% | C |
| 3,208 | Lisbon OH | 2,496 | $47K | 25.9% | 2.3% | 13% | C |
| 3,209 | Lyme NY | 2,199 | $81K | 11.3% | 4.2% | 16% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 5,404 | 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 Sterling, 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 Sterling: questions
What is the median household income in Mount Sterling?
$59,087 (±$10,651) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Mount Sterling?
12.3%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Mount Sterling?
14 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 9% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Mount Sterling work?
34% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Quincy (8%, 33 mi), Mount Sterling Township (4%, 2 mi), Springfield (4%, 61 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Mount Sterling walkable?
Mount Sterling is more walkable than 89% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 8.9 out of 20, and 8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Mount Sterling without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 15% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Mount Sterling, from the people who make the trip.
More of Mount Sterling
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.