New Athens has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.3 for each
Employers in New Athens report 243 jobs, and 891 of its residents work somewhere. Jobs and income earn New Athens C+; getting around on foot earns it B. 3% of workers have no commute at all (Illinois 16%).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in New Athens
Fewer jobs are based in New Athens than ten years ago
Jobs counted in New Athens fell from 506 in 2013 to 243 in 2023, −52%. That can be real closings or a large employer now reporting its workers at another address; the data can’t tell the two apart. The jobs ↓
New Athens is a place people come home to
There are 243 jobs based in New Athens, about three for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday New Athens has about 1,200 people in it, 35% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
Few New Athens workers work from home
Only 3% 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 891 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What’s behind New Athens’ Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, New Athens is better than 38% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds New Athens’ grade up (ahead of 61% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($56,553, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (2.6%) is left out: New Athens’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, New Athens could be anywhere from C− to B.
What New Athens’ employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in New Athens, 2013 → 2023: 506 → 243. 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 New Athens’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The workday shuffle in and out of New Athens
On a workday 853 residents head out to work, 38 work right here, and 205 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,200 people are in New Athens on a workday afternoon, 35% 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.
The daily trip from New Athens: about 32 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 10.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of New Athens workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 779 commuters (the 3% 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.
13% of working residents work in Belleville
Where New Athens clocks in
13% of workers
9% 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.
Short hops and long hauls from New Athens
About 15% 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.
Driving is how New Athens gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, New Athens is more walkable than 63% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place New Athens 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 806 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 3.8% of New Athens households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of New Athens’ commuters take a bus or train.
How New Athens ranks: 2,952nd of 5,656 U.S. towns of 1,300 to 2,500
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 33 | Bannockburn IL | 1,308 | $214K | 5.1% | 1.8% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 38 | Prestbury IL | 2,045 | $165K | 1.9% | 0.0% | 0% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,950 | Almond NY | 1,506 | $85K | 10.4% | 2.3% | 1% | C+ |
| 2,951 | Tully Township OH | 2,005 | $74K | 13.0% | 2.1% | 3% | C+ |
| 2,952 | New Athens IL | 1,854 | $57K | 11.5% | 2.6% | 4% | C+ |
| 2,953 | Walls MS | 1,420 | $59K | 16.2% | 1.0% | <1% | C+ |
| 2,954 | Columbus Grove OH | 2,132 | $69K | 10.7% | 3.2% | 10% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,656 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 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 New Athens, the top three, the last and three more from Illinois.
How New Athens compares with the towns next door
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | New Athens workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Athens | – | C+ | B | 32 min | $56,553 |
| New Athens Township | under 2% | B− | B+ | 29 min | $51,786 |
| Lenzburg Township | under 2% | — | — | 30 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Lenzburg Township: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of New Athens’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 New Athens: questions
What is the median household income in New Athens?
$56,553 (±$9,607) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in New Athens?
11.5%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from New Athens?
32 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in New Athens work?
4% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Belleville (13%, 15 mi), St. Louis (9%, 30 mi), Freeburg (6%, 9 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is New Athens walkable?
New Athens is more walkable than 63% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 7.9 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around New Athens without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from New Athens, from the people who make the trip.
More of New Athens
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.