Photo: artistmac · CC BY-SA 2.032% of Normal’s residents are college students
Jobs & income B+: better than 74% of U.S. towns on family income, poverty and job access · #298 of 768 in Illinois.
Walkability A+: more walkable than 95% of U.S. towns · #69 of 768 in Illinois.
Family incomes here are higher than in 75% of U.S. towns. Working residents average 17 minutes each way (Illinois 28, U.S. 26). About one in four work in Normal; the top destination outside it is Bloomington (35%, 3 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Normal
Normal and Bloomington trade workers both ways
Bloomington is the top workplace for Normal residents (35%) and also where the most people who work in Normal come from (28% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Commutes from Normal are quick
The average trip to work takes 17 minutes, against 28 across Illinois. That’s about 84 hours a year less on the road than the typical Illinois worker. Time on the road ↓
Most Normal residents work close to home
62% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home. How far ↓
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.
What’s behind Normal’s Jobs & income grade
On family income, poverty and job access, Normal is better than 74% of U.S. towns, #298 of 768 in Illinois. Family income is its strongest input ($115,492, U.S. $99,999); the poverty rate ranks lowest, though still above most U.S. towns (9.7%, U.S. 11.9%). It also does well on the poverty rate and job access by car.
32% of Normal’s residents are college students, and off-campus students count in the Census poverty figures. Where students are 15% or more of the people the Census checks for poverty (24% here), the grade uses the rate without them: 9.7%, against 21.4% for all residents. Unemployment (3.9%) is left out here: students looking for part-time work count as unemployed. Income is ranked as median family income ($115,492), since student households pull the household median down ($64,785).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for family income and poverty, Normal could be anywhere from B to A.
35% of working residents work in Bloomington
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
Where Normal clocks in
35% of workers
3% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
About 17 minutes each way, quicker than most of Illinois
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Normal workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 23,064 commuters (the 13% who work from home are left out). Across Illinois: 78% drive alone, 7% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
Half of Normal commutes less than 4 miles
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
About 23% 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.
Normal fills up on a workday
On a workday 15,187 residents head out to work, 5,201 work right here, and 21,644 people come in from elsewhere.
About 60,000 people are in Normal on a workday afternoon, 12% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.32 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.
Normal makes things: 28% of its jobs are in goods
26,845 jobs are based in Normal. Here is what they are, next to the jobs Normal’s own residents hold wherever they work.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Normal, 2013 → 2023: 21,451 → 26,845. 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.
Normal is more walkable than 95% of U.S. towns
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Normal is more walkable than 95% of U.S. towns, #69 of 768 in Illinois. Both inputs place Normal 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 26,626 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 83% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 39% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 12.4 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 95% 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). 6.0% of Normal households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 2% of Normal’s commuters take a bus or train.
Normal is 350th of 850 U.S. towns of 37,000 to 72,000 on jobs and income
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Normal, the top three, the last and three more from Illinois.
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | McLean VA | 49,627 | $250K | 2.9% | 2.3% | 6% | A+ |
| 2 | Fulshear TX | 64,630 | $187K | 1.6% | 2.8% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Liberty Township OH | 40,625 | $187K | 1.6% | 2.5% | 8% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 11 | Bartlett IL | 40,855 | $133K | 4.2% | 2.6% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 15 | New Lenox Township IL | 45,290 | $133K | 3.9% | 2.7% | 11% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 17 | Oswego IL | 39,948 | $124K | 2.6% | 2.6% | 8% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 348 | Santa Cruz CA | 61,797 | $115K | 17.0% | 7.2% | 29% | B+ |
| 349 | Coon Rapids MN | 64,193 | $88K | 8.2% | 4.5% | 11% | B+ |
| 350 | Normal IL | 53,275 | $65K | 21.4% | 3.9% | 26% | B+ |
| 351 | Methuen MA | 54,584 | $113K | 7.9% | 5.8% | 11% | B+ |
| 352 | South Whittier CA | 55,650 | $101K | 10.6% | 4.7% | 2% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 850 | Bullhead City AZ | 43,987 | $51K | 18.7% | 11.5% | 26% | 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.
35% of Normal works in a bordering town
The biggest share goes to Bloomington (35%). Darker towns draw more of Normal’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Normal workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Normal | – | B+ | A+ | 17 min | $64,785 |
| Bloomington | 35% | B+ | A | 17 min | $77,384 |
| Bloomington City Township | under 1% | B+ | A | 17 min | $77,384 |
| Normal Township | under 1% | — | — | 16 min | — |
| Towanda Township | under 1% | A | C− | 18 min | $118,875 |
Same-state neighbors only. Normal Township: not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
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.
- Students. 32% of residents are college students; the poverty input leaves off-campus students out (above).
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Normal: questions
What is the median household income in Normal?
$64,785 (±$7,661) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Normal?
21.4% of residents live below the poverty line; leaving out college students, 9.7%. Illinois: 11.8%.
How long is the commute from Normal?
17 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 13% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Normal work?
26% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Bloomington (35%, 3 mi), Peoria (4%, 36 mi), Chicago (3%, 114 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Normal walkable?
Normal is more walkable than 95% of U.S. towns (Walkability A+): an EPA walkability index of 11.6 out of 20, and 11% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Normal without a car?
2% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. 39% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Normal, from the people who make the trip.
More of Normal
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.