Photo: Nyttend · Public domainHousehold incomes in Oblong are lower than in 77% of U.S. towns
Home is the office for <1% of workers, against 16% across Illinois. Below the poverty line: 13.9% of residents, next to 11.8% for Illinois as a whole. Jobs and income earn Oblong D; getting around on foot earns it B.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Oblong, in a few figures
31% of Oblong works in Robinson
198 working residents, 31%, have their main job in Robinson, 9.5 miles away. That’s twice as many as work in Oblong itself. The commute map ↓
Commutes from Oblong 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 ↓
Few Oblong workers work from home
Only 0% 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 636 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Breaking down the Jobs & income grade for Oblong
On income, poverty and job access, Oblong is better than 13% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Oblong’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 13% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (3.3%) is left out: Oblong’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, Oblong could be anywhere from D to C.
31% of working residents work in Robinson
Where Oblong clocks in
31% of workers
7% of workers
2% 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.
About 17 minutes to work from Oblong
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Oblong workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 737 commuters (the <1% 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.
The daily flow of workers through Oblong
On a workday 553 residents head out to work, 83 work right here, and 359 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,200 people are in Oblong on a workday afternoon, 14% fewer than live here.
0.69 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.
The kinds of work in Oblong
442 jobs are based in Oblong.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Oblong, 2013 → 2023: 310 → 442. 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 Oblong’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How far Oblong goes to work
About 20% 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.
In Oblong, the car does most of the work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Oblong is more walkable than 62% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 5.2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 10.8% across Illinois, on an EPA index of 6.3.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 740 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). 3.5% of Oblong households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Oblong’s commuters take a bus or train.
Oblong is 4,231st of 5,400 U.S. towns of 900 to 1,800 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 28 | Tower Lakes IL | 1,201 | $154K | 2.0% | 2.8% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 31 | Third Lake IL | 1,103 | $150K | 2.0% | 2.3% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 36 | Lily Lake IL | 1,073 | $140K | 0.2% | 8.9% | 0% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,229 | Rocky Point NC | 1,020 | $70K | 19.8% | 0.0% | 1% | D |
| 4,230 | Tornillo TX | 1,341 | $50K | 32.2% | 6.6% | 6% | D |
| 4,231 | Oblong IL | 1,352 | $58K | 13.9% | 3.3% | 13% | D |
| 4,232 | Van Buren Township IN | 1,779 | $55K | 23.9% | 11.2% | 3% | D |
| 4,233 | Burdell Township MI | 1,446 | $71K | 19.7% | 4.0% | 1% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,400 | 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 Oblong, 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 Oblong: questions
What is the median household income in Oblong?
$57,917 (±$5,047) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Oblong?
13.9%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Oblong?
17 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. <1% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Oblong work?
13% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Robinson (31%, 10 mi), Robinson Township (7%, 9 mi), Oblong Township (2%, 2 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Oblong walkable?
Oblong is more walkable than 62% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 6.3 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Oblong without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Oblong, from the people who make the trip.
More of Oblong
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.