Photo: Dual Freq · CC BY 2.5Unemployment in Paxton (1.6%) is lower than in 89% of U.S. towns
Commuters spend 26 minutes getting to work on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. For jobs and income Paxton is better than 55% of U.S. towns (B); for walkability it is more walkable than 71% of U.S. towns (B+). About one in five work in Paxton itself; outside it, Champaign draws the most (12%, 25 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Paxton apart on work
What’s behind Paxton’s Jobs & income grade
Unemployment holds Paxton’s grade up; household income pulls it down ($62,386, U.S. $80,734). It also does well on the poverty rate.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Paxton could be anywhere from C to B+.
How far Paxton’s workers travel
About 25% 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.
Paxton on a workday afternoon
On a workday 1,604 residents head out to work, 430 work right here, and 1,239 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (0.82 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.
The places Paxton commutes to
Where Paxton clocks in
12% of workers
7% 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.
What the 1,669 jobs in Paxton are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Paxton, 2013 → 2023: 1,328 → 1,669. 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 Paxton’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The daily trip from Paxton: about 26 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Paxton workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,743 commuters (the 12% 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.
For most of Paxton, work means a drive
The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 2.6% of 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 1,992 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). 6.7% of Paxton households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Paxton’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 4,039 U.S. towns of 3,000 to 5,800, Paxton comes 1,894th on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Mission Hills KS | 3,522 | $250K | 1.2% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Ho-Ho-Kus NJ | 4,313 | $250K | 0.0% | 1.7% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 14 | South Barrington IL | 5,071 | $222K | 1.0% | 2.0% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 25 | Deer Park IL | 3,647 | $174K | 1.3% | 2.3% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,892 | South Point OH | 3,640 | $80K | 13.2% | 0.8% | 7% | B |
| 1,893 | Conklin NY | 4,823 | $66K | 10.1% | 2.8% | 13% | B |
| 1,894 | Paxton IL | 4,323 | $62K | 8.6% | 1.6% | 21% | B |
| 1,895 | China Township MI | 3,530 | $99K | 3.7% | 10.7% | 5% | B |
| 1,896 | Littlefield Township MI | 3,192 | $85K | 8.0% | 2.8% | 4% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 4,039 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 18% | 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 Paxton, 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 Paxton: questions
What is the median household income in Paxton?
$62,386 (±$8,191) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Paxton?
8.6%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Paxton?
26 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 12% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Paxton work?
21% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Champaign (12%, 25 mi), Rantoul (7%, 11 mi), Urbana (7%, 24 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Paxton walkable?
Paxton is more walkable than 71% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 8.7 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Paxton without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 7% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Paxton, from the people who make the trip.
More of Paxton
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.