St. Louis, Peoria and Northern Railroad Depot · Photo: Ammodramus · CC0At 6.1%, unemployment in Pekin is higher than in 75% of U.S. towns
For a town this walkable, transit is thin: about 0.9 trips an hour at the evening peak near the typical resident, next to 5.0 in Peoria. The two grades for Pekin are C+ for jobs and income and A− for walkability. Home is the office for 7% of workers, against 16% across Illinois.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jobs and commuting in Pekin: the gist
What’s behind Pekin’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Pekin is better than 35% of U.S. towns, #598 of 768 in Illinois. Job access by car holds Pekin’s grade up (ahead of 71% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Pekin could be anywhere from C to B−.
Getting to work from Pekin takes about 22 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Pekin workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 13,332 commuters (the 7% 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.
Pekin quiets down on a workday
On a workday 10,742 residents head out to work, 2,691 work right here, and 6,903 people come in from elsewhere.
About 27,000 people are in Pekin on a workday afternoon, 12% fewer than live here.
0.71 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.
22% of working residents work in Peoria
Where Pekin clocks in
Lines 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.
Inside Pekin’s 9,594 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Pekin, 2013 → 2023: 11,334 → 9,594. 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 Pekin’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How far it is to work from Pekin
About 22% 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: Pekin
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Pekin is more walkable than 76% of U.S. towns, #312 of 768 in Illinois. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 2.3% 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 14,390 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 79% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 34% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 0.9 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 57% 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). 9.9% of Pekin households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Pekin’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 1,334 U.S. towns of 22,000 to 42,000, Pekin comes 1,091st on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | West Springfield VA | 22,532 | $163K | 1.9% | 1.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Upper Dublin Township PA | 27,258 | $168K | 3.2% | 1.9% | 8% | A+ |
| 3 | Southlake TX | 31,175 | $250K | 1.5% | 2.7% | 11% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 8 | West Deerfield Township IL | 32,111 | $205K | 2.7% | 2.7% | 9% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 19 | New Lenox IL | 28,893 | $141K | 1.5% | 2.9% | 9% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 32 | Bartlett IL | 40,855 | $133K | 4.2% | 2.6% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,089 | Sun Valley NV | 22,228 | $77K | 16.8% | 6.7% | 2% | C+ |
| 1,090 | Sanger CA | 27,228 | $78K | 15.8% | 9.1% | 15% | C+ |
| 1,091 | Pekin IL | 31,277 | $61K | 12.8% | 6.1% | 20% | C+ |
| 1,092 | Tupelo MS | 38,087 | $66K | 15.1% | 5.2% | 53% | C+ |
| 1,093 | East Lake-Orient Park FL | 29,213 | $57K | 17.8% | 6.0% | 11% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 1,334 | Barstow CA | 24,804 | $53K | 23.1% | 11.9% | 17% | 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 Pekin, the top three, the last and three more from Illinois.
How Pekin compares with the towns next door
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Pekin workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pekin | – | C+ | A− | 22 min | $60,790 |
| North Pekin | under 2% | B+ | B− | 19 min | $80,224 |
| Pekin Township | under 2% | — | — | 21 min | — |
| Hollis Township | under 2% | A− | D | 27 min | $87,069 |
| Marquette Heights | under 2% | A | D | 18 min | $75,625 |
| Elm Grove Township | under 2% | A− | B+ | 26 min | $103,973 |
| Cincinnati Township | under 2% | B | C | 24 min | $83,712 |
| Groveland Township | under 2% | B | C | 20 min | $65,830 |
Same-state neighbors only. Pekin Township: not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Pekin’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 Pekin: questions
What is the median household income in Pekin?
$60,790 (±$3,003) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Pekin?
12.8%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Pekin?
22 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Pekin work?
20% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Peoria (22%, 13 mi), Morton (6%, 9 mi), East Peoria (6%, 8 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Pekin walkable?
Pekin is more walkable than 76% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 11.9 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Pekin without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 10% of households have no car. 34% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Pekin, from the people who make the trip.
More of Pekin
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.