Most of Philo commutes out: there are 0.4 jobs for every working resident
Household incomes here are higher than in 81% of U.S. towns. Philo has 206 jobs, against 588 working residents. Jobs and income earn Philo B+; getting around on foot earns it B−.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Philo and work: the main findings
Inside Philo’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Philo is better than 66% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Philo’s grade up ($105,625, U.S. $80,734); the poverty rate pulls it down (10.3%, U.S. 12.5%). It also does well on job access by car.
Unemployment (0.9%) is left out: Philo’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Philo could be anywhere from C+ to A.
33% of working residents work in Champaign
Where Philo clocks in
33% of workers
19% of workers
3% 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.
Who leaves Philo for work, and who comes in
On a workday 578 residents head out to work, 10 work right here, and 196 people come in from elsewhere.
About 970 people are in Philo on a workday afternoon, 28% 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.
What Philo’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Philo, 2013 → 2023: 168 → 206. 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 Philo’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The trip to work from Philo: about 24 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Philo workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 623 commuters (the 6% 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.
How far Philo goes to work
About 21% 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.
For most of Philo, work means a drive
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Philo is more walkable than 48% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.5% 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 662 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). 0.0% of Philo households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Philo’s commuters take a bus or train.
Philo places 1,112th of 5,400 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 900 to 1,800
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,110 | Moretown VT | 1,757 | $104K | 3.1% | 1.8% | 4% | B+ |
| 1,111 | Brigham WI | 1,061 | $114K | 10.2% | 1.0% | <1% | B+ |
| 1,112 | Philo IL | 1,352 | $106K | 10.3% | 0.9% | 2% | B+ |
| 1,113 | Stedman NC | 1,312 | $107K | 7.5% | 1.7% | 4% | B+ |
| 1,114 | Pine Knoll Shores NC | 1,423 | $109K | 3.5% | 3.8% | 5% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 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 Philo, 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 Philo: questions
What is the median household income in Philo?
$105,625 (±$20,790) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Philo?
10.3%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Philo?
24 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Philo work?
2% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Champaign (33%, 10 mi), Urbana (19%, 8 mi), Tolono Township (3%, 7 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Philo walkable?
Philo is more walkable than 48% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 8.7 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Philo without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 0% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Philo, from the people who make the trip.
More of Philo
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.