Photo: Andy McMurray · CC BY 2.5Polo has 0.5 jobs for every working resident, so most commute out
For 8% of workers, the job is at home; Illinois has 16%. Polo has 511 jobs; 985 of its residents have a job. About one in ten stay in Polo for work; outside it, Dixon is the main destination (15%, 11 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
How the Jobs & income grade adds up in Polo
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Polo is better than 31% of U.S. towns. Unemployment holds Polo’s grade up (3.0%, U.S. 5.2%); the poverty rate pulls it down (20.5%, U.S. 12.5%).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Polo could be anywhere from D to B+.
Who commutes out of Polo, and who commutes in
On a workday 885 residents head out to work, 100 work right here, and 411 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,800 people are in Polo on a workday afternoon, 21% 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.
Out of Polo to work: where people go
Where Polo clocks in
15% of workers
8% of workers
5% 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.
Goods jobs make up 31% of work in Polo
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Polo, 2013 → 2023: 496 → 511. 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 Polo’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Getting to work from Polo takes 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 Polo workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,023 commuters (the 8% 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.
Miles to work from Polo
About 26% 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.
Polo is more walkable than most U.S. towns, with limited transit
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Polo is more walkable than 78% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 5.9% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 10.8% across Illinois, on an EPA index of 7.7.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,112 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). 4.9% of Polo households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Polo’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Polo is 3,208th among 5,102 U.S. towns of 1,600 to 3,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 28 | Prestbury IL | 2,045 | $165K | 1.9% | 0.0% | 0% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 57 | Wayne IL | 2,278 | $162K | 2.1% | 2.7% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,206 | Follansbee WV | 2,668 | $58K | 8.1% | 5.9% | 6% | C |
| 3,207 | Cedar Township IL | 2,942 | $67K | 5.6% | 9.2% | 7% | C |
| 3,208 | Polo IL | 2,235 | $63K | 20.5% | 3.0% | 10% | C |
| 3,209 | Columbus Junction IA | 1,772 | $64K | 10.3% | 3.6% | 7% | C |
| 3,210 | Cooperstown NY | 1,840 | $76K | 11.6% | 5.8% | 35% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 5,102 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Polo, 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 Polo: questions
What is the median household income in Polo?
$63,080 (±$18,019) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Polo?
20.5%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Polo?
26 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Polo work?
10% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Dixon (15%, 11 mi), Sterling (8%, 14 mi), Chicago (5%, 98 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Polo walkable?
Polo is more walkable than 78% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 7.7 out of 20, and 6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Polo without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 5% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Polo, from the people who make the trip.
More of Polo
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.