Photo: David Wilson · CC BY 2.0Household incomes in Quincy are lower than in 79% of U.S. towns
Working from home is the commute for 8% of workers (Illinois 16%). Below the poverty line: 16.7% of residents, next to 11.8% for Illinois as a whole. Quincy grades C for jobs and income and A− for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Quincy, in a few figures
How the Jobs & income grade adds up in Quincy
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Quincy is better than 29% of U.S. towns, #638 of 768 in Illinois. Job access by car holds Quincy’s grade up (ahead of 56% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($56,480, U.S. $80,734).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Quincy could be anywhere from C− to C+.
Time on the road from Quincy: about 14 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 4.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Quincy workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 17,448 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.
Who leaves, who stays, who comes in
On a workday 8,632 residents head out to work, 9,654 work right here, and 12,062 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 (1.19 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.
10% of working residents work in Ellington Township
Where Quincy clocks in
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.
The kinds of work in Quincy
21,716 jobs are based in Quincy.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Quincy, 2013 → 2023: 22,878 → 21,716. 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 Quincy’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How far Quincy’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.
Quincy 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, Quincy is more walkable than 83% of U.S. towns, #227 of 768 in Illinois. Both inputs place Quincy near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 18,973 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). 10.6% of Quincy households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Quincy’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 27,000 to 53,000, Quincy ranks 983rd of 1,135 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Upper Dublin Township PA | 27,258 | $168K | 3.2% | 1.9% | 8% | A+ |
| 2 | McLean VA | 49,627 | $250K | 2.9% | 2.3% | 6% | A+ |
| 3 | Southlake TX | 31,175 | $250K | 1.5% | 2.7% | 11% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 7 | West Deerfield Township IL | 32,111 | $205K | 2.7% | 2.7% | 9% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 15 | New Lenox IL | 28,893 | $141K | 1.5% | 2.9% | 9% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 25 | Bartlett IL | 40,855 | $133K | 4.2% | 2.6% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 981 | Burton MI | 29,313 | $60K | 16.1% | 7.1% | 8% | C |
| 982 | Lewiston ME | 38,866 | $55K | 20.0% | 4.8% | 34% | C |
| 983 | Quincy IL | 38,918 | $56K | 16.7% | 4.7% | 53% | C |
| 984 | Dodge City KS | 27,653 | $69K | 14.6% | 5.6% | 51% | C |
| 985 | Cleveland TN | 51,172 | $59K | 16.7% | 6.0% | 39% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 1,135 | Bullhead City AZ | 43,987 | $51K | 18.7% | 11.5% | 26% | 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 Quincy, the top three, the last and three more from Illinois.
Work next door: 12% of Quincy’s workers
The biggest share goes to Ellington Township (10%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Quincy workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quincy | – | C | A− | 14 min | $56,480 |
| Quincy Township | under 1% | — | — | 14 min | — |
| Melrose Township | 2% | B | D | 16 min | $84,464 |
| Riverside Township | under 1% | B | C | 13 min | $80,859 |
| Ellington Township | 10% | A | D− | 15 min | $105,901 |
Same-state neighbors only. Quincy Township: not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Quincy’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 Quincy: questions
What is the median household income in Quincy?
$56,480 (±$4,119) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Quincy?
16.7%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Quincy?
14 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Quincy work?
53% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Ellington Township (10%, 5 mi), Springfield (3%, 92 mi), Melrose Township (2%, 4 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Quincy walkable?
Quincy is more walkable than 83% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 8.8 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Quincy without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 11% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Quincy, from the people who make the trip.
More of Quincy
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.