Chanute Field Historic District · Photo: United States Army Air Corps · Public domainHousehold incomes in Rantoul are lower than in 89% of U.S. towns
About one in four work in Rantoul itself; outside it, Champaign draws the most (20%, 14 miles). 16.9% of residents live below the poverty line, where Illinois as a whole has 11.8%. For jobs and income Rantoul is better than 30% of U.S. towns (C); for walkability it is more walkable than 42% of U.S. towns (C+).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Rantoul: the figures worth knowing
Rantoul trades workers with the towns around it
Rantoul has about as many jobs (3,871) as working residents (4,578), but they are mostly different people: 3,396 residents leave for work each day while 2,689 people come in. Only 31% of the jobs in Rantoul are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
Commutes from Rantoul are quick
The average trip to work takes 20 minutes, against 28 across Illinois. That’s about 61 hours a year less on the road than the typical Illinois worker. Time on the road ↓
Rantoul makes and builds things
40% of the jobs based in Rantoul are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Rantoul residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 23%. The jobs ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey.
Why Rantoul gets the Jobs & income grade it does
Unemployment holds Rantoul’s grade up (3.2%, U.S. 5.2%); household income pulls it down ($48,691, U.S. $80,734).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Rantoul could be anywhere from C− to B−.
The workday shuffle in and out of Rantoul
On a workday 3,396 residents head out to work, 1,182 work right here, and 2,689 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 (0.85 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.
Getting to work from Rantoul takes about 20 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Rantoul workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 4,384 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.
Goods, not services: 40% of the jobs in Rantoul
3,871 jobs are based in Rantoul.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Rantoul, 2013 → 2023: 4,108 → 3,871. 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 Rantoul’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Commuting out of Rantoul: the destinations
Where Rantoul clocks in
20% of workers
11% of workers
4% 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.
Near or far: the trip to work from Rantoul
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.
For most of Rantoul, work means a drive
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 4,969 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). 6.7% of Rantoul households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Rantoul’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Rantoul ranks: 2,089th of 2,695 U.S. towns of 8,000 to 16,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| 2 | Beverly Hills MI | 10,449 | $177K | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Ladue MO | 8,934 | $250K | 1.1% | 1.7% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 7 | Long Grove IL | 8,343 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 19 | Riverside IL | 8,939 | $154K | 3.3% | 1.9% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 32 | Western Springs IL | 13,588 | $230K | 1.3% | 3.1% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,087 | Madison Township OH | 11,118 | $58K | 13.9% | 5.3% | 5% | C |
| 2,088 | Exeter CA | 10,122 | $76K | 14.2% | 9.6% | 12% | C |
| 2,089 | Rantoul IL | 11,991 | $49K | 16.9% | 3.2% | 26% | C |
| 2,090 | Phillipsburg NJ | 15,456 | $68K | 20.2% | 7.3% | 11% | C |
| 2,091 | Wilmington OH | 12,802 | $57K | 17.5% | 4.2% | 29% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 2,695 | Roma TX | 11,543 | $25K | 37.1% | 12.4% | 22% | 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 Rantoul, 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 Rantoul: questions
What is the median household income in Rantoul?
$48,691 (±$5,061) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Rantoul?
16.9%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Rantoul?
20 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 12% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Rantoul work?
26% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Champaign (20%, 14 mi), Urbana (11%, 14 mi), Chicago (4%, 109 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Rantoul walkable?
Rantoul is more walkable than 42% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 6.7 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Rantoul without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 7% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Rantoul, from the people who make the trip.
More of Rantoul
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.