Photo: Pdubs.94 · CC BY 4.0Rock Falls has 0.5 jobs for every working resident, so most commute out
Measured by household income, Rock Falls is behind 88% of U.S. towns. Rock Falls has 1,947 jobs; 3,625 of its residents have a job. For jobs and income Rock Falls is better than 11% of U.S. towns (D); for walkability it is more walkable than 82% of U.S. towns (A−).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Rock Falls, in brief
Commutes from Rock Falls are quick
The average trip to work takes 16 minutes, against 28 across Illinois. That’s about 92 hours a year less on the road than the typical Illinois worker. Time on the road ↓
A lot of Rock Falls works one town over
34% of working residents work in a town that borders Rock Falls: Sterling (24%), Sterling Township (9%) and Coloma Township (1%). Next door ↓
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.
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Rock Falls
Job access by car holds Rock Falls’ grade up (ahead of 44% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (25.6%, U.S. 12.5%).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Rock Falls could be anywhere from D to C.
The daily trip from Rock Falls: about 16 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Rock Falls workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,431 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.
Who leaves Rock Falls for work, and who comes in
On a workday 3,259 residents head out to work, 366 work right here, and 1,581 people come in from elsewhere.
About 6,800 people are in Rock Falls on a workday afternoon, 20% 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.
24% of working residents work in Sterling
Where Rock Falls clocks in
24% of workers
9% of workers
7% 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.
What Rock Falls’ employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Rock Falls, 2013 → 2023: 2,058 → 1,947. 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 Rock Falls’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The commute from Rock Falls, by distance
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.
Rock Falls is more walkable than most U.S. towns, with limited transit
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 3,680 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). 11.7% of Rock Falls households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Rock Falls’ commuters take a bus or train.
U.S. towns of 6,000 to 11,500, and where Rock Falls sits
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 11 | Long Grove IL | 8,343 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 25 | Riverside IL | 8,939 | $154K | 3.3% | 1.9% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 62 | Itasca IL | 9,488 | $114K | 2.0% | 2.6% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,712 | Rupert ID | 6,460 | $55K | 19.4% | 5.7% | 17% | D |
| 2,713 | Newport OR | 10,383 | $61K | 16.2% | 7.3% | 43% | D |
| 2,714 | Rock Falls IL | 8,521 | $50K | 25.6% | 6.6% | 10% | D |
| 2,715 | Mount Carmel IL | 6,723 | $47K | 20.3% | 4.5% | 33% | D |
| 2,716 | Corbin KY | 7,911 | $51K | 26.0% | 7.2% | 26% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 2,922 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 14% | 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 Rock Falls, the top three, the last and three more from Illinois.
Next door is work for 34% of Rock Falls
The biggest share goes to Sterling (24%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Rock Falls workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rock Falls | – | D | A− | 16 min | $49,600 |
| Coloma Township | 1% | D | A− | 17 min | $52,152 |
| Sterling | 24% | C | A− | 18 min | $57,350 |
| Sterling Township | 9% | — | — | 18 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Sterling Township: not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Rock Falls’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 Rock Falls: questions
What is the median household income in Rock Falls?
$49,600 (±$3,360) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Rock Falls?
25.6%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Rock Falls?
16 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Rock Falls work?
10% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Sterling (24%, 2 mi), Sterling Township (9%, 3 mi), Dixon (7%, 12 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Rock Falls walkable?
Rock Falls is more walkable than 82% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 8.4 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Rock Falls without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 12% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Rock Falls, from the people who make the trip.
More of Rock Falls
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.