Photo: Brian Stansberry · CC BY 4.0Royalton has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.2 for each
81 jobs are based in Royalton for 416 working residents. The two grades for Royalton are C for jobs and income and D− for walkability. Household incomes here are lower than in 75% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Royalton in brief
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Royalton
On income, poverty and job access, Royalton is better than 29% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Royalton’s grade up (11.0%, U.S. 12.5%); household income pulls it down ($59,219, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (0.2%) is left out: Royalton’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Royalton could be anywhere from C− to B−.
The daily commute in and out of Royalton
On a workday 405 residents head out to work, 11 work right here, and 70 people come in from elsewhere.
About 700 people are in Royalton on a workday afternoon, 32% 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.
17% of working residents work in Marion
Where Royalton clocks in
17% of workers
7% of workers
6% 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.
Jobs in Royalton: what the 81 are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Royalton, 2013 → 2023: 204 → 81. 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 Royalton’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Time on the road from Royalton: about 30 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Royalton workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 406 commuters (the 20% 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.
The distance from Royalton to work
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.
In Royalton, the car does most of the work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Royalton is more walkable than 4% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Royalton 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 510 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). 5.3% of Royalton households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Royalton’s commuters take a bus or train.
1,756th of 3,133: where Royalton ranks among U.S. towns of 700 to 1,400
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 19 | Tower Lakes IL | 1,201 | $154K | 2.0% | 2.8% | <1% | A+ |
| 20 | Third Lake IL | 1,103 | $150K | 2.0% | 2.3% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 24 | Lily Lake IL | 1,073 | $140K | 0.2% | 8.9% | 0% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,754 | Jefferson WI | 1,152 | $70K | 14.5% | 2.0% | 2% | C |
| 1,755 | Genesee ID | 1,094 | $86K | 12.0% | 4.1% | 3% | C |
| 1,756 | Royalton IL | 1,031 | $59K | 11.0% | 0.2% | 3% | C |
| 1,757 | Scipio Township OH | 1,178 | $76K | 9.4% | 2.3% | <1% | C |
| 1,758 | Kaumakani HI | 1,012 | $96K | 14.9% | 2.8% | 1% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 3,133 | 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 Royalton, 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 Royalton: questions
What is the median household income in Royalton?
$59,219 (±$11,545) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Royalton?
11.0%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Royalton?
30 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 20% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Royalton work?
3% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Marion (17%, 14 mi), Mount Vernon (7%, 32 mi), Carbondale (6%, 12 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Royalton walkable?
Royalton is more walkable than 4% of U.S. towns (Walkability D−): an EPA walkability index of 3.2 out of 20, and <1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Royalton without a car?
0% 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 Royalton, from the people who make the trip.
More of Royalton
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.