Somonauk has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.5 for each
421 jobs are based in Somonauk; 790 of its residents have a job. For jobs and income Somonauk is better than 74% of U.S. towns (B+); for walkability it is more walkable than 72% of U.S. towns (B+). Home is the office for 7% of workers; Illinois has 16%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Somonauk apart on work
What’s behind Somonauk’s Jobs & income grade
The poverty rate holds Somonauk’s grade up (3.9%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 48% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income.
Unemployment (5.2%) is left out: Somonauk’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, Somonauk could be anywhere from B− to A.
The kinds of work in Somonauk
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Somonauk, 2013 → 2023: 586 → 421. 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 Somonauk’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Somonauk on a workday afternoon
On a workday 759 residents head out to work, 31 work right here, and 390 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,400 people are in Somonauk 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.
8% of working residents work in Sandwich
Where Somonauk clocks in
8% of workers
6% 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.
Time on the road from Somonauk: about 28 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Somonauk workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 638 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.
The commute from Somonauk, by distance
About 18% 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.
Driving is how Somonauk gets around
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 685 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). 8.0% of Somonauk households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Somonauk’s commuters take a bus or train.
1,007th of 6,085: where Somonauk ranks among U.S. towns of 1,200 to 2,400
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Hewlett Harbor NY | 1,332 | $250K | 1.9% | 7.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 25 | Tower Lakes IL | 1,201 | $154K | 2.0% | 2.8% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 35 | Bannockburn IL | 1,308 | $214K | 5.1% | 1.8% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 40 | Prestbury IL | 2,045 | $165K | 1.9% | 0.0% | 0% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,005 | Manasota Key FL | 1,711 | $142K | 2.4% | 3.9% | 5% | B+ |
| 1,006 | Guilford Lake OH | 1,307 | $93K | 5.7% | 2.8% | 1% | B+ |
| 1,007 | Somonauk IL | 1,770 | $85K | 3.9% | 5.2% | 4% | B+ |
| 1,008 | Dike IA | 1,299 | $91K | 5.4% | 1.5% | 5% | B+ |
| 1,009 | Eel River Township IN | 1,762 | $86K | 4.7% | 0.8% | 3% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 6,085 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 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 Somonauk, the top three, the last and three more from Illinois.
Somonauk and the towns next door
The biggest share goes to Sandwich (8%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Somonauk workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Somonauk | – | B+ | B+ | 28 min | $84,583 |
| Lake Holiday | under 2% | A− | D | 45 min | $107,875 |
| Sandwich | 8% | B | B+ | 27 min | $80,768 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Somonauk’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 Somonauk: questions
What is the median household income in Somonauk?
$84,583 (±$19,599) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Somonauk?
3.9%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Somonauk?
28 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Somonauk work?
4% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Sandwich (8%, 4 mi), Aurora (6%, 22 mi), Chicago (4%, 54 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Somonauk walkable?
Somonauk is more walkable than 72% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 8.3 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Somonauk without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Somonauk, from the people who make the trip.
More of Somonauk
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.