Photo: User:Visviva · CC BY-SA 4.0More than half of Southern View’s working residents commute to Springfield
8% of workers have no commute at all; Illinois has 16%. For jobs and income Southern View is better than 36% of U.S. towns (C+); for walkability it is more walkable than 96% of U.S. towns (A+). Measured by household income, Southern View is behind 78% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jobs and commuting in Southern View: the gist
More than half of Southern View works in Springfield
401 working residents, 59%, have their main job in Springfield, 2.5 miles away. That’s 59 times as many as work in Southern View itself. The commute map ↓
Most Southern View residents work close to home
70% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home. How far ↓
Fewer jobs are based in Southern View than ten years ago
Jobs counted in Southern View fell from 838 in 2013 to 399 in 2023, −52%. That can be real closings or a large employer now reporting its workers at another address; the data can’t tell the two apart. 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; with 677 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Southern View’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
Job access by car holds Southern View’s grade up (ahead of 72% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($57,270, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (8.0%) is left out: Southern View’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, Southern View could be anywhere from C− to B+.
Where Southern View’s working residents head each day
Where Southern View clocks in
59% 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 Southern View
About 21% 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.
What Southern View’s employers do
399 jobs are based in Southern View.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Southern View, 2013 → 2023: 838 → 399. 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 Southern View’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who commutes out of Southern View, and who commutes in
On a workday 673 residents head out to work, 4 work right here, and 395 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,300 people are in Southern View on a workday afternoon, 18% fewer than live here.
0.59 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
About 15 minutes each way for Southern View’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 4.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Southern View workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 838 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.
Good to walk, short on transit: Southern View
The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 6.8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 10.8% across Illinois.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 910 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). Nearly all residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 100% 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). 5.2% of Southern View households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Southern View’s commuters take a bus or train.
Southern View next to U.S. towns of 1,100 to 2,100: 2,942nd of 5,794 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 26 | Tower Lakes IL | 1,201 | $154K | 2.0% | 2.8% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 29 | Third Lake IL | 1,103 | $150K | 2.0% | 2.3% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 39 | Bannockburn IL | 1,308 | $214K | 5.1% | 1.8% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,940 | Jefferson Township PA | 1,853 | $68K | 13.0% | 4.3% | 2% | C+ |
| 2,941 | East Union Township PA | 1,734 | $81K | 17.3% | 7.1% | 5% | C+ |
| 2,942 | Southern View IL | 1,540 | $57K | 14.9% | 8.0% | 1% | C+ |
| 2,943 | Mantachie MS | 1,143 | $66K | 13.0% | 4.1% | 7% | C+ |
| 2,944 | Clatskanie OR | 1,779 | $91K | 11.1% | 5.6% | 10% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,794 | 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 Southern View, the top three, the last and three more from Illinois.
How Southern View compares with the towns next door
The biggest share goes to Woodside Township (2%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Southern View workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southern View | – | C+ | A+ | 15 min | $57,270 |
| Woodside Township | 2% | B | A | 18 min | $73,007 |
| Capital Township | under 1% | C | A | 17 min | $65,902 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Southern View’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 Southern View: questions
What is the median household income in Southern View?
$57,270 (±$5,369) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Southern View?
14.9%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Southern View?
15 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Southern View work?
1% work in town.
Is Southern View walkable?
Southern View is more walkable than 96% of U.S. towns (Walkability A+): an EPA walkability index of 15.5 out of 20, and 7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Southern View without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 5% of households have no car. 100% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Southern View, from the people who make the trip.
More of Southern View
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.