Sparta Township has 0.3 jobs for every working resident, so most commute out
Employers in Sparta Township report 130 jobs; 484 of its residents have a job. Sparta Township grades C+ for jobs and income and B− for walkability. Home is the office for 2% of workers, against 16% across Illinois.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Sparta Township
Sparta Township is a place people come home to
There are 130 jobs based in Sparta Township, about three for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Sparta Township has about 670 people in it, 35% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
30% of Sparta Township works in Galesburg
143 working residents, 30%, have their main job in Galesburg, 7.5 miles away. That’s 30 times as many as work in Sparta Township itself. The commute map ↓
Few Sparta Township workers work from home
Only 2% of workers work from home, against 16% across Illinois. Almost everyone here travels to a job. Time on the road ↓
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 484 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Where Sparta Township’s Jobs & income grade comes from
On income, poverty and job access, Sparta Township is better than 45% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Sparta Township’s grade up (7.2%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 32% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (1.3%) is left out: Sparta Township’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, Sparta Township could be anywhere from C− to B+.
Sparta Township by day and by night
On a workday 477 residents head out to work, 7 work right here, and 123 people come in from elsewhere.
About 670 people are in Sparta Township on a workday afternoon, 35% 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.
30% of working residents work in Galesburg
Where Sparta Township clocks in
30% of workers
2% 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.
A commute of about 22 minutes in Sparta Township
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Sparta Township workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 510 commuters (the 2% 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.
67% of the jobs in Sparta Township pay over $3,333 a month
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Sparta Township, 2013 → 2023: 114 → 130. 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 Sparta Township’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Sparta Township’s commute, mile by mile
About 27% 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.
The commute in Sparta Township is mostly behind the wheel
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Sparta Township is more walkable than 50% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 6.3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 10.8% across Illinois, on an EPA index of 4.7.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 521 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). 0.5% of Sparta Township households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Sparta Township’s commuters take a bus or train.
Sparta Township places 1,190th of 3,133 on jobs and income 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,188 | Richland WI | 1,161 | $94K | 9.9% | 2.3% | 2% | B− |
| 1,189 | Coosada AL | 1,315 | $62K | 10.0% | 1.6% | 2% | C+ |
| 1,190 | Sparta Township IL | 1,022 | $69K | 7.2% | 1.3% | 1% | C+ |
| 1,191 | Lempster NH | 1,162 | $87K | 7.2% | 1.7% | 4% | C+ |
| 1,192 | Inverness CA | 1,346 | $80K | 4.8% | 10.0% | 10% | 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 Sparta Township, the top three, the last and three more from Illinois.
Around Sparta Township: the bordering towns
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Sparta Township workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sparta Township | – | C+ | B− | 22 min | $69,028 |
| Copley Township | under 2% | — | — | 20 min | — |
| Henderson Township | under 2% | B− | D− | 13 min | $72,116 |
| Knox Township | under 2% | B− | C− | 21 min | $82,353 |
| Ontario Township | under 2% | — | — | 17 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Copley Township: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Ontario Township: not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Sparta Township’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 Sparta Township: questions
What is the median household income in Sparta Township?
$69,028 (±$22,414) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Sparta Township?
7.2%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Sparta Township?
22 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 2% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Sparta Township work?
1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Galesburg (30%, 8 mi), Peoria (10%, 39 mi), Chicago (2%, 145 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Sparta Township walkable?
Sparta Township is more walkable than 50% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 4.7 out of 20, and 6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Sparta Township without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 0% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Sparta Township, from the people who make the trip.
More of Sparta Township
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.