Photo: Brian Stansberry · CC BY 4.0Households in Sumner earn less than those in 80% of U.S. towns
Sumner grades D− for jobs and income and D for walkability. Below the poverty line: 35.3% of residents, against 11.8% across Illinois. Working from home is the commute for 2% of workers (Illinois 16%).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Sumner, in a few figures
A big share show a job far from home
45% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. How far ↓
The jobs in Sumner pay better than its residents’ jobs
82% of the jobs based in Sumner pay over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year), against 52% of the jobs Sumner residents hold. 97% of the jobs here are held by people who live outside Sumner. The jobs ↓
Few Sumner 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 608 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Jobs & income in Sumner: the grade in detail
On income, poverty and job access, Sumner is better than 3% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Sumner’s grade up ($55,625, U.S. $80,734); the poverty rate pulls it down.
Unemployment (19.7%) is left out: Sumner’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, Sumner could be anywhere from D− to C−.
The commute from Sumner, by distance
About 45% 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.
Mostly services: health care, schools and offices
425 jobs are based in Sumner.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Sumner, 2013 → 2023: 167 → 425. 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 Sumner’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 23 minutes to work from Sumner
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Sumner workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 452 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.
Sumner on a workday afternoon
On a workday 595 residents head out to work, 13 work right here, and 412 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,500 people are in Sumner on a workday afternoon, 11% fewer than live here.
0.70 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.
10% of working residents work in Vincennes
Where Sumner clocks in
10% of workers
5% 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.
In Sumner, the car does most of the work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Sumner is more walkable than 14% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: hardly any 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 461 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). 3.5% of Sumner households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Sumner’s commuters take a bus or train.
Where Sumner sits among U.S. towns of 1,200 to 2,200
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 24 | Tower Lakes IL | 1,201 | $154K | 2.0% | 2.8% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 34 | Bannockburn IL | 1,308 | $214K | 5.1% | 1.8% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 38 | Prestbury IL | 2,045 | $165K | 1.9% | 0.0% | 0% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,111 | Selmont-West Selmont AL | 2,150 | $32K | 28.2% | 7.0% | 2% | D− |
| 5,112 | Tonto Basin AZ | 1,750 | $51K | 19.4% | 0.0% | 8% | D− |
| 5,113 | Sumner IL | 1,656 | $56K | 35.3% | 19.7% | 2% | D− |
| 5,114 | Worthington IN | 1,403 | $47K | 23.8% | 6.0% | 5% | D− |
| 5,115 | Pine Prairie LA | 1,554 | $33K | 28.2% | 13.3% | 3% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,381 | 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 Sumner, 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 Sumner: questions
What is the median household income in Sumner?
$55,625 (±$15,565) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Sumner?
35.3%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Sumner?
23 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 2% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Sumner work?
2% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Vincennes (10%, 19 mi), Lawrenceville (5%, 10 mi), Allison Township (4%, 15 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Sumner walkable?
Sumner is more walkable than 14% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 6.0 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Sumner without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Sumner, from the people who make the trip.
More of Sumner
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.