Photo: MattHucke · CC BY-SA 3.0Toledo has lower household incomes than 79% of U.S. towns
About one in ten work in Toledo itself; outside it, Effingham draws the most (10%, 20 miles). The poverty rate is 18.1%, against 11.8% across Illinois. For jobs and income Toledo is better than 10% of U.S. towns (D); for walkability it is more walkable than 59% of U.S. towns (B).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Toledo, in a few figures
Commutes from Toledo are quick
The average trip to work takes 20 minutes, against 28 across Illinois. That’s about 61 hours a year less on the road than the typical Illinois worker. Time on the road ↓
Stores, warehouses and trucking
44% of the jobs in Toledo are in trade, transport and utilities, against 19% of the jobs its residents hold. 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 524 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
How the Jobs & income grade adds up in Toledo
All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Toledo’s grade.
Unemployment (1.0%) is left out: Toledo’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, Toledo could be anywhere from D− to C.
About 20 minutes to work from Toledo
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Toledo workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 522 commuters (the 11% 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 566 jobs based in Toledo
566 jobs are based in Toledo.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Toledo, 2013 → 2023: 601 → 566. 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 Toledo’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The daily commute in and out of Toledo
On a workday 471 residents head out to work, 53 work right here, and 513 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.08 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Commuting out of Toledo: the destinations
Where Toledo clocks in
10% of workers
10% 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 Toledo
About 23% 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 Toledo is mostly behind the wheel
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 4.8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 10.8% across Illinois, on an EPA index of 6.2.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 586 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). 13.2% of Toledo households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Toledo’s commuters take a bus or train.
Toledo is 3,049th of 3,771 U.S. towns of 800 to 1,500 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 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 21 | Tower Lakes IL | 1,201 | $154K | 2.0% | 2.8% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 23 | Third Lake IL | 1,103 | $150K | 2.0% | 2.3% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 28 | Lily Lake IL | 1,073 | $140K | 0.2% | 8.9% | 0% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,047 | Breckinridge Center KY | 1,467 | $64K | 51.8% | 3.7% | 4% | D |
| 3,048 | Ray City GA | 1,132 | $56K | 18.6% | 4.8% | 1% | D |
| 3,049 | Toledo IL | 1,140 | $56K | 18.1% | 1.0% | 10% | D |
| 3,050 | Glasgow MO | 1,080 | $50K | 11.9% | 3.1% | 15% | D |
| 3,051 | Crescent OK | 1,429 | $63K | 19.3% | 4.8% | 6% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 3,771 | 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 Toledo, 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 Toledo: questions
What is the median household income in Toledo?
$56,354 (±$11,908) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Toledo?
18.1%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Toledo?
20 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 11% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Toledo work?
10% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Effingham (10%, 20 mi), Charleston (10%, 15 mi), Greenup (9%, 5 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Toledo walkable?
Toledo is more walkable than 59% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 6.2 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Toledo without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 13% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Toledo, from the people who make the trip.
More of Toledo
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.