Venice’s household incomes are among the lowest in the country
Jobs and income earn Venice C−; getting around on foot earns it B+. Measured by household income, Venice is among the lowest-earning towns in the country. Below the poverty line: 43.3% of residents, against 11.8% across Illinois.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Venice: the figures worth knowing
The jobs in Venice pay better than its residents’ jobs
78% of the jobs based in Venice pay over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year), against 39% of the jobs Venice residents hold. 94% of the jobs here are held by people who live outside Venice. The jobs ↓
Stores, warehouses and trucking
65% of the jobs in Venice are in trade, transport and utilities, against 22% of the jobs its residents hold. The jobs ↓
Few Venice workers work from home
Only 1% 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 576 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Venice’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
On income, poverty and job access, Venice is better than 24% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Venice’s grade up (ahead of 94% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down.
Unemployment (26.0%) is left out: Venice’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, Venice could be anywhere from C− to C.
78% of the jobs in Venice pay over $3,333 a month
582 jobs are based in Venice.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Venice, 2013 → 2023: 442 → 582. 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 Venice’s own residents hold wherever they work.
From Venice, about 22 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Venice workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 514 commuters (the 1% 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.
Who leaves, who stays, who comes in
On a workday 540 residents head out to work, 36 work right here, and 546 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 (1.01 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.
11% of working residents work in St. Louis
Where Venice clocks in
11% of workers
7% 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.
The distance from Venice to work
About 17% 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.
Most of Venice commutes by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Venice is more walkable than 67% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 5.8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 10.8% across Illinois, on an EPA index of 6.6.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 519 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% 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). 26.2% of Venice households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 4% of Venice’s commuters take a bus or train.
Venice is 4,048th of 6,308 U.S. towns of 1,000 to 2,000 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 32 | Tower Lakes IL | 1,201 | $154K | 2.0% | 2.8% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 35 | Third Lake IL | 1,103 | $150K | 2.0% | 2.3% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 40 | Lily Lake IL | 1,073 | $140K | 0.2% | 8.9% | 0% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,046 | Chenoweth OR | 1,445 | $63K | 10.9% | 16.1% | 1% | C− |
| 4,047 | Wrightsville AR | 1,630 | $45K | 16.4% | 1.5% | <1% | C− |
| 4,048 | Venice IL | 1,450 | $32K | 43.3% | 26.0% | 6% | C− |
| 4,049 | Joseph OR | 1,188 | $54K | 5.7% | 1.4% | 20% | C− |
| 4,050 | Mannington WV | 1,910 | $54K | 10.5% | 3.2% | 8% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 6,308 | 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 Venice, the top three, the last and three more from Illinois.
The towns around Venice
The biggest share goes to Madison (5%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
Darker towns draw more of Venice’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 Venice: questions
What is the median household income in Venice?
$32,066 (±$8,551) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Venice?
43.3%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Venice?
22 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 1% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Venice work?
6% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are St. Louis (11%, 5 mi), Granite City (7%, 5 mi), Edwardsville (5%, 13 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Venice walkable?
Venice is more walkable than 67% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 6.6 out of 20, and 6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Venice without a car?
4% of commuters take transit and 26% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Venice, from the people who make the trip.
More of Venice
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.