Winchester Historic District · Photo: Nyttend · Public domainHouseholds in Winchester have lower incomes than those in 90% of U.S. towns
Home is the office for 6% of workers (Illinois 16%). The poverty rate is 21.2%, next to 11.8% for Illinois as a whole. For jobs and income Winchester is better than 5% of U.S. towns (D−); for walkability it is more walkable than 58% of U.S. towns (B).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Inside Winchester’s Jobs & income grade
All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Winchester’s grade.
Unemployment (5.1%) is left out: Winchester’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, Winchester could be anywhere from D− to D.
Who leaves Winchester for work, and who comes in
On a workday 570 residents head out to work, 114 work right here, and 297 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,200 people are in Winchester on a workday afternoon, 18% fewer than live here.
0.60 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.
20% of working residents work in Jacksonville
Where Winchester clocks in
20% of workers
13% 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.
Inside Winchester’s 411 jobs
411 jobs are based in Winchester.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Winchester, 2013 → 2023: 407 → 411. 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 Winchester’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Each way, about 24 minutes from Winchester
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Winchester workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 574 commuters (the 6% 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.
Winchester’s commute, mile by mile
About 29% 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.
Winchester is a driving town
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 610 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). 9.9% of Winchester households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Winchester’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Winchester compares with U.S. towns of 1,100 to 2,000
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 24 | Tower Lakes IL | 1,201 | $154K | 2.0% | 2.8% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 27 | Third Lake IL | 1,103 | $150K | 2.0% | 2.3% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 37 | Bannockburn IL | 1,308 | $214K | 5.1% | 1.8% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,918 | Butler Township OH | 1,296 | $51K | 28.0% | 0.0% | 2% | D− |
| 4,919 | Cove Creek NC | 1,629 | $53K | 22.6% | 1.0% | 2% | D− |
| 4,920 | Winchester IL | 1,502 | $48K | 21.2% | 5.1% | 17% | D− |
| 4,921 | Bridgeport IL | 1,652 | $53K | 23.7% | 8.4% | 6% | D− |
| 4,922 | Munday TX | 1,190 | $56K | 19.6% | 1.8% | 17% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,397 | 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 Winchester, 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 Winchester: questions
What is the median household income in Winchester?
$48,250 (±$9,046) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Winchester?
21.2%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Winchester?
24 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Winchester work?
17% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Jacksonville (20%, 14 mi), Springfield (13%, 44 mi), Beardstown (2%, 26 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Winchester walkable?
Winchester is more walkable than 58% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 7.2 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Winchester without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 10% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Winchester, from the people who make the trip.
More of Winchester
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.