Households in Rockford earn less than those in 77% of U.S. towns
About one in ten stay in Rockford for work; outside it, Celina is the main destination (11%, 10 miles). Below the poverty line: 10.8% of residents, against 13.3% across Ohio. Jobs and income earn Rockford C−; getting around on foot earns it C.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Rockford’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
On income, poverty and job access, Rockford is better than 24% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Rockford’s grade up; household income pulls it down ($57,833, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (3.9%) is left out: Rockford’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Rockford could be anywhere from D to B−.
Rockford by day and by night
On a workday 416 residents head out to work, 37 work right here, and 467 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 (1.11 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.
The towns that employ Rockford’s residents
Where Rockford clocks in
11% of workers
9% 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.
Rockford works in goods: 28% of its jobs
504 jobs are based in Rockford.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Rockford, 2013 → 2023: 471 → 504. 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 Rockford’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Getting to work from Rockford takes about 21 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Rockford workers work from home, vs 13% across Ohio. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 413 commuters (the 9% who work from home are left out). Across Ohio: 86% drive alone, 1% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Where in the region Rockford works
About 18% 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.
Few in Rockford walk, bike or ride to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Rockford is more walkable than 32% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 2.6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.7% across Ohio, on an EPA index of 4.8.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 452 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). 8.1% of Rockford households have no vehicle (Ohio 7.5%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Rockford’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 700 to 1,400, Rockford ranks 1,946th of 3,133 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 34 | Bratenahl OH | 1,396 | $138K | 4.4% | 0.8% | 1% | A+ |
| 35 | Sharon Center OH | 1,129 | $111K | 0.4% | 0.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 65 | Granville South OH | 1,146 | $131K | 4.5% | 0.0% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,944 | Joseph OR | 1,188 | $54K | 5.7% | 1.4% | 20% | C− |
| 1,945 | Exeter-Fairmont Consolidated Township NE | 1,253 | $73K | 11.8% | 1.3% | 19% | C− |
| 1,946 | Rockford OH | 1,039 | $58K | 10.8% | 3.9% | 8% | C− |
| 1,947 | Tennessee Ridge TN | 1,341 | $74K | 12.2% | 4.0% | 4% | C− |
| 1,948 | Brownsboro TX | 1,322 | $62K | 15.4% | 3.2% | 11% | 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 Rockford, the top three, the last and three more from Ohio.
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 Rockford: questions
What is the median household income in Rockford?
$57,833 (±$10,928) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $71,389 across Ohio and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Rockford?
10.8%, against 13.3% across Ohio and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Rockford?
21 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Ohio and 26 nationally. 9% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Rockford work?
8% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Celina (11%, 10 mi), Van Wert (9%, 12 mi), St. Marys (5%, 17 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Rockford walkable?
Rockford is more walkable than 32% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 4.8 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Rockford without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Rockford, from the people who make the trip.
More of Rockford
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.