Work & commute · St. Charles

Work & commute in St. Charles, IL

Most working residents leave St. Charles for work: only 13% work in town. The top destinations are Chicago (13%), St. Charles (12%) and Elgin (6%). Half commute less than 14 miles.

Census LEHD commute flows, 2023 Census ACS commute times

Work in town

13%

3,430 of 25,672 working residents

Typical commute

14 mi

Half commute less than this, straight-line

Average commute time

28 min

One way, from the Census survey

Work from home

18%

of workers, from the Census survey

Coming and going

Who leaves, who stays, who comes in

On a workday 22,242 St. Charles residents head out of town to work, 3,430 work right here, and 22,665 people come in from elsewhere to fill jobs in St. Charles.

22,242live here, work elsewhere

3,430live and work here

22,665work here, live elsewhere

Leave for workStayCome in

The map

Where St. Charles goes to work

Chicago33.5 mi away

13%3,352

St. Charles1.6 mi away

12%3,104

Elgin6.7 mi away

6%1,428

Geneva4.1 mi away

4%1,150

Schaumburg13.5 mi away

4%947

Naperville15.6 mi away

3%811

Batavia6.5 mi away

3%724

Aurora12.4 mi away

3%712

West Chicago6.1 mi away

2%611

South Elgin3.4 mi away

2%429

Everywhere elseother towns and states

48%12,404

Lines run between town centers; a thicker line means more commuters. The top 10 towns each way.

How far

How far St. Charles commutes

Straight-line distance from home to work, for every working resident. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.

36%

38%

22%

36%Under 10 mi

38%10–24 mi

22%25–50 mi

4%Over 50 mi

Job hub or commuter town?

St. Charles is balanced between jobs and homes

1.02jobs per working resident

Balanced

About as many jobs as working residents (1.02 per resident).

The jobs

What the jobs in St. Charles are

26,095 jobs are based in St. Charles. Here is what they are, next to the jobs St. Charles’s own residents hold wherever they work.

Jobs based in St. Charles

26,095 jobs

Goods (factories, building, farms)28%

Trade, transport & utilities20%

Services (health, schools, offices…)52%

$1,250 a month or less15%

$1,251–$3,333 a month27%

Over $3,333 a month58%

Jobs St. Charles residents hold

25,672 working residents

Goods (factories, building, farms)15%

Trade, transport & utilities21%

Services (health, schools, offices…)64%

$1,250 a month or less12%

$1,251–$3,333 a month19%

Over $3,333 a month69%

+10%

Jobs based in St. Charles, 2013 → 2023: 23,673 → 26,095. Big swings can come from how a large employer reports its locations, not only from real openings or closings.

About these numbers

How to read this page

Every worker, home to workThe Census links each worker’s home block to their main job’s block, for jobs covered by unemployment insurance. That’s most jobs, but not the self-employed.

Where the employer saysA job counts where the employer reports it. Some big employers report one address for many sites, which can make a few commutes look longer than they are.

Two surveysFlows, distances and jobs: LEHD 2023. Commute time and working from home: the Census American Community Survey.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2023, primary jobs; American Community Survey 5-year estimates.