Gillespie is a very small city located in the state of Illinois. With a population of 3,112 people and just one neighborhood, Gillespie is the 462nd largest community in Illinois. Much of the housing stock in Gillespie was built prior to World War II, making it one of the older and more historic cities in the country.
Gillespie is a blue-collar town, with 38.14% of people working in blue-collar occupations, while the average in America is just 27.7%. Overall, Gillespie is a city of sales and office workers, transportation and shipping workers, and construction workers and builders. There are especially a lot of people living in Gillespie who work in office and administrative support (16.23%), sales jobs (15.87%), and business and financial occupations (4.51%).
One interesting thing about the economy is that relatively large numbers of people worked from their home: 12.16% of the workforce. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce this is high compared to the rest of the county. These workers are often telecommuters who work in knowledge-based, white-collar professions. For example, Silicon Valley has large numbers of people who telecommute. Other at-home workers may be self-employed people who operate small businesses out of their homes.
Being a small city, Gillespie does not have a public transit system used by locals to get to and from work.
The education level of Gillespie citizens, measured as those with bachelor's degrees or advanced degrees, is similar to the national average for all American cities and towns. 18.65% of adults 25 and older in Gillespie have a college degree.
The per capita income in Gillespie in 2022 was $37,996, which is upper middle income relative to Illinois and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $151,984 for a family of four. However, Gillespie contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
The people who call Gillespie home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Gillespie residents report their race to be White. Important ancestries of people in Gillespie include German, Irish, English, Italian, and Scottish.
The most common language spoken in Gillespie is English. Other important languages spoken here include Italian and Polish.
The way a neighborhood looks and feels when you walk or drive around it, from its setting, its buildings, and its flavor, can make all the difference. This neighborhood has some really cool things about the way it looks and feels as revealed by NeighborhoodScout's exclusive research. This might include anything from the housing stock to the types of households living here to how people get around.
Did you know that the neighborhood has more Yugoslav and Lithuanian ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 0.9% of this neighborhood's residents have Yugoslav ancestry and 1.6% have Lithuanian ancestry.
is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 8.4% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Italian at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 97.0% of the neighborhoods in America.
How wealthy a neighborhood is, from very wealthy, to middle income, to low income is very formative with regard to the personality and character of a neighborhood. Equally important is the rate of people, particularly children, who live below the federal poverty line. In some wealthy gated communities, the areas immediately surrounding can have high rates of childhood poverty, which indicates other social issues. NeighborhoodScout's analysis reveals both aspects of income and poverty for this neighborhood.
The neighbors in the neighborhood in Gillespie are middle-income, making it a moderate income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 50.3% of the neighborhoods in America. With 30.3% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 82.1% of U.S. neighborhoods.
The old saying "you are what you eat" is true. But it is also true that you are what you do for a living. The types of occupations your neighbors have shape their character, and together as a group, their collective occupations shape the culture of a place.
In the neighborhood, 35.1% of the working population is employed in manufacturing and laborer occupations. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is executive, management, and professional occupations, with 25.7% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants (22.8%), and 16.4% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.
The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is English, spoken by 99.8% of households. Some people also speak Italian (8.4%).
Culture is the shared learned behavior of peoples. Undeniably, different ethnicities and ancestries have different cultural traditions, and as a result, neighborhoods with concentrations of residents of one or another ethnicities or ancestries will express those cultures. It is what makes the North End in Boston so fun to visit for the Italian restaurants, bakeries, culture, and charm, and similarly, why people enjoy visiting Chinatown in San Francisco.
In the neighborhood in Gillespie, IL, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as German (30.7%). There are also a number of people of Irish ancestry (14.9%), and residents who report English roots (11.2%), and some of the residents are also of Italian ancestry (9.8%), along with some Scottish ancestry residents (3.9%), among others.
How you get to work – car, bus, train or other means – and how much of your day it takes to do so is a large quality of life and financial issue. Especially with gasoline prices rising and expected to continue doing so, the length and means of one's commute can be a financial burden. Some neighborhoods are physically located so that many residents have to drive in their own car, others are set up so many walk to work, or can take a train, bus, or bike. The greatest number of commuters in neighborhood spend under 15 minutes commuting one-way to work (30.8% of working residents), one of the shortest commutes across America.
Here most residents (84.1%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.