Photo: Billwhittaker at English Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0Households in Ackley earn less than those in 70% of U.S. towns
About one in seven work in Ackley; the top destination outside it is Iowa Falls (10%, 11 miles). 7.5% of residents live below the poverty line, against 11.1% across Iowa. The two grades for Ackley are C for jobs and income and B+ for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Ackley and work: the main findings
Income, poverty and work: Ackley’s grade explained
On income, poverty and job access, Ackley is better than 31% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Ackley’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 16% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (2.0%) is left out: Ackley’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, Ackley could be anywhere from D to B−.
What the 455 jobs in Ackley are
455 jobs are based in Ackley.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Ackley, 2013 → 2023: 533 → 455. 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 Ackley’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Ackley by day and by night
On a workday 629 residents head out to work, 119 work right here, and 336 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,200 people are in Ackley on a workday afternoon, 19% fewer than live here.
0.61 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.
Where people from Ackley work
Where Ackley clocks in
10% 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.
From Ackley, about 24 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Ackley workers work from home, vs 11% across Iowa. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 692 commuters (the 6% who work from home are left out). Across Iowa: 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.
Ackley’s commute, mile by mile
About 28% 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.
Getting around Ackley: mostly by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Ackley is more walkable than 69% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Ackley near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 733 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). 5.7% of Ackley households have no vehicle (Iowa 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Ackley’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Ackley ranks: 3,295th of 5,794 U.S. towns of 1,100 to 2,100
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 123 | University Heights IA | 1,177 | $111K | 14.5% | 1.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 135 | Van Meter IA | 1,978 | $135K | 2.6% | 1.9% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 142 | Walford IA | 1,359 | $129K | 1.1% | 2.8% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,293 | Ahwahnee CA | 1,453 | $77K | 8.9% | 0.9% | 2% | C |
| 3,294 | Columbus Junction IA | 1,772 | $64K | 10.3% | 3.6% | 7% | C |
| 3,295 | Ackley IA | 1,530 | $63K | 7.5% | 2.0% | 16% | C |
| 3,296 | Cooperstown NY | 1,840 | $76K | 11.6% | 5.8% | 35% | C |
| 3,297 | Tiltonsville OH | 1,215 | $57K | 8.2% | 3.5% | 5% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 5,794 | 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 Ackley, the top three, the last and three more from Iowa.
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 Ackley: questions
What is the median household income in Ackley?
$62,583 (±$12,166) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,059 across Iowa and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Ackley?
7.5%, against 11.1% across Iowa and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Ackley?
24 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Iowa and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Ackley work?
16% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Iowa Falls (10%, 11 mi), Eldora (7%, 13 mi), Waterloo (5%, 36 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Ackley walkable?
Ackley is more walkable than 69% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 7.5 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Ackley without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Ackley, from the people who make the trip.
More of Ackley
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.