Photo: Jared Winkler · CC BY-SA 4.0Audubon’s household incomes are lower than in 96% of U.S. towns
The poverty rate is 14.4%, against 11.1% across Iowa. Audubon grades D for jobs and income and B for walkability. For 3% of workers, the job is at home, against 11% across Iowa.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jobs and commuting in Audubon: the gist
A big share show a job far from home
31% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. How far ↓
Fewer jobs are based in Audubon than ten years ago
Jobs counted in Audubon fell from 1,135 in 2013 to 847 in 2023, −25%. That can be real closings or a large employer now reporting its workers at another address; the data can’t tell the two apart. The jobs ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; with 934 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What’s behind Audubon’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Audubon is better than 7% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Audubon’s grade up; household income pulls it down ($39,816, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (2.4%) is left out: Audubon’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, Audubon could be anywhere from D− to D.
Miles to work from Audubon
About 31% 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.
A place that makes things: 33% of Audubon’s jobs are in goods
847 jobs are based in Audubon.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Audubon, 2013 → 2023: 1,135 → 847. 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 Audubon’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Audubon on a workday afternoon
On a workday 609 residents head out to work, 325 work right here, and 522 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 (0.91 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.
Where Audubon goes to work
Where Audubon clocks in
4% 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.
About 17 minutes to work from Audubon
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Audubon workers work from home, vs 11% across Iowa. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 931 commuters (the 3% 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.
Most trips from Audubon start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Audubon is more walkable than 56% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 4.2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 4.4% across Iowa, on an EPA index of 6.2.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 959 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). 16.7% of Audubon households have no vehicle (Iowa 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Audubon’s commuters take a bus or train.
Audubon next to U.S. towns of 1,400 to 2,700: 4,925th of 5,509 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 141 | Van Meter IA | 1,978 | $135K | 2.6% | 1.9% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 171 | Ely IA | 2,366 | $106K | 2.4% | 1.5% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 207 | Granger IA | 2,179 | $112K | 3.4% | 2.1% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 4,923 | Perry Township OH | 2,356 | $59K | 16.3% | 17.5% | 6% | D |
| 4,924 | Wray CO | 2,352 | $57K | 17.5% | 0.5% | 37% | D |
| 4,925 | Audubon IA | 1,989 | $40K | 14.4% | 2.4% | 35% | D |
| 4,926 | Warroad MN | 1,976 | $51K | 21.0% | 6.1% | 68% | D |
| 4,927 | Waldport OR | 2,268 | $56K | 15.7% | 17.2% | 10% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,509 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Audubon, 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 Audubon: questions
What is the median household income in Audubon?
$39,816 (±$7,378) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,059 across Iowa and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Audubon?
14.4%, against 11.1% across Iowa and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Audubon?
17 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Iowa and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Audubon work?
35% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Carroll (4%, 25 mi), Omaha (2%, 66 mi), Des Moines (2%, 69 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Audubon walkable?
Audubon is more walkable than 56% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 6.2 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Audubon without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 17% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Audubon, from the people who make the trip.
More of Audubon
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.