Photo: Jared Winkler · CC BY-SA 4.0Work and commuting in Avoca
Commuters spend 24 minutes getting to work on average, against 20 across Iowa and 26 nationally. Jobs and income earn Avoca B−; getting around on foot earns it C−. About one in seven work in Avoca itself; outside it, Omaha draws the most (10%, 40 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Avoca, in a few figures
Avoca’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
On income, poverty and job access, Avoca is better than 47% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Avoca’s grade up (7.0%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 28% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (1.3%) is left out: Avoca’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, Avoca could be anywhere from C to B.
How far it is to work from Avoca
About 20% 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.
Who works in Avoca, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 616 residents head out to work, 117 work right here, and 542 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 (0.90 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 places Avoca commutes to
Where Avoca clocks in
10% of workers
10% of workers
10% 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.
What the 659 jobs in Avoca are
659 jobs are based in Avoca.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Avoca, 2013 → 2023: 626 → 659. 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 Avoca’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Time on the road from Avoca: about 24 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Avoca workers work from home, vs 11% across Iowa. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 685 commuters (the 7% 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.
In Avoca, the car does most of the work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Avoca is more walkable than 24% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: hardly any commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 4.4% across Iowa.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 738 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 5.0% of Avoca households have no vehicle (Iowa 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Avoca’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 5,381 U.S. towns of 1,200 to 2,200, Avoca comes 2,199th on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Hewlett Harbor NY | 1,332 | $250K | 1.9% | 7.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 128 | Van Meter IA | 1,978 | $135K | 2.6% | 1.9% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 134 | Walford IA | 1,359 | $129K | 1.1% | 2.8% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 186 | Granger IA | 2,179 | $112K | 3.4% | 2.1% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 2,197 | Jefferson Township PA | 1,403 | $76K | 6.6% | 5.3% | 2% | B− |
| 2,198 | Rio Rancho Estates NM | 1,571 | $92K | 19.6% | 3.7% | <1% | B− |
| 2,199 | Avoca IA | 1,661 | $73K | 7.0% | 1.3% | 16% | B− |
| 2,200 | Spring Valley WI | 1,443 | $70K | 6.6% | 5.4% | 7% | B− |
| 2,201 | Cerro Gordo Township IL | 1,887 | $86K | 12.5% | 5.9% | 6% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,381 | 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 Avoca, 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 Avoca: questions
What is the median household income in Avoca?
$73,056 (±$12,589) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,059 across Iowa and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Avoca?
7.0%, against 11.1% across Iowa and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Avoca?
24 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Iowa and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Avoca work?
16% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Omaha (10%, 40 mi), Harlan (10%, 12 mi), Council Bluffs (10%, 32 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Avoca walkable?
Avoca is more walkable than 24% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 7.1 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Avoca without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 5% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Avoca, from the people who make the trip.
More of Avoca
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.