Photo: Billwhittaker at English Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0Fewer people are out of work in Cascade (1.3%) than in 92% of U.S. towns
Household incomes here are lower than in 59% of U.S. towns. Cascade grades B for jobs and income and B− for walkability. About one in ten work in Cascade itself; outside it, Dubuque draws the most (22%, 20 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Cascade: the figures worth knowing
Cascade trades workers with the towns around it
Cascade has about as many jobs (1,085) as working residents (1,136), but they are mostly different people: 1,036 residents leave for work each day while 985 people come in. Only 9% of the jobs in Cascade are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
Cascade makes and builds things
46% of the jobs based in Cascade are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Cascade residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 33%. 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.
Cascade’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Cascade is better than 58% of U.S. towns. Unemployment holds Cascade’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 31% of U.S. towns). It also does well on the poverty rate.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Cascade could be anywhere from C to A−.
Cascade by day and by night
On a workday 1,036 residents head out to work, 100 work right here, and 985 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 (0.96 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.
Goods, not services: 46% of the jobs in Cascade
1,085 jobs are based in Cascade.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Cascade, 2013 → 2023: 1,046 → 1,085. 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 Cascade’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Where people from Cascade work
Where Cascade clocks in
22% of workers
7% of workers
6% 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.
Each way, about 20 minutes from Cascade
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Cascade workers work from home, vs 11% across Iowa. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,107 commuters (the 9% 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.
The commute from Cascade, by distance
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.
Most of Cascade commutes by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Cascade is more walkable than 52% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 3.9% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 4.4% across Iowa, on an EPA index of 6.0.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,221 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). 5.1% of Cascade households have no vehicle (Iowa 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Cascade’s commuters take a bus or train.
1,754th of 4,995: where Cascade ranks among U.S. towns of 1,700 to 3,200
| # | 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 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 141 | Van Meter IA | 1,978 | $135K | 2.6% | 1.9% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 170 | Ely IA | 2,366 | $106K | 2.4% | 1.5% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 212 | Granger IA | 2,179 | $112K | 3.4% | 2.1% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,752 | Bunker Hill Township MI | 2,004 | $80K | 7.8% | 1.3% | 1% | B |
| 1,753 | Berne NY | 2,697 | $105K | 3.1% | 7.6% | 10% | B |
| 1,754 | Cascade IA | 2,399 | $70K | 8.7% | 1.3% | 9% | B |
| 1,755 | Brusly LA | 2,614 | $106K | 7.9% | 19.1% | 2% | B |
| 1,756 | Minden NE | 3,133 | $68K | 4.8% | 2.6% | 26% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 4,995 | 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 Cascade, 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 Cascade: questions
What is the median household income in Cascade?
$69,688 (±$16,856) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,059 across Iowa and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Cascade?
8.7%, against 11.1% across Iowa and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Cascade?
20 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Iowa and 26 nationally. 9% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Cascade work?
9% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Dubuque (22%, 20 mi), Dyersville (7%, 14 mi), Farley (6%, 10 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Cascade walkable?
Cascade is more walkable than 52% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 6.0 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Cascade without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 5% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Cascade, from the people who make the trip.
More of Cascade
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.