Photo: RifeIdeas · CC BY-SA 3.0Cedar Falls’ family incomes are higher than in 71% of U.S. towns
Working residents average 14 minutes each way, against 20 across Iowa and 26 nationally. Leaving out college students, 7.4% of residents live below the poverty line, where Iowa as a whole has 9.9%. The two grades for Cedar Falls are A− for jobs and income and A− for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Cedar Falls, in brief
Cedar Falls and Waterloo trade workers both ways
Waterloo is the top workplace for Cedar Falls residents (33%) and also where the most people who work in Cedar Falls come from (23% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Most Cedar Falls residents work close to home
70% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home. How far ↓
Commutes from Cedar Falls are quick
The average trip to work takes 14 minutes, against 20 across Iowa. That’s about 46 hours a year less on the road than the typical Iowa worker. Time on the road ↓
Young people hold many of the jobs here
33% of the jobs based in Cedar Falls are held by workers 29 or younger, against 28% of Cedar Falls’ own working residents. 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.
Income, poverty and work: Cedar Falls’ grade explained
On family income, poverty and job access, Cedar Falls is better than 76% of U.S. towns, #31 of 140 in Iowa. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Cedar Falls’ grade. It also does well on the poverty rate and job access by car.
22% of Cedar Falls’ residents are college students, and off-campus students count in the Census poverty figures. Where students are 15% or more of the people the Census checks for poverty (16% here), the grade uses the rate without them: 7.4%, against 15.7% for all residents. Unemployment (3.9%) is left out here: students looking for part-time work count as unemployed. Income is ranked as median family income ($111,476), since student households pull the household median down ($76,987).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for family income and poverty, Cedar Falls could be anywhere from B to A.
33% of working residents work in Waterloo
Where Cedar Falls clocks in
33% of workers
3% 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.
Miles to work from Cedar Falls
About 21% 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.
How long Cedar Falls spends getting to work: about 14 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 4.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Cedar Falls workers work from home, vs 11% across Iowa. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 19,895 commuters (the 11% 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 kinds of work in Cedar Falls
22,142 jobs are based in Cedar Falls.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Cedar Falls, 2013 → 2023: 19,589 → 22,142. 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 Cedar Falls’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who leaves Cedar Falls for work, and who comes in
On a workday 10,275 residents head out to work, 5,789 work right here, and 16,353 people come in from elsewhere.
About 47,000 people are in Cedar Falls on a workday afternoon, 15% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.38 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.
Good to walk, short on transit: Cedar Falls
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Cedar Falls is more walkable than 85% of U.S. towns, #20 of 140 in Iowa. Both inputs place Cedar Falls 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 22,373 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). 6.1% of Cedar Falls households have no vehicle (Iowa 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Cedar Falls’ commuters take a bus or train.
Cedar Falls next to U.S. towns of 29,000 to 56,000: 412th of 1,037 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | McLean VA | 49,627 | $250K | 2.9% | 2.3% | 6% | A+ |
| 2 | Southlake TX | 31,175 | $250K | 1.5% | 2.7% | 11% | A+ |
| 3 | Leawood KS | 34,093 | $186K | 3.1% | 2.0% | 9% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 187 | Urbandale IA | 48,570 | $113K | 6.8% | 2.9% | 12% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 228 | Bettendorf IA | 40,710 | $100K | 6.7% | 2.4% | 17% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 342 | Waukee IA | 34,890 | $101K | 7.4% | 3.5% | 8% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 410 | Converse TX | 32,481 | $94K | 11.6% | 3.2% | 2% | A− |
| 411 | Ossining NY | 39,964 | $126K | 8.8% | 5.5% | 11% | A− |
| 412 | Cedar Falls IA | 41,240 | $77K | 15.7% | 3.9% | 36% | A− |
| 413 | Laurel MD | 30,254 | $101K | 9.0% | 4.7% | 5% | A− |
| 414 | Englewood CO | 35,305 | $87K | 7.7% | 4.3% | 7% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,037 | Bullhead City AZ | 43,987 | $51K | 18.7% | 11.5% | 26% | 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 Cedar Falls, the top three, the last and three more from Iowa.
Next door is work for 33% of Cedar Falls
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Cedar Falls workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cedar Falls | – | A− | A− | 14 min | $76,987 |
| Waterloo | 33% | C | B+ | 16 min | $57,480 |
| Hudson | under 1% | A− | C+ | 17 min | $120,481 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Waterloo. Darker towns draw more of Cedar Falls’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
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.
- Students. 22% of residents are college students; the poverty input leaves off-campus students out (above).
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Cedar Falls: questions
What is the median household income in Cedar Falls?
$76,987 (±$5,036) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,059 across Iowa and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Cedar Falls?
15.7% of residents live below the poverty line; leaving out college students, 7.4%. Iowa: 11.1%.
How long is the commute from Cedar Falls?
14 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Iowa and 26 nationally. 11% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Cedar Falls work?
36% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Waterloo (33%, 6 mi), Cedar Rapids (3%, 55 mi), Waverly (2%, 14 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Cedar Falls walkable?
Cedar Falls is more walkable than 85% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 8.3 out of 20, and 7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Cedar Falls 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 Cedar Falls, from the people who make the trip.
More of Cedar Falls
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.