Photo: Magicpiano · CC BY-SA 4.0Fewer people are out of work in Cherokee (2.4%) than in 79% of U.S. towns
About two in five work in Cherokee; the top destination outside it is Storm Lake (6%, 20 miles). Cherokee grades C for jobs and income and A− for walkability. Household incomes here are lower than in 71% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Cherokee, in a few figures
Cherokee’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Cherokee is better than 31% of U.S. towns, #111 of 140 in Iowa. Unemployment holds Cherokee’s grade up; the poverty rate pulls it down (18.5%, U.S. 12.5%).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Cherokee could be anywhere from D to B−.
Getting to work from Cherokee takes about 12 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Cherokee workers work from home, vs 11% across Iowa. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,336 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.
Cherokee by day and by night
On a workday 1,485 residents head out to work, 913 work right here, and 1,953 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 (1.20 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 people from Cherokee work
Where Cherokee clocks in
6% of workers
5% of workers
3% 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 2,866 jobs in Cherokee are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Cherokee, 2013 → 2023: 3,459 → 2,866. 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 Cherokee’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Where in the region Cherokee works
About 27% 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.
Cherokee is more walkable than most U.S. towns, with limited transit
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Cherokee is more walkable than 77% of U.S. towns, #51 of 140 in Iowa. Both inputs place Cherokee 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 2,554 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). 7.3% of Cherokee households have no vehicle (Iowa 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 2% of Cherokee’s commuters take a bus or train.
Cherokee next to U.S. towns of 3,600 to 6,900: 2,633rd of 3,627 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 213 | Asbury IA | 6,035 | $125K | 3.2% | 1.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 245 | Huxley IA | 4,715 | $112K | 4.5% | 1.3% | 8% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 321 | Windsor Heights IA | 5,059 | $92K | 6.2% | 1.4% | 3% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 2,631 | Horicon WI | 3,917 | $53K | 14.1% | 4.8% | 11% | C |
| 2,632 | Colerain Township OH | 4,061 | $70K | 11.0% | 5.1% | 3% | C |
| 2,633 | Cherokee IA | 5,122 | $62K | 18.5% | 2.4% | 38% | C |
| 2,634 | Clyde OH | 6,361 | $51K | 11.3% | 4.9% | 23% | C |
| 2,635 | Parkesburg PA | 3,976 | $76K | 17.4% | 9.0% | 3% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 3,627 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 18% | 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 Cherokee, 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 Cherokee: questions
What is the median household income in Cherokee?
$61,750 (±$10,015) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,059 across Iowa and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Cherokee?
18.5%, against 11.1% across Iowa and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Cherokee?
12 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Iowa and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Cherokee work?
38% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Storm Lake (6%, 20 mi), Sioux City (5%, 46 mi), Le Mars (3%, 32 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Cherokee walkable?
Cherokee is more walkable than 77% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 7.9 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Cherokee without a car?
2% of commuters take transit and 7% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Cherokee, from the people who make the trip.
More of Cherokee
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.