Photo: Jared Winkler · CC BY-SA 4.0Clarinda has lower household incomes than 92% of U.S. towns
For jobs and income Clarinda is better than 12% of U.S. towns (D); for walkability it is more walkable than 47% of U.S. towns (B−). Poverty touches 12.1% of residents; Iowa has 11.1%. About half work in Clarinda; the top destination outside it is Shenandoah (4%, 18 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Clarinda at work: what stands out
Clarinda is where the jobs are
Clarinda has 2,901 jobs, 1.5 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
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 ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2024, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey.
Jobs & income in Clarinda: the grade in detail
The poverty rate holds Clarinda’s grade up; household income pulls it down ($46,348, U.S. $80,734).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Clarinda could be anywhere from D− to C+.
Who works in Clarinda, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 954 residents head out to work, 969 work right here, and 1,932 people come in from elsewhere.
About 6,300 people are in Clarinda on a workday afternoon, 19% more than live here.
1.5 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2024, primary jobs.
The distance from Clarinda to work
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 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
The daily trip into Clarinda
Where Clarinda clocks in
4% of workers
3% 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.
Jobs in Clarinda: what the 2,901 are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Clarinda, 2014 → 2024: 3,222 → 2,901. 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 2024.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Clarinda’s own residents hold wherever they work.
A commute of about 16 minutes in Clarinda
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Clarinda workers work from home, vs 11% across Iowa. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,720 commuters (the 5% 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.
For most of Clarinda, work means a drive
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,819 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). 7.1% of Clarinda households have no vehicle (Iowa 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Clarinda’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Clarinda compares with U.S. towns of 3,700 to 7,100
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 3% | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 152 | Eldridge IA | 6,954 | $106K | 1.3% | 1.0% | 15% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 218 | Asbury IA | 6,035 | $125K | 3.2% | 1.2% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 252 | Huxley IA | 4,715 | $112K | 4.5% | 1.3% | 7% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 3,231 | Marion SC | 6,028 | $31K | 26.8% | 4.7% | 13% | D |
| 3,232 | Salisbury Township OH | 5,289 | $39K | 28.2% | 3.4% | 18% | D |
| 3,233 | Clarinda IA | 5,273 | $46K | 12.1% | 6.5% | 50% | D |
| 3,234 | Richwood LA | 3,834 | $32K | 39.1% | 9.1% | 1% | D |
| 3,235 | Washington Township OH | 5,091 | $45K | 16.3% | 5.8% | 6% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 3,582 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 19% | 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 Clarinda, 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 2024, 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 Clarinda: questions
What is the median household income in Clarinda?
$46,348 (±$11,042) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,059 across Iowa and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Clarinda?
12.1%, against 11.1% across Iowa and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Clarinda?
16 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Iowa and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Clarinda work?
50% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Shenandoah (4%, 18 mi), Omaha (3%, 64 mi), Red Oak (3%, 22 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Clarinda walkable?
Clarinda is more walkable than 47% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 6.9 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Clarinda without a car?
0% 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 Clarinda, from the people who make the trip.
More of Clarinda
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2024, 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.