Jobs, income and commuting in Conrad, IA
Working from home is the commute for 3% of workers, against 11% across Iowa. The two grades for Conrad are B− for jobs and income and A− for walkability. About one in four work in Conrad itself; outside it, Grundy Center draws the most (8%, 11 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Why Conrad gets the Jobs & income grade it does
On income, poverty and job access, Conrad is better than 52% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Conrad’s grade up (5.2%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 26% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (1.3%) is left out: Conrad’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, Conrad could be anywhere from C+ to B.
How a workday changes Conrad
On a workday 293 residents head out to work, 103 work right here, and 422 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,200 people are in Conrad on a workday afternoon, 12% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.33 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 Conrad’s working residents head each day
Where Conrad clocks in
8% of workers
5% of workers
5% 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 525 jobs in Conrad are
525 jobs are based in Conrad.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Conrad, 2013 → 2023: 422 → 525. 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 Conrad’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 19 minutes each way for Conrad’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Conrad workers work from home, vs 11% across Iowa. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 521 commuters (the 3% 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.
How far it is to work from Conrad
About 25% 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.
Walkable streets, thin transit: Conrad
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Conrad is more walkable than 84% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Conrad 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 539 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). 10.7% of Conrad households have no vehicle (Iowa 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Conrad’s commuters take a bus or train.
Conrad next to U.S. towns of 800 to 1,500: 1,193rd of 3,771 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 70 | University Heights IA | 1,177 | $111K | 14.5% | 1.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 83 | Walford IA | 1,359 | $129K | 1.1% | 2.8% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 155 | Gilbert IA | 1,389 | $123K | 3.4% | 4.1% | 8% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,191 | Middlefork Township IL | 1,295 | $79K | 4.8% | 3.1% | 2% | B− |
| 1,192 | Blooming Grove Township IN | 1,034 | $95K | 6.7% | 14.1% | 0% | B− |
| 1,193 | Conrad IA | 1,086 | $73K | 5.2% | 1.3% | 26% | B− |
| 1,194 | Centre Hall PA | 1,225 | $81K | 8.3% | 12.5% | 1% | B− |
| 1,195 | Ludington WI | 1,037 | $86K | 7.8% | 4.5% | <1% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,771 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 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 Conrad, 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 Conrad: questions
What is the median household income in Conrad?
$73,292 (±$4,093) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,059 across Iowa and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Conrad?
5.2%, against 11.1% across Iowa and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Conrad?
19 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Iowa and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Conrad work?
26% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Grundy Center (8%, 11 mi), Waterloo (5%, 32 mi), Eldora (5%, 15 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Conrad walkable?
Conrad is more walkable than 84% 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 Conrad without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 11% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Conrad, from the people who make the trip.
More of Conrad
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.