Kellow House · Photo: Jon Roanhaus · CC BY-SA 3.0At 1.2%, unemployment in Cresco is lower than in 93% of U.S. towns
About two in five work in Cresco; the top destination outside it is Decorah (7%, 17 miles). The two grades for Cresco are C+ for jobs and income and A− for walkability. Measured by household income, Cresco is behind 73% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Income, poverty and work: Cresco’s grade explained
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Cresco is better than 41% of U.S. towns, #91 of 140 in Iowa. Unemployment holds Cresco’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 20% of U.S. towns).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Cresco could be anywhere from C− to B.
Who leaves Cresco for work, and who comes in
On a workday 1,031 residents head out to work, 826 work right here, and 1,415 people come in from elsewhere.
About 4,300 people are in Cresco on a workday afternoon, 10% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.21 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 Cresco’s working residents head each day
Where Cresco clocks in
7% of workers
2% 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.
Goods jobs make up 34% of work in Cresco
2,241 jobs are based in Cresco.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Cresco, 2013 → 2023: 2,475 → 2,241. 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 Cresco’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Cresco’s commute takes about 18 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Cresco workers work from home, vs 11% across Iowa. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,726 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.
How far Cresco goes to work
About 24% 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.
Cresco 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, Cresco is more walkable than 83% of U.S. towns, #30 of 140 in Iowa. Both inputs place Cresco 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 1,887 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). 2.2% of Cresco households have no vehicle (Iowa 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Cresco’s commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, Cresco is 2,666th of 4,364 U.S. towns of 2,700 to 5,300
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Mission Hills KS | 3,522 | $250K | 1.2% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Ho-Ho-Kus NJ | 4,313 | $250K | 0.0% | 1.7% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 153 | Solon IA | 3,345 | $113K | 3.2% | 0.9% | 9% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 242 | Huxley IA | 4,715 | $112K | 4.5% | 1.3% | 8% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 323 | Windsor Heights IA | 5,059 | $92K | 6.2% | 1.4% | 3% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 2,664 | Oregon-Nashua Township IL | 4,748 | $81K | 14.1% | 4.7% | 25% | C+ |
| 2,665 | Merrimac VA | 2,733 | $54K | 12.6% | 3.2% | 1% | C+ |
| 2,666 | Cresco IA | 3,925 | $61K | 13.4% | 1.2% | 44% | C+ |
| 2,667 | Slippery Rock PA | 3,551 | $52K | 33.8% | 5.6% | 8% | C+ |
| 2,668 | Schuyler NY | 3,263 | $65K | 7.8% | 6.2% | 3% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,364 | 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 Cresco, 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 Cresco: questions
What is the median household income in Cresco?
$60,608 (±$8,913) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,059 across Iowa and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Cresco?
13.4%, against 11.1% across Iowa and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Cresco?
18 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Iowa and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Cresco work?
44% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Decorah (7%, 17 mi), Cedar Rapids (2%, 100 mi), Lime Springs (2%, 10 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Cresco walkable?
Cresco is more walkable than 83% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 8.5 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Cresco without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Cresco, from the people who make the trip.
More of Cresco
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.