Photo: Bobak Ha'Eri · CC BY 3.0Decorah draws 4,122 commuters a day, with 1.8 jobs for every working resident
The two grades for Decorah are C+ for jobs and income and A for walkability. Decorah has 5,538 jobs, and 3,071 of its residents work somewhere. About half work in Decorah; the top destination outside it is Cedar Rapids (3%, 93 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Decorah: the figures worth knowing
Decorah is where the jobs are
Decorah has 5,538 jobs, 1.8 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Commutes from Decorah are quick
The average trip to work takes 13 minutes, against 20 across Iowa. That’s about 54 hours a year less on the road than the typical Iowa worker. Time on the road ↓
Decorah draws workers from far and wide
The 5,538 jobs in Decorah are filled from a wide area. Decorah’s own residents hold 26% and the ten next-biggest home towns 14%; the other 60% come from many towns beyond those. The commute map ↓
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.
Where Decorah’s Jobs & income grade comes from
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Decorah is better than 41% of U.S. towns, #90 of 140 in Iowa. The poverty rate holds Decorah’s grade up (8.1%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 28% of U.S. towns). It also does well on unemployment.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Decorah could be anywhere from C− to B.
In and out of Decorah on a workday
On a workday 1,655 residents head out to work and 1,416 work right here.
About 9,900 people are in Decorah on a workday afternoon, 33% more than live here.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
The daily trip from Decorah: about 13 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 4.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Decorah workers work from home, vs 11% across Iowa. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,569 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.
Where Decorah’s workers come from
Where Decorah clocks in
3% 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.
The kinds of work in Decorah
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Decorah, 2013 → 2023: 5,620 → 5,538. 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 Decorah’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Short hops and long hauls from Decorah
About 29% 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.
In Decorah, walking beats the bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Decorah is more walkable than 90% of U.S. towns, #5 of 140 in Iowa. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 26.9% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 4.4% across Iowa, on an EPA index of 8.2.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 4,001 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). 7.9% of Decorah households have no vehicle (Iowa 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Decorah’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 5,200 to 10,000, Decorah ranks 2,032nd of 3,083 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 138 | Eldridge IA | 6,954 | $106K | 1.3% | 1.0% | 15% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 182 | Bondurant IA | 9,647 | $136K | 6.2% | 0.9% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 209 | Asbury IA | 6,035 | $125K | 3.2% | 1.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,030 | Riverside Township NJ | 8,231 | $76K | 18.9% | 7.8% | 3% | C+ |
| 2,031 | Elsmere DE | 6,196 | $68K | 23.1% | 4.8% | 2% | C+ |
| 2,032 | Decorah IA | 7,417 | $64K | 8.1% | 4.0% | 46% | C+ |
| 2,033 | Chehalis WA | 7,764 | $74K | 15.0% | 4.0% | 17% | C+ |
| 2,034 | Stroudsburg PA | 5,809 | $67K | 12.0% | 5.0% | 13% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,083 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 14% | 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 Decorah, 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 Decorah: questions
What is the median household income in Decorah?
$64,366 (±$4,690) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,059 across Iowa and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Decorah?
8.1%, against 11.1% across Iowa and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Decorah?
13 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Iowa and 26 nationally. 11% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Decorah work?
46% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Cedar Rapids (3%, 93 mi), Cresco (2%, 17 mi), Waterloo (2%, 63 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Decorah walkable?
Decorah is more walkable than 90% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 8.2 out of 20, and 27% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Decorah without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Decorah, from the people who make the trip.
More of Decorah
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.