Photo: Billwhittaker at English Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0Dike has 0.5 jobs for every working resident, so most commute out
316 jobs are based in Dike for 602 working residents. For jobs and income Dike is better than 74% of U.S. towns (B+); for walkability it is more walkable than 68% of U.S. towns (B+). Only 5% stay in Dike for work; outside it, Waterloo is the main destination (27%, 14 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The four measures behind Dike’s grade
The poverty rate is its strongest input (5.4%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car ranks lowest, though still above most U.S. towns (ahead of 50% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income and job access by car.
Unemployment (1.5%) is left out: Dike’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, Dike could be anywhere from B− to A.
The workday shuffle in and out of Dike
On a workday 573 residents head out to work, 29 work right here, and 287 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,000 people are in Dike on a workday afternoon, 22% fewer 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.
Where the trip to work from Dike ends
Where Dike clocks in
27% of workers
20% 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.
Mostly services: health care, schools and offices
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Dike, 2013 → 2023: 179 → 316. 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 Dike’s own residents hold wherever they work.
A commute of about 20 minutes in Dike
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Dike workers work from home, vs 11% across Iowa. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 601 commuters (the 10% 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.
Near or far: the trip to work from Dike
About 19% 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 Dike, most people drive to work
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 670 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 Dike households have no vehicle (Iowa 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Dike’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 5,400 U.S. towns of 900 to 1,800, Dike comes 760th 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 104 | University Heights IA | 1,177 | $111K | 14.5% | 1.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 123 | Walford IA | 1,359 | $129K | 1.1% | 2.8% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 239 | Slater IA | 1,617 | $98K | 3.8% | 1.1% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 758 | Guilford Lake OH | 1,307 | $93K | 5.7% | 2.8% | 1% | B+ |
| 759 | Somonauk IL | 1,770 | $85K | 3.9% | 5.2% | 4% | B+ |
| 760 | Dike IA | 1,299 | $91K | 5.4% | 1.5% | 5% | B+ |
| 761 | Beach Haven NJ | 1,066 | $144K | 3.7% | 2.5% | 15% | B+ |
| 762 | Eel River Township IN | 1,762 | $86K | 4.7% | 0.8% | 3% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,400 | 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 Dike, 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 Dike: questions
What is the median household income in Dike?
$91,146 (±$16,450) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,059 across Iowa and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Dike?
5.4%, against 11.1% across Iowa and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Dike?
20 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Iowa and 26 nationally. 10% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Dike work?
5% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Waterloo (27%, 14 mi), Cedar Falls (20%, 10 mi), Reinbeck (10%, 10 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Dike walkable?
Dike is more walkable than 68% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 7.9 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Dike 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 Dike, from the people who make the trip.
More of Dike
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.