Photo: Jared Winkler · CC BY-SA 4.0Dunlap’s household incomes are lower than in 89% of U.S. towns
Home is the office for 3% of workers, next to 11% for Iowa as a whole. Poverty touches 7.2% of residents, where Iowa as a whole has 11.1%. Dunlap grades C− for jobs and income and B for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work and commuting in Dunlap, in brief
Dunlap’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Dunlap is Omaha, NE, 47 miles away as the crow flies. 9% of working residents (40) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Stores, warehouses and trucking
54% of the jobs in Dunlap are in trade, transport and utilities, against 27% of the jobs its residents hold. The jobs ↓
Dunlap workers spend longer getting to work
The average trip takes 25 minutes each way, against 20 across Iowa. Over a year that’s about 192 hours of commuting, 38 more than the state’s typical worker. Time on the road ↓
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; with 438 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
The figures behind Dunlap’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Dunlap is better than 21% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Dunlap’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 10% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (5.7%) is left out: Dunlap’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, Dunlap could be anywhere from D to C+.
How far Dunlap goes to work
About 23% 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.
The 402 jobs based in Dunlap
402 jobs are based in Dunlap.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Dunlap, 2013 → 2023: 448 → 402. 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 Dunlap’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Getting to work from Dunlap takes about 25 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Dunlap workers work from home, vs 11% across Iowa. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 567 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.
Who leaves Dunlap for work, and who comes in
On a workday 376 residents head out to work, 62 work right here, and 340 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (0.92 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.
9% of working residents work in Omaha
Where Dunlap clocks in
9% of workers
9% of workers
9% 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 commute in Dunlap is mostly behind the wheel
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Dunlap is more walkable than 56% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 2.0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 4.4% across Iowa.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 586 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). 5.4% of Dunlap households have no vehicle (Iowa 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Dunlap’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Dunlap ranks: 2,090th of 3,133 U.S. towns of 700 to 1,400
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 54 | University Heights IA | 1,177 | $111K | 14.5% | 1.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 63 | Walford IA | 1,359 | $129K | 1.1% | 2.8% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 119 | Gilbert IA | 1,389 | $123K | 3.4% | 4.1% | 8% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 2,088 | Windsor IL | 1,035 | $63K | 15.3% | 2.8% | 6% | C− |
| 2,089 | Converse IN | 1,128 | $66K | 18.9% | 4.6% | 5% | C− |
| 2,090 | Dunlap IA | 1,030 | $49K | 7.2% | 5.7% | 14% | C− |
| 2,091 | Hamer SC | 1,042 | $64K | 16.2% | 5.1% | 2% | C− |
| 2,092 | Leesburg AL | 1,009 | $57K | 10.8% | 2.6% | 5% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,133 | 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 Dunlap, 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 Dunlap: questions
What is the median household income in Dunlap?
$49,375 (±$8,851) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,059 across Iowa and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Dunlap?
7.2%, against 11.1% across Iowa and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Dunlap?
25 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Iowa and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Dunlap work?
14% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Omaha (9%, 47 mi), Woodbine (9%, 10 mi), Denison (9%, 17 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Dunlap walkable?
Dunlap is more walkable than 56% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 7.7 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Dunlap without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 5% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Dunlap, from the people who make the trip.
More of Dunlap
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.