Photo: Jon Roanhaus · CC BY-SA 3.0How Eldora works: jobs, income and commuting
Eldora grades C+ for jobs and income and A− for walkability. About one in four work in Eldora; the top destination outside it is Iowa Falls (7%, 14 miles). Home is the office for 4% of workers, where Iowa as a whole has 11%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jobs and commuting in Eldora: the gist
Eldora trades workers with the towns around it
Eldora has about as many jobs (1,274) as working residents (1,106), but they are mostly different people: 815 residents leave for work each day while 983 people come in. Only 23% of the jobs in Eldora are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
A big share show a job far from home
32% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. How far ↓
Few Eldora workers work from home
Only 4% of workers work from home, against 11% across Iowa. Almost everyone here travels to a job. 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.
How the Jobs & income grade adds up in Eldora
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Eldora is better than 36% of U.S. towns, #98 of 140 in Iowa. Unemployment holds Eldora’s grade up (4.0%, U.S. 5.2%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 17% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Eldora could be anywhere from D to B+.
Who commutes out of Eldora, and who commutes in
On a workday 815 residents head out to work, 291 work right here, and 983 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 (1.15 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.
How far Eldora’s workers travel
About 32% 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 daily trip from Eldora: about 20 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Eldora workers work from home, vs 11% across Iowa. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,147 commuters (the 4% 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 Eldora’s working residents head each day
Where Eldora clocks in
7% of workers
4% 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 work there is in Eldora: 1,274 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Eldora, 2013 → 2023: 1,322 → 1,274. 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 Eldora’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Good to walk, short on transit: Eldora
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Eldora is more walkable than 80% of U.S. towns, #38 of 140 in Iowa. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 6.6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 4.4% across Iowa, on an EPA index of 7.8.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,195 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). 5.2% of Eldora households have no vehicle (Iowa 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Eldora’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 5,083 U.S. towns of 1,800 to 3,500, Eldora comes 3,024th on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 140 | Solon IA | 3,345 | $113K | 3.2% | 0.9% | 9% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 143 | Van Meter IA | 1,978 | $135K | 2.6% | 1.9% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 178 | Ely IA | 2,366 | $106K | 2.4% | 1.5% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,022 | Jefferson Township PA | 1,853 | $68K | 13.0% | 4.3% | 2% | C+ |
| 3,023 | Soda Springs ID | 3,165 | $57K | 12.0% | 1.0% | 40% | C+ |
| 3,024 | Eldora IA | 2,593 | $77K | 12.0% | 4.0% | 26% | C+ |
| 3,025 | Beech Creek Township IN | 2,429 | $77K | 14.5% | 3.8% | 1% | C+ |
| 3,026 | Bristol Township OH | 2,655 | $69K | 19.9% | 3.5% | 4% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,083 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Eldora, 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 Eldora: questions
What is the median household income in Eldora?
$77,188 (±$10,675) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,059 across Iowa and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Eldora?
12.0%, against 11.1% across Iowa and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Eldora?
20 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Iowa and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Eldora work?
26% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Iowa Falls (7%, 14 mi), Marshalltown (4%, 25 mi), Des Moines (4%, 60 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Eldora walkable?
Eldora is more walkable than 80% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 7.8 out of 20, and 7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Eldora without a car?
0% 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 Eldora, from the people who make the trip.
More of Eldora
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.