Photo: Kevin Schuchmann · CC BY-SA 3.0There are 2.3 jobs in Elkader for every working resident, and 1,011 people commute in
Elkader grades C for jobs and income and A for walkability. Employers in Elkader report 1,140 jobs for 491 working residents. About one in four work in Elkader itself; outside it, Prairie du Chien draws the most (5%, 19 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Elkader
Inside Elkader’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Elkader is better than 26% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Elkader’s grade up (9.5%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 18% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (0.0%) is left out: Elkader’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Elkader could be anywhere from D to B−.
Who works in Elkader, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 362 residents head out to work and 129 work right here.
About 1,800 people are in Elkader on a workday afternoon, 55% more than live here.
2.3 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than out.
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 Elkader’s workers come from
Where Elkader clocks in
5% of workers
3% 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.
66% of the jobs in Elkader pay over $3,333 a month
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Elkader, 2013 → 2023: 1,154 → 1,140. 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 Elkader’s own residents hold wherever they work.
From Elkader, about 17 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Elkader workers work from home, vs 11% across Iowa. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 507 commuters (the 13% 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 in the region Elkader works
About 20% 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.
Good to walk, short on transit: Elkader
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Elkader is more walkable than 85% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 10.4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 4.4% across Iowa, on an EPA index of 7.9.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 580 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). 5.6% of Elkader households have no vehicle (Iowa 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Elkader’s commuters take a bus or train.
Elkader next to U.S. towns of 800 to 1,600: 2,599th of 4,312 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 83 | University Heights IA | 1,177 | $111K | 14.5% | 1.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 97 | Walford IA | 1,359 | $129K | 1.1% | 2.8% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 185 | Gilbert IA | 1,389 | $123K | 3.4% | 4.1% | 8% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 2,597 | Lake Lure NC | 1,391 | $80K | 11.5% | 6.3% | 17% | C |
| 2,598 | Mount Holly VT | 1,373 | $78K | 11.9% | 1.3% | 2% | C |
| 2,599 | Elkader IA | 1,183 | $63K | 9.5% | 0.0% | 26% | C |
| 2,600 | Pelzer SC | 1,434 | $58K | 26.9% | 5.7% | <1% | C |
| 2,601 | Gordonsville VA | 1,587 | $62K | 14.1% | 1.5% | 5% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 4,312 | 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 Elkader, 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 Elkader: questions
What is the median household income in Elkader?
$62,857 (±$17,268) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,059 across Iowa and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Elkader?
9.5%, against 11.1% across Iowa and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Elkader?
17 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Iowa and 26 nationally. 13% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Elkader work?
26% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Prairie du Chien (5%, 19 mi), Guttenberg (4%, 16 mi), Manchester (3%, 26 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Elkader walkable?
Elkader is more walkable than 85% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 7.9 out of 20, and 10% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Elkader without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Elkader, from the people who make the trip.
More of Elkader
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.