Photo: Ashton B Crew · CC BY 3.0With 0.4 jobs for every working resident, most of Elkhart works elsewhere
182 jobs are based in Elkhart, against 466 working residents. Elkhart grades B for jobs and income and C− for walkability. Hardly any work in Elkhart; the top destination outside it is Des Moines (25%, 16 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Elkhart in brief
How Elkhart earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Elkhart is better than 63% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Elkhart’s grade up (ahead of 73% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (11.7%, U.S. 12.5%). It also does well on household income.
Unemployment (1.3%) is left out: Elkhart’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, Elkhart could be anywhere from C+ to A.
Elkhart’s commute takes about 26 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Elkhart workers work from home, vs 11% across Iowa. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 462 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.
In and out of Elkhart on a workday
On a workday 463 residents head out to work, 3 work right here, and 179 people come in from elsewhere.
About 810 people are in Elkhart on a workday afternoon, 26% 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.
The places Elkhart commutes to
Where Elkhart clocks in
19% of workers
7% 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.
In Elkhart, 61% of jobs are in factories, building or farming
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Elkhart, 2013 → 2023: 29 → 182. 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 Elkhart’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Elkhart’s commute, mile by mile
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.
Few in Elkhart walk, bike or ride to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Elkhart is more walkable than 18% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 2.1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 4.4% across Iowa, on an EPA index of 3.0.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 521 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 0.3% of Elkhart households have no vehicle (Iowa 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 2% of Elkhart’s commuters take a bus or train.
Elkhart next to U.S. towns of 800 to 1,500: 812th of 3,771 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 70 | University Heights IA | 1,177 | $111K | 14.5% | 1.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 83 | Walford IA | 1,359 | $129K | 1.1% | 2.8% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 155 | Gilbert IA | 1,389 | $123K | 3.4% | 4.1% | 8% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 810 | Cambridge Township PA | 1,422 | $82K | 4.2% | 3.4% | 2% | B |
| 811 | Barnard VT | 1,000 | $98K | 2.6% | 4.7% | 2% | B |
| 812 | Elkhart IA | 1,097 | $85K | 11.7% | 1.3% | 1% | B |
| 813 | Woodville WI | 1,389 | $80K | 7.4% | 1.3% | 6% | B |
| 814 | Butler Township OH | 1,431 | $94K | 7.7% | 3.1% | 2% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 3,771 | 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 Elkhart, 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 Elkhart: questions
What is the median household income in Elkhart?
$84,554 (±$13,878) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,059 across Iowa and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Elkhart?
11.7%, against 11.1% across Iowa and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Elkhart?
26 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Iowa and 26 nationally. 11% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Elkhart work?
1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Des Moines (25%, 16 mi), Ankeny (19%, 6 mi), West Des Moines (7%, 22 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Elkhart walkable?
Elkhart is more walkable than 18% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 3.0 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Elkhart without a car?
2% of commuters take transit and <1% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Elkhart, from the people who make the trip.
More of Elkhart
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.