Fairbank has 0.6 jobs for every working resident, so most commute out
There are 267 jobs in Fairbank for 470 working residents. Fairbank grades B+ for jobs and income and C− for walkability. Only 4% stay in Fairbank for work; outside it, Waterloo is the main destination (15%, 18 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Fairbank: the figures worth knowing
What’s behind Fairbank’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Fairbank is better than 68% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Fairbank’s grade up (4.1%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 32% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income.
Unemployment (1.4%) is left out: Fairbank’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, Fairbank could be anywhere from C+ to A−.
About 26 minutes each way for Fairbank’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Fairbank workers work from home, vs 11% across Iowa. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 580 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.
How many people are in Fairbank by day
On a workday 449 residents head out to work, 21 work right here, and 246 people come in from elsewhere.
About 940 people are in Fairbank on a workday afternoon, 18% 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 2024, primary jobs.
Out of Fairbank to work: where people go
Where Fairbank clocks in
15% of workers
13% 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 Fairbank’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Fairbank, 2014 → 2024: 258 → 267. 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 2024.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Fairbank’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The commute from Fairbank, by distance
About 27% 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 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Fairbank is a driving town
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Fairbank is more walkable than 21% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Fairbank near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 642 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). 4.7% of Fairbank households have no vehicle (Iowa 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Fairbank’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 800 to 1,500, Fairbank ranks 673rd 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% | 2% | 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 |
| … | |||||||
| 671 | Independence Township PA | 1,483 | $90K | 3.3% | 9.9% | 1% | B+ |
| 672 | Dillon CO | 1,029 | $111K | 4.1% | 2.6% | 8% | B+ |
| 673 | Fairbank IA | 1,145 | $90K | 4.1% | 1.4% | 4% | B+ |
| 674 | Washington Township IN | 1,173 | $73K | 0.0% | 0.0% | 2% | B+ |
| 675 | Mill Creek Township OH | 1,050 | $121K | 5.8% | 0.0% | 2% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,771 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 1% | 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 Fairbank, 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 2024, 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 Fairbank: questions
What is the median household income in Fairbank?
$89,712 (±$28,185) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,059 across Iowa and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Fairbank?
4.1%, against 11.1% across Iowa and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Fairbank?
26 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Iowa and 26 nationally. 10% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Fairbank work?
4% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Waterloo (15%, 18 mi), Oelwein (13%, 7 mi), Independence (8%, 14 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Fairbank walkable?
Fairbank is more walkable than 21% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 5.8 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Fairbank 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 Fairbank, from the people who make the trip.
More of Fairbank
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2024, 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.