Photo: C. A. Tucker · CC BY-SA 3.0Household incomes in Greenfield are lower than in 79% of U.S. towns
About one in three work in Greenfield; the top destination outside it is Creston (5%, 18 miles). The poverty rate is 14.3%, where Iowa as a whole has 11.1%. For jobs and income Greenfield is better than 12% of U.S. towns (D); for walkability it is more walkable than 61% of U.S. towns (B).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Greenfield apart on work
How Greenfield earns its Jobs & income grade
All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Greenfield’s grade.
Unemployment (0.3%) is left out: Greenfield’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, Greenfield could be anywhere from D− to C.
The daily flow of workers through Greenfield
On a workday 573 residents head out to work, 309 work right here, and 1,017 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,500 people are in Greenfield on a workday afternoon, 21% more than live here.
1.5 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.
The daily trip into Greenfield
Where Greenfield 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.
30% of the jobs in Greenfield make or build things
1,326 jobs are based in Greenfield.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Greenfield, 2013 → 2023: 1,363 → 1,326. 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 Greenfield’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Time on the road from Greenfield: about 17 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Greenfield workers work from home, vs 11% across Iowa. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 830 commuters (the 6% 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 Greenfield works
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 commute in Greenfield is mostly behind the wheel
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 881 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). 8.6% of Greenfield households have no vehicle (Iowa 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 2% of Greenfield’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Greenfield is 4,779th among 5,793 U.S. towns of 1,400 to 2,800
| # | 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 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 148 | Van Meter IA | 1,978 | $135K | 2.6% | 1.9% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 181 | Ely IA | 2,366 | $106K | 2.4% | 1.5% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 219 | Granger IA | 2,179 | $112K | 3.4% | 2.1% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 4,777 | Tyrone NY | 1,557 | $72K | 21.2% | 9.4% | 2% | D |
| 4,778 | Black Canyon City AZ | 2,181 | $47K | 13.3% | 10.5% | 5% | D |
| 4,779 | Greenfield IA | 2,070 | $57K | 14.3% | 0.3% | 35% | D |
| 4,780 | Flora MS | 1,677 | $37K | 27.9% | 5.7% | 8% | D |
| 4,781 | Kahoka MO | 1,962 | $48K | 11.0% | 9.3% | 35% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,793 | 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 Greenfield, 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 Greenfield: questions
What is the median household income in Greenfield?
$56,607 (±$10,345) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,059 across Iowa and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Greenfield?
14.3%, against 11.1% across Iowa and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Greenfield?
17 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Iowa and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Greenfield work?
35% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Creston (5%, 18 mi), Des Moines (5%, 48 mi), West Des Moines (3%, 39 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Greenfield walkable?
Greenfield is more walkable than 61% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 7.4 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Greenfield without a car?
2% of commuters take transit and 9% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Greenfield, from the people who make the trip.
More of Greenfield
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.