Photo: PopePompus · CC BY-SA 4.0Grimes’ household incomes are higher than in 88% of U.S. towns
Grimes grades A+ for jobs and income and B for walkability. Poverty touches 4.4% of residents, next to 11.1% for Iowa as a whole. Home is the office for 22% 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
What the numbers say about work in Grimes
Grimes trades workers with the towns around it
Grimes has about as many jobs (7,868) as working residents (8,618), but they are mostly different people: 7,835 residents leave for work each day while 7,085 people come in. Only 10% of the jobs in Grimes are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
Grimes has added jobs fast
Jobs based in Grimes went from 4,199 in 2013 to 7,868 in 2023, +87%. The jobs ↓
Grimes and Des Moines trade workers both ways
Des Moines is the top workplace for Grimes residents (21%) and also where the most people who work in Grimes come from (18% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Home offices are common in Grimes
22% of Grimes workers work from home, against 11% across Iowa. Time on the road ↓
Most Grimes residents work close to home
60% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home. How far ↓
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; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Grimes
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Grimes is better than 96% of U.S. towns, #3 of 140 in Iowa. All four inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Grimes’ grade. It also does well on the poverty rate and unemployment and job access by car.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Grimes could be anywhere from A− to A+.
The daily commute in and out of Grimes
On a workday 7,835 residents head out to work, 783 work right here, and 7,085 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 (0.91 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.
What Grimes’ employers do
7,868 jobs are based in Grimes.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Grimes, 2013 → 2023: 4,199 → 7,868. 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 Grimes’s own residents hold wherever they work.
21% of working residents work in Des Moines
Where Grimes clocks in
18% of workers
10% 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.
About 20 minutes each way, about the IA average
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Grimes workers work from home, vs 11% across Iowa. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 7,500 commuters (the 22% 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.
Near or far: the trip to work from Grimes
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 Grimes walk, bike or ride to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Grimes is more walkable than 56% of U.S. towns, #100 of 140 in Iowa.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 9,660 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 34% 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 0.8 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 55% 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). 8.7% of Grimes households have no vehicle (Iowa 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Grimes’ commuters take a bus or train.
Grimes places 109th of 1,999 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 12,000 to 23,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Plain Township OH | 13,257 | $219K | 2.1% | 0.8% | 10% | A+ |
| 2 | Rogers MN | 15,606 | $159K | 1.9% | 1.2% | 10% | A+ |
| 3 | Trophy Club TX | 13,695 | $201K | 2.1% | 2.0% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 107 | Tolland CT | 14,752 | $133K | 5.3% | 1.2% | 9% | A+ |
| 108 | Kings Park West VA | 13,442 | $170K | 6.2% | 2.5% | 2% | A+ |
| 109 | Grimes IA | 17,405 | $120K | 4.4% | 1.9% | 9% | A+ |
| 110 | Algoma Township MI | 12,454 | $123K | 4.0% | 1.8% | 3% | A+ |
| 111 | North Reading MA | 16,553 | $148K | 2.7% | 3.6% | 8% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 387 | Norwalk IA | 15,004 | $103K | 4.2% | 3.4% | 9% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 504 | Clive IA | 19,861 | $132K | 7.3% | 4.0% | 7% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 582 | North Liberty IA | 21,976 | $102K | 6.1% | 3.3% | 9% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,999 | Douglas AZ | 16,038 | $42K | 27.8% | 12.3% | 29% | 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 Grimes, the top three, the last and three more from Iowa.
The towns next door employ 17% of Grimes
The biggest share goes to Urbandale (10%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
Darker towns draw more of Grimes’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
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 Grimes: questions
What is the median household income in Grimes?
$120,037 (±$11,554) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,059 across Iowa and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Grimes?
4.4%, against 11.1% across Iowa and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Grimes?
20 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Iowa and 26 nationally. 22% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Grimes work?
9% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Des Moines (21%, 12 mi), West Des Moines (18%, 9 mi), Urbandale (10%, 3 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Grimes walkable?
Grimes is more walkable than 56% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 8.7 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Grimes without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 9% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Grimes, from the people who make the trip.
More of Grimes
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.