Photo: Billwhittaker · CC BY-SA 3.0Households in Harlan earn less than those in 78% of U.S. towns
About two in five work in Harlan itself; outside it, Omaha draws the most (6%, 46 miles). Below the poverty line: 9.1% of residents, next to 11.1% for Iowa as a whole. Jobs and income earn Harlan C; getting around on foot earns it B+.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The work figures that set Harlan apart
What’s behind Harlan’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Harlan is better than 27% of U.S. towns, #116 of 140 in Iowa. The poverty rate holds Harlan’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 20% of U.S. towns).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Harlan could be anywhere from D to B.
A commute of about 14 minutes in Harlan
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 4.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Harlan workers work from home, vs 11% across Iowa. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,940 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.
Who commutes out of Harlan, and who commutes in
On a workday 1,208 residents head out to work, 913 work right here, and 1,996 people come in from elsewhere.
About 5,600 people are in Harlan on a workday afternoon, 16% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.37 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2024, primary jobs.
Where people from Harlan work
Where Harlan clocks in
6% of workers
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.
The kinds of work in Harlan
2,909 jobs are based in Harlan.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Harlan, 2014 → 2024: 3,299 → 2,909. 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 Harlan’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How far Harlan goes to work
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 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
For most of Harlan, work means a drive
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Harlan is more walkable than 73% of U.S. towns, #61 of 140 in Iowa. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 5.3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 4.4% across Iowa, on an EPA index of 7.3.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 2,161 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). 4.5% of Harlan households have no vehicle (Iowa 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Harlan’s commuters take a bus or train.
Harlan next to U.S. towns of 3,400 to 6,600: 2,909th of 3,840 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Mission Hills KS | 3,522 | $250K | 1.2% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 217 | Asbury IA | 6,035 | $125K | 3.2% | 1.2% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 247 | Huxley IA | 4,715 | $112K | 4.5% | 1.3% | 7% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 330 | Windsor Heights IA | 5,059 | $92K | 6.2% | 1.4% | 3% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 2,907 | Glendive MT | 4,736 | $73K | 13.5% | 4.3% | 46% | C |
| 2,908 | Lakehills TX | 6,130 | $90K | 12.4% | 8.8% | 3% | C |
| 2,909 | Harlan IA | 4,859 | $57K | 9.1% | 4.8% | 43% | C |
| 2,910 | Columbia Falls MT | 5,753 | $76K | 15.2% | 5.6% | 17% | C |
| 2,911 | Waterford Township OH | 3,458 | $58K | 15.1% | 2.8% | 16% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 3,840 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 19% | 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 Harlan, 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 Harlan: questions
What is the median household income in Harlan?
$57,488 (±$12,331) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,059 across Iowa and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Harlan?
9.1%, against 11.1% across Iowa and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Harlan?
14 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Iowa and 26 nationally. 10% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Harlan work?
43% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Omaha (6%, 46 mi), Council Bluffs (5%, 40 mi), Denison (3%, 25 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Harlan walkable?
Harlan is more walkable than 73% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 7.3 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Harlan without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Harlan, from the people who make the trip.
More of Harlan
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.