Photo: City of Hawarden Staff · Public domainHawarden has lower unemployment (1.7%) than 88% of U.S. towns
Commuters spend 15 minutes getting to work on average; the Iowa average is 20, the U.S. 26. Jobs and income earn Hawarden B; getting around on foot earns it C+. About one in five stay in Hawarden for work; outside it, Sioux Center is the main destination (10%, 17 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Hawarden in brief
Hawarden’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Hawarden is better than 59% of U.S. towns, #57 of 140 in Iowa. Unemployment holds Hawarden’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 20% of U.S. towns). It also does well on the poverty rate.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Hawarden could be anywhere from C+ to A−.
Hawarden’s commute takes about 15 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 4.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Hawarden workers work from home, vs 11% across Iowa. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,059 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 Hawarden, and who commutes in
On a workday 936 residents head out to work, 277 work right here, and 597 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,300 people are in Hawarden on a workday afternoon, 13% fewer than live here.
0.72 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute out.
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 Hawarden work
Where Hawarden clocks in
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.
What the 874 jobs in Hawarden are
874 jobs are based in Hawarden.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Hawarden, 2014 → 2024: 896 → 874. 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 Hawarden’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How far Hawarden goes to work
About 17% 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.
Hawarden is a driving town
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Hawarden is more walkable than 38% of U.S. towns, #124 of 140 in Iowa. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 4.4% across Iowa.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,182 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). 5.9% of Hawarden households have no vehicle (Iowa 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Hawarden’s commuters take a bus or train.
1,753rd of 4,797: where Hawarden ranks among U.S. towns of 1,900 to 3,600
| # | 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% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 131 | Solon IA | 3,345 | $113K | 3.2% | 0.9% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 135 | Van Meter IA | 1,978 | $135K | 2.6% | 1.9% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 170 | Ely IA | 2,366 | $106K | 2.4% | 1.5% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,751 | Sturgis Township MI | 2,022 | $70K | 4.9% | 4.3% | 7% | B |
| 1,752 | Dinsmore Township OH | 3,445 | $91K | 4.1% | 6.8% | 11% | B |
| 1,753 | Hawarden IA | 2,665 | $74K | 7.2% | 1.7% | 23% | B |
| 1,754 | Guntown MS | 2,616 | $96K | 9.8% | 3.4% | 2% | B |
| 1,755 | Spring Bay Township IL | 2,529 | $76K | 9.7% | 4.0% | 8% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 4,797 | Cibecue AZ | 2,228 | $26K | 57.2% | 13.3% | 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 Hawarden, the top three, the last and three more from Iowa.
Hawarden and its neighbors
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Hawarden workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hawarden | – | B | C+ | 15 min | $74,167 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Hawarden’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 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 Hawarden: questions
What is the median household income in Hawarden?
$74,167 (±$9,605) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,059 across Iowa and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Hawarden?
7.2%, against 11.1% across Iowa and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Hawarden?
15 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Iowa and 26 nationally. 10% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Hawarden work?
23% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Sioux Center (10%, 17 mi), Rock Valley (9%, 17 mi), Orange City (5%, 22 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Hawarden walkable?
Hawarden is more walkable than 38% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 7.4 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Hawarden without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Hawarden, from the people who make the trip.
More of Hawarden
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.