Photo: Billwhittaker · CC BY-SA 3.0More than half of Hills’ working residents commute to Iowa City
Only 2% work in Hills; the top destination outside it is Iowa City (52%, 7 miles). Commuters spend 18 minutes getting to work on average; the Iowa average is 20, the U.S. 26. There are 577 jobs in Hills for 379 working residents.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Hills, in brief
More than half of Hills works in Iowa City
197 working residents, 52%, have their main job in Iowa City, 6.8 miles away. That’s 26 times as many as work in Hills itself. The commute map ↓
Hills is where the jobs are
Hills has 577 jobs, 1.5 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Most Hills residents work close to home
66% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home, about two in three. 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; with 379 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
The towns that send workers to Hills
Where Hills clocks in
8% of workers
7% 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 daily commute in and out of Hills
On a workday 372 residents head out to work, 7 work right here, and 570 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,100 people are in Hills on a workday afternoon, 22% 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.
Miles to work from Hills
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.
76% of the jobs in Hills pay over $3,333 a month
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Hills, 2013 → 2023: 161 → 577. 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 Hills’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How long Hills spends getting to work: about 18 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Hills workers work from home, vs 11% across Iowa. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 554 commuters (the 12% 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.
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 Hills: questions
What is the median household income in Hills?
$83,333 (±$10,406) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,059 across Iowa and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Hills?
8.4%, against 11.1% across Iowa and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Hills?
18 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Iowa and 26 nationally. 12% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Hills work?
2% work in town.
Can you get around Hills without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 1% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Hills, from the people who make the trip.
More of Hills
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.