Waterloo draws about two in five of Hudson’s working residents
Measured by household income, Hudson is ahead of 88% of U.S. towns. The two grades for Hudson are A− for jobs and income and C+ for walkability. Only 7% work in Hudson itself; outside it, Waterloo draws the most (43%, 6 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Hudson, in a few figures
43% of Hudson works in Waterloo
524 working residents, 43%, have their main job in Waterloo, 6.4 miles away. That’s 6 times as many as work in Hudson itself. The commute map ↓
Most Hudson residents work close to home
71% 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.
What’s behind Hudson’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Hudson is better than 80% of U.S. towns, #28 of 140 in Iowa. Household income holds Hudson’s grade up ($120,481, U.S. $80,734); unemployment pulls it down (4.5%, U.S. 5.2%). It also does well on the poverty rate and job access by car.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Hudson could be anywhere from B to A+.
Where people from Hudson work
Where Hudson clocks in
43% of workers
23% 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.
How many miles Hudson commutes
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 2023.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
How a workday changes Hudson
On a workday 1,130 residents head out to work, 85 work right here, and 602 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,500 people are in Hudson on a workday afternoon, 17% fewer than live here.
0.57 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 2023, primary jobs.
Jobs in Hudson: what the 687 are
687 jobs are based in Hudson.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Hudson, 2013 → 2023: 700 → 687. 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 Hudson’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Time on the road from Hudson: about 17 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Hudson workers work from home, vs 11% across Iowa. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,191 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.
For most of Hudson, work means a drive
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Hudson is more walkable than 40% of U.S. towns, #122 of 140 in Iowa. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 2.4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 4.4% across Iowa, on an EPA index of 5.8.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,322 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). 1.6% of Hudson households have no vehicle (Iowa 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Hudson’s commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, Hudson is 824th of 4,771 U.S. towns of 2,100 to 4,100
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 146 | Solon IA | 3,345 | $113K | 3.2% | 0.9% | 9% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 188 | Ely IA | 2,366 | $106K | 2.4% | 1.5% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 236 | Granger IA | 2,179 | $112K | 3.4% | 2.1% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 822 | Cheney KS | 2,178 | $85K | 6.9% | 0.6% | 16% | A− |
| 823 | Ravenna Township MN | 2,282 | $131K | 1.6% | 5.5% | 1% | A− |
| 824 | Hudson IA | 3,028 | $120K | 4.0% | 4.5% | 7% | A− |
| 825 | Sherrill NY | 2,973 | $89K | 5.7% | 2.0% | 7% | A− |
| 826 | Van Buren Township OH | 2,119 | $105K | 7.8% | 0.6% | 1% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,771 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 18% | 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 Hudson, the top three, the last and three more from Iowa.
Hudson and its neighbors: 23% work next door
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Hudson workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hudson | – | A− | C+ | 17 min | $120,481 |
| Cedar Falls | 23% | A− | A− | 14 min | $76,987 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Cedar Falls. Darker towns draw more of Hudson’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 Hudson: questions
What is the median household income in Hudson?
$120,481 (±$15,503) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,059 across Iowa and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Hudson?
4.0%, against 11.1% across Iowa and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Hudson?
17 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Iowa and 26 nationally. 10% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Hudson work?
7% work in town.
Is Hudson walkable?
Hudson is more walkable than 40% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 5.8 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Hudson without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Hudson, from the people who make the trip.
More of Hudson
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.