Making a living in Lake Park
Commuters spend 21 minutes getting to work on average; the Iowa average is 20, the U.S. 26. Lake Park grades B− for jobs and income and C+ for walkability. About one in ten stay in Lake Park for work; outside it, Spirit Lake is the main destination (18%, 11 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Breaking down the Jobs & income grade for Lake Park
On income, poverty and job access, Lake Park is better than 51% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Lake Park’s grade up (4.6%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 20% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (1.6%) is left out: Lake Park’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Lake Park could be anywhere from C− to B+.
The daily flow of workers through Lake Park
On a workday 497 residents head out to work, 53 work right here, and 272 people come in from elsewhere.
About 890 people are in Lake Park on a workday afternoon, 20% fewer than live here.
0.59 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.
The places Lake Park commutes to
Where Lake Park clocks in
18% 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.
Inside Lake Park’s 325 jobs
325 jobs are based in Lake Park.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Lake Park, 2014 → 2024: 359 → 325. 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 Lake Park’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Getting to work from Lake Park takes about 21 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Lake Park workers work from home, vs 11% across Iowa. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 573 commuters (the 8% 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.
Lake Park’s commute, mile by mile
About 24% 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.
In Lake Park, most people drive to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Lake Park is more walkable than 38% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.1% 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 624 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). 1.9% of Lake Park households have no vehicle (Iowa 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Lake Park’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Lake Park is 1,205th among 3,771 U.S. towns of 800 to 1,500
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | 1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 70 | University Heights IA | 1,177 | $111K | 14.5% | 1.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 83 | Walford IA | 1,359 | $129K | 1.1% | 2.8% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 155 | Gilbert IA | 1,389 | $123K | 3.4% | 4.1% | 8% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,203 | Greenfield Township IN | 1,363 | $65K | 3.9% | 0.0% | 1% | B− |
| 1,204 | Irondale Township MN | 1,272 | $87K | 6.2% | 12.5% | <1% | B− |
| 1,205 | Lake Park IA | 1,111 | $75K | 4.6% | 1.6% | 10% | B− |
| 1,206 | Christiana PA | 1,096 | $75K | 13.1% | 1.9% | 3% | B− |
| 1,207 | Pine City Township MN | 1,399 | $86K | 5.4% | 2.3% | 1% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,771 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 1% | 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 Lake Park, 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 Lake Park: questions
What is the median household income in Lake Park?
$74,500 (±$19,956) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,059 across Iowa and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Lake Park?
4.6%, against 11.1% across Iowa and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Lake Park?
21 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Iowa and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Lake Park work?
10% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Spirit Lake (18%, 11 mi), Spencer (8%, 22 mi), Milford (7%, 12 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Lake Park walkable?
Lake Park is more walkable than 38% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 7.0 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Lake Park 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 Lake Park, from the people who make the trip.
More of Lake Park
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.