Photo: Magicpiano · CC BY-SA 4.0Household incomes in Lake View are lower than in 60% of U.S. towns
8.8% of residents live below the poverty line, where Iowa as a whole has 11.1%. For jobs and income Lake View is better than 30% of U.S. towns (C); for walkability it is more walkable than 75% of U.S. towns (B+). About one in seven work in Lake View; the top destination outside it is Sac City (9%, 8 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Lake View
Lake View makes and builds things
53% of the jobs based in Lake View are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Lake View residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 28%. The jobs ↓
A big share show a job far from home
31% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. 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 491 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Lake View’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
The poverty rate holds Lake View’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 12% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (0.6%) is left out: Lake View’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Lake View could be anywhere from D to B−.
Making and building: 53% of jobs based in Lake View
572 jobs are based in Lake View.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Lake View, 2013 → 2023: 567 → 572. 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 Lake View’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Miles to work from Lake View
About 31% 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.
Who commutes out of Lake View, and who commutes in
On a workday 415 residents head out to work, 76 work right here, and 496 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.16 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Where Lake View’s working residents head each day
Where Lake View clocks in
9% of workers
9% 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.
About 19 minutes to work from Lake View
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Lake View workers work from home, vs 11% across Iowa. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 449 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.
Getting around Lake View: mostly by car
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 487 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). 3.1% of Lake View households have no vehicle (Iowa 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 2% of Lake View’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Lake View is 2,118th 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% | 1% | 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 |
| … | |||||||
| 2,116 | Five Points FL | 1,097 | $63K | 11.1% | 10.3% | 1% | C |
| 2,117 | Fairview Park IN | 1,420 | $63K | 11.6% | 5.3% | 1% | C |
| 2,118 | Lake View IA | 1,122 | $69K | 8.8% | 0.6% | 15% | C |
| 2,119 | Le Roy Township MI | 1,291 | $68K | 7.9% | 14.8% | 10% | C |
| 2,120 | Muldraugh KY | 1,009 | $61K | 22.5% | 5.7% | 5% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 3,771 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 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 Lake View, 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 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 Lake View: questions
What is the median household income in Lake View?
$68,618 (±$14,850) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,059 across Iowa and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Lake View?
8.8%, against 11.1% across Iowa and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Lake View?
19 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 View work?
15% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Sac City (9%, 8 mi), Carroll (9%, 18 mi), Auburn (3%, 9 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Lake View walkable?
Lake View is more walkable than 75% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 7.7 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Lake View without a car?
2% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Lake View, from the people who make the trip.
More of Lake View
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.