Photo: Billwhittaker · CC BY-SA 3.0Lisbon’s household incomes are higher than in 72% of U.S. towns
Below the poverty line: 4.4% of residents, against 11.1% across Iowa. Lisbon grades A− for jobs and income and B+ for walkability. Only 7% stay in Lisbon for work; outside it, Cedar Rapids is the main destination (33%, 15 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Lisbon and work: the main findings
How Lisbon earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Lisbon is better than 84% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate is its strongest input; job access by car ranks lowest, though still above most U.S. towns (ahead of 63% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income and job access by car.
Unemployment (1.9%) is left out: Lisbon’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, Lisbon could be anywhere from B to A.
Where Lisbon’s working residents head each day
Where Lisbon clocks in
33% of workers
18% 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.
Who commutes out of Lisbon, and who commutes in
On a workday 897 residents head out to work, 66 work right here, and 528 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,900 people are in Lisbon on a workday afternoon, 16% fewer than live here.
0.62 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.
What the 594 jobs in Lisbon are
594 jobs are based in Lisbon.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Lisbon, 2013 → 2023: 479 → 594. 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 Lisbon’s own residents hold wherever they work.
From Lisbon, about 23 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Lisbon workers work from home, vs 11% across Iowa. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 868 commuters (the 11% 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.
How far Lisbon’s workers travel
About 15% 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.
Lisbon is a driving town
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Lisbon is more walkable than 74% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Lisbon near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 970 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 1.7% of Lisbon households have no vehicle (Iowa 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Lisbon’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Lisbon is 553rd among 5,102 U.S. towns of 1,600 to 3,000
| # | 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% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 131 | Van Meter IA | 1,978 | $135K | 2.6% | 1.9% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 161 | Ely IA | 2,366 | $106K | 2.4% | 1.5% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 200 | Granger IA | 2,179 | $112K | 3.4% | 2.1% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 551 | Aleppo Township PA | 1,758 | $79K | 5.4% | 11.0% | 2% | A− |
| 552 | Coal Creek CO | 2,346 | $134K | 5.4% | 2.4% | 1% | A− |
| 553 | Lisbon IA | 2,239 | $94K | 4.4% | 1.9% | 7% | A− |
| 554 | Springvale Township MN | 1,626 | $104K | 5.4% | 0.3% | <1% | A− |
| 555 | Germany Township PA | 2,913 | $103K | 2.8% | 2.4% | 5% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,102 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Lisbon, 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 Lisbon: questions
What is the median household income in Lisbon?
$93,906 (±$15,895) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,059 across Iowa and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Lisbon?
4.4%, against 11.1% across Iowa and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Lisbon?
23 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Iowa and 26 nationally. 10% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Lisbon work?
7% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Cedar Rapids (33%, 15 mi), Mount Vernon (18%, 2 mi), Iowa City (5%, 20 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Lisbon walkable?
Lisbon is more walkable than 74% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 7.8 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Lisbon without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Lisbon, from the people who make the trip.
More of Lisbon
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.