Photo: Jared Winkler · CC BY-SA 4.0Mapleton’s household incomes are lower than in 81% of U.S. towns
Jobs & income C−: better than 18% of U.S. towns on income, poverty and job access.
Walkability C+: more walkable than 44% of U.S. towns.
Working residents average 23 minutes each way (Iowa 20, U.S. 26). About one in five work in Mapleton; the top destination outside it is Sioux City (12%, 38 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work and commuting in Mapleton, in brief
Mapleton’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Mapleton is Sioux City, 38 miles away as the crow flies. 12% of working residents (69) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
The better-paid jobs are outside Mapleton
59% of Mapleton residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, but only 40% of the jobs based in Mapleton pay that much. Most residents work elsewhere: 81% leave town for their job. The jobs ↓
Many jobs in Mapleton pay little
26% of the jobs based in Mapleton pay $1,250 a month or less, under $15,000 a year. The jobs ↓
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 553 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What’s behind Mapleton’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Mapleton is better than 18% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Mapleton’s grade up (8.4%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 3% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (2.1%) is left out: Mapleton’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, Mapleton could be anywhere from D to C+.
Half of Mapleton commutes less than 35 miles
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
About 28% 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.
What the 475 jobs in Mapleton are
475 jobs are based in Mapleton. Here is what they are, next to the jobs Mapleton’s own residents hold wherever they work.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Mapleton, 2013 → 2023: 409 → 475. 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.
Who leaves, who stays, who comes in
On a workday 448 residents head out to work, 105 work right here, and 370 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 (0.86 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.
12% of working residents work in Sioux City
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
Where Mapleton clocks in
12% of workers
7% of workers
3% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
About 23 minutes each way, longer than most of Iowa
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Mapleton workers work from home, vs 11% across Iowa. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 416 commuters (the 7% who work from home are left out). Across Iowa: 86% drive alone, 1% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
Most trips from Mapleton start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Mapleton is more walkable than 44% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 4.1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 4.4% across Iowa, on an EPA index of 5.1.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 449 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). 4.6% of Mapleton households have no vehicle (Iowa 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Mapleton’s commuters take a bus or train.
Mapleton is 2,662nd of 3,771 U.S. towns of 800 to 1,500 on jobs and income
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Mapleton, the top three, the last and three more from Iowa.
| # | 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 |
| … | |||||||
| 2,660 | Fairview UT | 1,328 | $66K | 11.1% | 2.9% | 7% | C− |
| 2,661 | Maple River Township MI | 1,279 | $72K | 15.8% | 3.0% | 1% | C− |
| 2,662 | Mapleton IA | 1,135 | $55K | 8.4% | 2.1% | 19% | C− |
| 2,663 | Bethel NC | 1,422 | $53K | 16.8% | 9.9% | 2% | C− |
| 2,664 | Gregory SD | 1,250 | $51K | 7.3% | 2.9% | 29% | 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.
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 Mapleton: questions
What is the median household income in Mapleton?
$55,208 (±$12,274) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,059 across Iowa and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Mapleton?
8.4%, against 11.1% across Iowa and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Mapleton?
23 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Iowa and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Mapleton work?
19% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Sioux City (12%, 38 mi), Onawa (7%, 18 mi), Omaha (3%, 64 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Mapleton walkable?
Mapleton is more walkable than 44% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 5.1 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Mapleton without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 5% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Mapleton, from the people who make the trip.
More of Mapleton
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.