How Monona works: jobs, income and commuting
A typical one-way commute lasts 28 minutes, against 20 across Iowa and 26 nationally. For jobs and income Monona is better than 40% of U.S. towns (C+); for walkability it is more walkable than 74% of U.S. towns (B+). About one in seven work in Monona itself; outside it, Postville draws the most (8%, 9 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Monona, in brief
Breaking down the Jobs & income grade for Monona
The poverty rate holds Monona’s grade up (7.3%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 15% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (0.9%) is left out: Monona’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, Monona could be anywhere from C− to B.
Each way, about 28 minutes from Monona
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Monona workers work from home, vs 11% across Iowa. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 762 commuters (the 9% 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.
The daily commute in and out of Monona
On a workday 600 residents head out to work, 92 work right here, and 437 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,300 people are in Monona on a workday afternoon, 11% fewer than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (0.76 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 people from Monona work
Where Monona clocks in
7% of workers
5% 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.
What work there is in Monona: 529 jobs
529 jobs are based in Monona.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Monona, 2013 → 2023: 634 → 529. 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 Monona’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The distance from Monona to work
About 26% 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.
Driving is how Monona gets around
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 8.5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 4.4% across Iowa, on an EPA index of 6.8.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 835 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). 9.3% of Monona households have no vehicle (Iowa 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Monona’s commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, Monona is 2,675th of 5,877 U.S. towns of 1,000 to 1,900
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 115 | University Heights IA | 1,177 | $111K | 14.5% | 1.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 136 | Walford IA | 1,359 | $129K | 1.1% | 2.8% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 274 | Slater IA | 1,617 | $98K | 3.8% | 1.1% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 2,673 | Lookout Mountain AL | 1,120 | $80K | 12.8% | 0.0% | 1% | C+ |
| 2,674 | Waimea HI | 1,840 | $89K | 8.5% | 1.3% | 15% | C+ |
| 2,675 | Monona IA | 1,444 | $74K | 7.3% | 0.9% | 13% | C+ |
| 2,676 | Spring Grove MN | 1,206 | $60K | 4.0% | 7.2% | 18% | C+ |
| 2,677 | Mantua OH | 1,005 | $50K | 11.8% | 5.4% | 6% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,877 | 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 Monona, 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 Monona: questions
What is the median household income in Monona?
$74,286 (±$11,730) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,059 across Iowa and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Monona?
7.3%, against 11.1% across Iowa and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Monona?
28 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Iowa and 26 nationally. 9% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Monona work?
13% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Postville (8%, 9 mi), Prairie du Chien (7%, 13 mi), Elkader (5%, 13 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Monona walkable?
Monona is more walkable than 74% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 6.8 out of 20, and 9% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Monona without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 9% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Monona, from the people who make the trip.
More of Monona
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.