Photo: Boscophotos · CC BY-SA 3.0Mount Pleasant has 1.9 jobs for every working resident: 4,953 people commute in to work
6,461 jobs are based in Mount Pleasant, and 3,444 of its residents work somewhere. For jobs and income Mount Pleasant is better than 43% of U.S. towns (C+); for walkability it is more walkable than 66% of U.S. towns (B+). About two in five stay in Mount Pleasant for work; outside it, Burlington is the main destination (5%, 25 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Mount Pleasant, in a few figures
Mount Pleasant is where the jobs are
Mount Pleasant has 6,461 jobs, 1.9 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
The biggest group of Mount Pleasant’s workers comes from Burlington
360 of the people who work in Mount Pleasant live in Burlington, 25 miles away, more than from any other town. The commute map ↓
Commutes from Mount Pleasant are quick
The average trip to work takes 14 minutes, against 20 across Iowa. That’s about 46 hours a year less on the road than the typical Iowa worker. Time on the road ↓
Mount Pleasant draws workers from far and wide
The 6,461 jobs in Mount Pleasant are filled from a wide area. Mount Pleasant’s own residents hold 23% and the ten next-biggest home towns 19%; the other 58% come from many towns beyond those. The commute map ↓
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.
The figures behind Mount Pleasant’s Jobs & income grade
Unemployment holds Mount Pleasant’s grade up (1.7%, U.S. 5.2%); the poverty rate pulls it down (15.7%, U.S. 12.5%).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Mount Pleasant could be anywhere from C to B.
How a workday changes Mount Pleasant
On a workday 1,936 residents head out to work and 1,508 work right here.
About 12,000 people are in Mount Pleasant on a workday afternoon, 35% more than live here.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Commuting in to Mount Pleasant: where workers come from
Where Mount Pleasant clocks in
5% of workers
2% 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 14 minutes each way, quicker than most of Iowa
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 4.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Mount Pleasant workers work from home, vs 11% across Iowa. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,810 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.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
In Mount Pleasant, 32% of jobs are in factories, building or farming
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Mount Pleasant, 2013 → 2023: 6,650 → 6,461. 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 Mount Pleasant’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Where in the region Mount Pleasant works
About 23% 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 Mount Pleasant gets around
The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 2.4% 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 4,096 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). 8.0% of Mount Pleasant households have no vehicle (Iowa 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Mount Pleasant’s commuters take a bus or train.
Mount Pleasant places 1,911th of 2,922 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 6,000 to 11,500
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 142 | Eldridge IA | 6,954 | $106K | 1.3% | 1.0% | 15% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 187 | Bondurant IA | 9,647 | $136K | 6.2% | 0.9% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 215 | Asbury IA | 6,035 | $125K | 3.2% | 1.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,909 | Wolfeboro NH | 6,637 | $94K | 8.2% | 5.0% | 35% | C+ |
| 1,910 | Hampstead NC | 9,292 | $92K | 9.5% | 6.3% | 6% | C+ |
| 1,911 | Mount Pleasant IA | 8,500 | $61K | 15.7% | 1.7% | 44% | C+ |
| 1,912 | Lenox NY | 8,541 | $76K | 10.4% | 6.0% | 14% | C+ |
| 1,913 | Fort Knox KY | 8,836 | $83K | 9.0% | 15.1% | 8% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,922 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 14% | 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 Mount Pleasant, 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 Mount Pleasant: questions
What is the median household income in Mount Pleasant?
$61,042 (±$8,576) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,059 across Iowa and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Mount Pleasant?
15.7%, against 11.1% across Iowa and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Mount Pleasant?
14 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Iowa and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Mount Pleasant work?
44% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Burlington (5%, 25 mi), Iowa City (3%, 48 mi), Davenport (2%, 64 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Mount Pleasant walkable?
Mount Pleasant is more walkable than 66% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 8.4 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Mount Pleasant without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Mount Pleasant, from the people who make the trip.
More of Mount Pleasant
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.