Photo: ArtisticAbode · CC BY-SA 3.0Mount Vernon has higher household incomes than 85% of U.S. towns
Below the poverty line: 8.2% of residents; Iowa has 11.1%. Mount Vernon grades B+ for jobs and income and A− for walkability. 20% of workers work from home (Iowa 11%).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Mount Vernon stands out on work
Mount Vernon trades workers with the towns around it
Mount Vernon has about as many jobs (1,706) as working residents (1,884), but they are mostly different people: 1,496 residents leave for work each day while 1,318 people come in. Only 23% of the jobs in Mount Vernon are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
Mount Vernon and Cedar Rapids trade workers both ways
Cedar Rapids is the top workplace for Mount Vernon residents (30%) and also where the most people who work in Mount Vernon come from (11% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Many jobs in Mount Vernon pay little
30% of the jobs based in Mount Vernon pay $1,250 a month or less, under $15,000 a year. Young workers hold many of them: 33% of all the jobs here go to people 29 or younger. The jobs ↓
Home offices are common in Mount Vernon
20% of Mount Vernon workers work from home, against 11% across Iowa. Time on the road ↓
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.
How Mount Vernon earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Mount Vernon is better than 73% of U.S. towns, #36 of 140 in Iowa. Household income is its strongest input ($112,656, U.S. $80,734); unemployment ranks lowest, though still above most U.S. towns (4.2%, U.S. 5.2%). It also does well on the poverty rate and unemployment and job access by car.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Mount Vernon could be anywhere from C+ to A+.
Who leaves Mount Vernon for work, and who comes in
On a workday 1,496 residents head out to work, 388 work right here, and 1,318 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 (0.91 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.
30% of working residents work in Cedar Rapids
Where Mount Vernon clocks in
30% of workers
7% 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.
Inside Mount Vernon’s 1,706 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Mount Vernon, 2013 → 2023: 1,521 → 1,706. 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 Vernon’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The trip to work from Mount Vernon: about 21 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Mount Vernon workers work from home, vs 11% across Iowa. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,524 commuters (the 20% 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 commute from Mount Vernon, by distance
About 16% 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.
Mount Vernon is easy on foot, hard by bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Mount Vernon is more walkable than 80% of U.S. towns, #40 of 140 in Iowa. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 11.6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 4.4% across Iowa, on an EPA index of 7.1.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,904 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). 11.5% of Mount Vernon households have no vehicle (Iowa 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Mount Vernon’s commuters take a bus or train.
Mount Vernon next to U.S. towns of 3,200 to 6,100: 1,082nd of 3,862 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Mission Hills KS | 3,522 | $250K | 1.2% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 145 | Solon IA | 3,345 | $113K | 3.2% | 0.9% | 9% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 198 | Asbury IA | 6,035 | $125K | 3.2% | 1.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 227 | Huxley IA | 4,715 | $112K | 4.5% | 1.3% | 8% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,080 | Chalfont PA | 4,419 | $124K | 7.4% | 6.9% | 3% | B+ |
| 1,081 | Bullard TX | 5,301 | $119K | 6.2% | 4.7% | 4% | B+ |
| 1,082 | Mount Vernon IA | 4,514 | $113K | 8.2% | 4.2% | 21% | B+ |
| 1,083 | White City UT | 5,146 | $106K | 6.6% | 6.8% | 1% | B+ |
| 1,084 | Strasburg Township PA | 4,704 | $94K | 13.9% | 1.5% | 9% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,862 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 18% | 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 Vernon, 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 Vernon: questions
What is the median household income in Mount Vernon?
$112,656 (±$21,207) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,059 across Iowa and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Mount Vernon?
8.2%, against 11.1% across Iowa and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Mount Vernon?
21 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Iowa and 26 nationally. 20% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Mount Vernon work?
21% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Cedar Rapids (30%, 13 mi), Lisbon (7%, 2 mi), Iowa City (5%, 19 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Mount Vernon walkable?
Mount Vernon is more walkable than 80% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 7.1 out of 20, and 12% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Mount Vernon without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 12% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Mount Vernon, from the people who make the trip.
More of Mount Vernon
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.