Photo: Jim Roberts · CC BY-SA 4.0Households in Oelwein have lower incomes than those in 91% of U.S. towns
About one in three stay in Oelwein for work; outside it, Waterloo is the main destination (11%, 26 miles). 18.5% of residents are in poverty, against 11.1% across Iowa. Oelwein grades D for jobs and income and A− for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Oelwein and work: the main findings
Income, poverty and work: Oelwein’s grade explained
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Oelwein is better than 8% of U.S. towns, #138 of 140 in Iowa. Job access by car holds Oelwein’s grade up (ahead of 30% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($46,653, U.S. $80,734).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Oelwein could be anywhere from D− to C−.
Miles to work from Oelwein
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.
How a workday changes Oelwein
On a workday 1,703 residents head out to work, 855 work right here, and 1,869 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 (1.06 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 Oelwein work
Where Oelwein clocks in
11% of workers
4% 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.
Jobs in Oelwein: what the 2,724 are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Oelwein, 2013 → 2023: 2,585 → 2,724. 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 Oelwein’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Time on the road from Oelwein: about 23 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Oelwein workers work from home, vs 11% across Iowa. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,172 commuters (the 5% 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.
Oelwein is more walkable than most U.S. towns, with limited transit
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Oelwein is more walkable than 78% of U.S. towns, #45 of 140 in Iowa. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 6.4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 4.4% across Iowa, on an EPA index of 7.6.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 2,293 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). 9.6% of Oelwein households have no vehicle (Iowa 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Oelwein’s commuters take a bus or train.
Where Oelwein sits among U.S. towns of 4,000 to 7,800
| # | 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 | Ho-Ho-Kus NJ | 4,313 | $250K | 0.0% | 1.7% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 140 | Eldridge IA | 6,954 | $106K | 1.3% | 1.0% | 15% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 202 | Asbury IA | 6,035 | $125K | 3.2% | 1.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 238 | Huxley IA | 4,715 | $112K | 4.5% | 1.3% | 8% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 3,312 | Doolittle TX | 6,203 | $36K | 55.9% | 16.4% | <1% | D |
| 3,313 | Pocahontas AR | 7,622 | $44K | 23.8% | 5.6% | 36% | D |
| 3,314 | Oelwein IA | 5,757 | $47K | 18.5% | 7.6% | 33% | D |
| 3,315 | Aberdeen MS | 4,799 | $33K | 28.2% | 5.7% | 21% | D |
| 3,316 | Taos NM | 6,526 | $47K | 13.7% | 10.6% | 50% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 3,527 | 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 Oelwein, 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 Oelwein: questions
What is the median household income in Oelwein?
$46,653 (±$10,232) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,059 across Iowa and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Oelwein?
18.5%, against 11.1% across Iowa and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Oelwein?
23 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Iowa and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Oelwein work?
33% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Waterloo (11%, 26 mi), Independence (8%, 14 mi), Cedar Rapids (4%, 50 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Oelwein walkable?
Oelwein is more walkable than 78% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 7.6 out of 20, and 6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Oelwein without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 10% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Oelwein, from the people who make the trip.
More of Oelwein
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.