Photo: Corey Coyle · CC BY 3.0Dubuque draws about half of Peosta’s working residents
Only 6% work in Peosta itself; outside it, Dubuque draws the most (48%, 8 miles). For jobs and income Peosta is better than 82% of U.S. towns (A−); for walkability it is more walkable than 22% of U.S. towns (C−). Household incomes here are higher than in 88% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Peosta: the figures worth knowing
Nearly half of Peosta works in Dubuque
454 working residents, 48%, have their main job in Dubuque, 7.7 miles away. That’s 8 times as many as work in Peosta itself. The commute map ↓
Peosta is where the jobs are
Peosta has 1,719 jobs, 1.8 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Peosta makes and builds things
66% of the jobs based in Peosta are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Peosta residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 23%. 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 939 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Breaking down the Jobs & income grade for Peosta
The poverty rate is its strongest input (2.9%, U.S. 12.5%); unemployment ranks lowest, though still above most U.S. towns (4.1%, U.S. 5.2%). It also does well on household income and unemployment and job access by car.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Peosta could be anywhere from B to A+.
Where the people who work in Peosta live
Where Peosta clocks in
48% of workers
3% of workers
3% 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.
How a workday changes Peosta
On a workday 878 residents head out to work, 61 work right here, and 1,658 people come in from elsewhere.
About 3,000 people are in Peosta on a workday afternoon, 35% more than live here.
1.8 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Goods, not services: 66% of the jobs in Peosta
1,719 jobs are based in Peosta.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Peosta, 2013 → 2023: 1,675 → 1,719. 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 Peosta’s own residents hold wherever they work.
From Peosta, about 19 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Peosta workers work from home, vs 11% across Iowa. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 964 commuters (the 14% 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.
How many miles Peosta commutes
About 22% 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.
Few in Peosta walk, bike or ride to work
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,120 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). 3.4% of Peosta households have no vehicle (Iowa 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Peosta’s commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, Peosta is 642nd of 5,102 U.S. towns of 1,600 to 3,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 131 | Van Meter IA | 1,978 | $135K | 2.6% | 1.9% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 161 | Ely IA | 2,366 | $106K | 2.4% | 1.5% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 200 | Granger IA | 2,179 | $112K | 3.4% | 2.1% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 640 | Freedom Township OH | 2,665 | $93K | 3.4% | 3.4% | 6% | A− |
| 641 | Eden Township PA | 2,266 | $91K | 3.4% | 2.9% | 3% | A− |
| 642 | Peosta IA | 2,225 | $121K | 2.9% | 4.1% | 6% | A− |
| 643 | Walton Hills OH | 1,991 | $106K | 7.8% | 4.1% | 3% | A− |
| 644 | Olmos Park TX | 2,180 | $177K | 4.1% | 10.0% | 3% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,102 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Peosta, 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 Peosta: questions
What is the median household income in Peosta?
$120,833 (±$13,646) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,059 across Iowa and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Peosta?
2.9%, against 11.1% across Iowa and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Peosta?
19 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Iowa and 26 nationally. 14% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Peosta work?
6% work in town.
Is Peosta walkable?
Peosta is more walkable than 22% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 5.2 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Peosta without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Peosta, from the people who make the trip.
More of Peosta
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.