Photo: David Wilson · CC BY 2.0Household incomes in Perry are lower than in 60% of U.S. towns
8.9% of residents live below the poverty line; Iowa has 11.1%. Jobs and income earn Perry B−; getting around on foot earns it B. About one in four work in Perry itself; outside it, Des Moines draws the most (8%, 31 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Perry in brief
Perry’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Perry is Des Moines, 31 miles away as the crow flies. 8% of working residents (242) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Perry workers spend longer getting to work
The average trip takes 25 minutes each way, against 20 across Iowa. Over a year that’s about 192 hours of commuting, 38 more than the state’s typical worker. Time on the road ↓
A young workforce
30% of Perry’s working residents are 29 or younger. 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.
What’s behind Perry’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Perry is better than 54% of U.S. towns, #67 of 140 in Iowa. Unemployment holds Perry’s grade up (3.6%, U.S. 5.2%); household income pulls it down ($68,910, U.S. $80,734). It also does well on the poverty rate and job access by car.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Perry could be anywhere from C to A−.
The distance from Perry to work
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.
About 25 minutes each way for Perry’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Perry workers work from home, vs 11% across Iowa. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,997 commuters (the 8% 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.
What Perry’s employers do
1,860 jobs are based in Perry.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Perry, 2013 → 2023: 1,835 → 1,860. 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 Perry’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Perry by day and by night
On a workday 2,348 residents head out to work, 720 work right here, and 1,140 people come in from elsewhere.
About 7,000 people are in Perry on a workday afternoon, 15% fewer than live here.
0.61 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute 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.
Where Perry’s working residents head each day
Where Perry clocks in
6% 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.
Getting around Perry: mostly by car
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 4,340 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). 7.1% of Perry households have no vehicle (Iowa 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Perry’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Perry is 1,651st among 3,034 U.S. towns of 5,700 to 11,100
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 141 | Eldridge IA | 6,954 | $106K | 1.3% | 1.0% | 15% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 185 | Bondurant IA | 9,647 | $136K | 6.2% | 0.9% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 211 | Asbury IA | 6,035 | $125K | 3.2% | 1.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,649 | Upper Mount Bethel Township PA | 6,463 | $82K | 6.2% | 5.8% | 10% | B− |
| 1,650 | St. Stephens NC | 9,457 | $60K | 16.2% | 1.1% | 2% | B− |
| 1,651 | Perry IA | 8,208 | $69K | 8.9% | 3.6% | 23% | B− |
| 1,652 | Vine Grove KY | 7,018 | $73K | 11.1% | 3.5% | 2% | B− |
| 1,653 | Red Lion PA | 6,523 | $73K | 16.0% | 3.1% | 6% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,034 | 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 Perry, 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 Perry: questions
What is the median household income in Perry?
$68,910 (±$8,587) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,059 across Iowa and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Perry?
8.9%, against 11.1% across Iowa and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Perry?
25 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Iowa and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Perry work?
23% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Des Moines (8%, 31 mi), West Des Moines (6%, 26 mi), Urbandale (4%, 21 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Perry walkable?
Perry is more walkable than 60% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 7.6 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Perry without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 7% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Perry, from the people who make the trip.
More of Perry
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.