Melan Bridge · Photo: Joseph Elliott · Public domainRock Rapids’ household incomes are lower than in 68% of U.S. towns
Rock Rapids grades B− for jobs and income and A− for walkability. Poverty touches 6.5% of residents (Iowa 11.1%). About two in five work in Rock Rapids itself; outside it, Rock Valley draws the most (5%, 17 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jobs and commuting in Rock Rapids: the gist
Breaking down the Jobs & income grade for Rock Rapids
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Rock Rapids is better than 49% of U.S. towns, #77 of 140 in Iowa. The poverty rate holds Rock Rapids’ grade up; household income pulls it down ($63,942, U.S. $80,734). It also does well on unemployment.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Rock Rapids could be anywhere from C− to A−.
Getting to work from Rock Rapids takes about 13 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 4.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Rock Rapids workers work from home, vs 11% across Iowa. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,045 commuters (the 12% 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.
A workday in Rock Rapids: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 785 residents head out to work, 489 work right here, and 816 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 (1.02 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 the trip to work from Rock Rapids ends
Where Rock Rapids clocks in
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.
What Rock Rapids’ employers do
1,305 jobs are based in Rock Rapids.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Rock Rapids, 2013 → 2023: 1,297 → 1,305. 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 Rock Rapids’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Rock Rapids’ commute, mile by mile
About 19% 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.
Walkable streets, thin transit: Rock Rapids
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Rock Rapids is more walkable than 84% of U.S. towns, #26 of 140 in Iowa. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 10.3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 4.4% across Iowa, on an EPA index of 7.7.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,188 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). 1.7% of Rock Rapids households have no vehicle (Iowa 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Rock Rapids’ commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 1,900 to 3,700, Rock Rapids ranks 2,367th of 4,969 on jobs and income
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 135 | Solon IA | 3,345 | $113K | 3.2% | 0.9% | 9% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 139 | Van Meter IA | 1,978 | $135K | 2.6% | 1.9% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 178 | Ely IA | 2,366 | $106K | 2.4% | 1.5% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,365 | Holley FL | 2,487 | $105K | 8.5% | 0.0% | 2% | B− |
| 2,366 | Arcola IL | 2,928 | $90K | 9.6% | 5.4% | 33% | B− |
| 2,367 | Rock Rapids IA | 2,733 | $64K | 6.5% | 3.8% | 38% | B− |
| 2,368 | Algona WA | 3,253 | $85K | 12.1% | 9.4% | 1% | B− |
| 2,369 | Lawrence Township NJ | 3,167 | $86K | 8.0% | 5.2% | 5% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,969 | Cibecue AZ | 2,228 | $26K | 57.2% | 13.3% | 12% | 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 Rock Rapids, 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 Rock Rapids: questions
What is the median household income in Rock Rapids?
$63,942 (±$12,563) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,059 across Iowa and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Rock Rapids?
6.5%, against 11.1% across Iowa and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Rock Rapids?
13 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Iowa and 26 nationally. 12% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Rock Rapids work?
38% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Rock Valley (5%, 17 mi), Sioux Falls (4%, 29 mi), Sioux Center (4%, 24 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Rock Rapids walkable?
Rock Rapids is more walkable than 84% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 7.7 out of 20, and 10% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Rock Rapids without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Rock Rapids, from the people who make the trip.
More of Rock Rapids
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.