Photo: inkknife_2000 (7.5 million views +) · CC BY-SA 2.0Unemployment in Sioux Center (1.2%) is lower than in 93% of U.S. towns
Poverty touches 2.2% of residents, against 11.1% across Iowa. For jobs and income Sioux Center is better than 85% of U.S. towns (A); for walkability it is more walkable than 85% of U.S. towns (A). About half work in Sioux Center itself; outside it, Orange City draws the most (6%, 8 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Sioux Center apart on work
Sioux Center is where the jobs are
Sioux Center has 6,230 jobs, 1.6 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Commutes from Sioux Center are quick
The average trip to work takes 12 minutes, against 20 across Iowa. That’s about 61 hours a year less on the road than the typical Iowa worker. Time on the road ↓
Sioux Center makes and builds things
36% of the jobs based in Sioux Center are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Sioux Center residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 31%. 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 drives the Jobs & income grade in Sioux Center
The poverty rate holds Sioux Center’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 36% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income and unemployment.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Sioux Center could be anywhere from B+ to A.
How a workday changes Sioux Center
On a workday 1,918 residents head out to work, 1,934 work right here, and 4,296 people come in from elsewhere.
About 11,000 people are in Sioux Center on a workday afternoon, 27% more than live here.
1.6 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.
Time on the road from Sioux Center: about 12 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 3.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Sioux Center workers work from home, vs 11% across Iowa. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 4,081 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.
In Sioux Center, 36% of jobs are in factories, building or farming
6,230 jobs are based in Sioux Center.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Sioux Center, 2013 → 2023: 4,668 → 6,230. 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 Sioux Center’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The daily trip into Sioux Center
Where Sioux Center clocks in
4% 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.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Sioux Center
About 15% 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.
Sioux Center is easy on foot, hard by bus
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 4,629 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). 1.5% of Sioux Center households have no vehicle (Iowa 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Sioux Center’s commuters take a bus or train.
Sioux Center is 640th of 2,907 U.S. towns of 6,200 to 12,000 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| 3 | Pimmit Hills VA | 6,589 | $173K | 1.6% | 1.3% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 141 | Eldridge IA | 6,954 | $106K | 1.3% | 1.0% | 15% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 190 | Bondurant IA | 9,647 | $136K | 6.2% | 0.9% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 464 | Tiffin IA | 7,156 | $101K | 7.6% | 0.4% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 638 | Bridgeport WV | 9,427 | $100K | 3.9% | 2.3% | 28% | A |
| 639 | Highgrove CA | 8,366 | $114K | 8.5% | 3.4% | 1% | A |
| 640 | Sioux Center IA | 8,864 | $93K | 2.2% | 1.2% | 50% | A |
| 641 | Lindale TX | 7,385 | $83K | 4.6% | 0.6% | 9% | A− |
| 642 | Laurel FL | 11,741 | $92K | 5.6% | 1.6% | 6% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 2,907 | 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 Sioux Center, 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 Sioux Center: questions
What is the median household income in Sioux Center?
$92,983 (±$19,300) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,059 across Iowa and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Sioux Center?
2.2%, against 11.1% across Iowa and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Sioux Center?
12 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Iowa and 26 nationally. 12% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Sioux Center work?
50% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Orange City (6%, 8 mi), Sioux City (4%, 42 mi), Hull (4%, 8 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Sioux Center walkable?
Sioux Center is more walkable than 85% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 9.5 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Sioux Center without a car?
<1% 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 Sioux Center, from the people who make the trip.
More of Sioux Center
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.