Clay County Courthouse · Photo: Scott Romine · CC BY-SA 4.0Spencer has lower household incomes than 75% of U.S. towns
More than half stay in Spencer for work; outside it, Spirit Lake is the main destination (5%, 19 miles). Poverty touches 14.0% of residents, where Iowa as a whole has 11.1%. Jobs and income earn Spencer C; getting around on foot earns it A−.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
How Spencer earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Spencer is better than 27% of U.S. towns, #117 of 140 in Iowa. Unemployment holds Spencer’s grade up (4.5%, U.S. 5.2%); household income pulls it down ($59,667, U.S. $80,734).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Spencer could be anywhere from D to B−.
A workday in Spencer: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 2,290 residents head out to work, 2,704 work right here, and 4,071 people come in from elsewhere.
About 13,000 people are in Spencer on a workday afternoon, 16% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.36 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 Spencer work
Where Spencer clocks in
5% 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.
The 6,775 jobs based in Spencer
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Spencer, 2013 → 2023: 7,127 → 6,775. 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 Spencer’s own residents hold wherever they work.
A commute of about 16 minutes in Spencer
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Spencer workers work from home, vs 11% across Iowa. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 5,207 commuters (the 6% 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 far Spencer goes to work
About 21% 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.
Spencer 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, Spencer is more walkable than 79% of U.S. towns, #42 of 140 in Iowa. Both inputs place Spencer near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 5,525 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). 7.2% of Spencer households have no vehicle (Iowa 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Spencer’s commuters take a bus or train.
Spencer places 2,008th of 2,507 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 8,000 to 15,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| 2 | Beverly Hills MI | 10,449 | $177K | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Ladue MO | 8,934 | $250K | 1.1% | 1.7% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 163 | Bondurant IA | 9,647 | $136K | 6.2% | 0.9% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 590 | Sioux Center IA | 8,864 | $93K | 2.2% | 1.2% | 50% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 865 | Pella IA | 10,992 | $84K | 6.0% | 1.1% | 41% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 2,006 | Garden Acres CA | 10,667 | $66K | 18.9% | 10.3% | 3% | C |
| 2,007 | Dock Junction GA | 8,147 | $41K | 27.0% | 2.3% | 10% | C |
| 2,008 | Spencer IA | 11,218 | $60K | 14.0% | 4.5% | 54% | C |
| 2,009 | Nanakuli HI | 12,383 | $87K | 18.2% | 11.2% | 2% | C |
| 2,010 | Livingston CA | 14,690 | $74K | 17.1% | 11.6% | 17% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 2,507 | Roma TX | 11,543 | $25K | 37.1% | 12.4% | 22% | 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 Spencer, 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 Spencer: questions
What is the median household income in Spencer?
$59,667 (±$6,531) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,059 across Iowa and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Spencer?
14.0%, against 11.1% across Iowa and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Spencer?
16 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Iowa and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Spencer work?
54% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Spirit Lake (5%, 19 mi), Sioux City (3%, 77 mi), Milford (3%, 13 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Spencer walkable?
Spencer is more walkable than 79% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 8.2 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Spencer without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 7% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Spencer, from the people who make the trip.
More of Spencer
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.