Photo: Orange Suede Sofa · CC BY-SA 3.0Households in Sumner earn less than those in 76% of U.S. towns
Poverty touches 13.6% of residents (Iowa 11.1%). Sumner grades C− for jobs and income and B for walkability. About one in five work in Sumner; the top destination outside it is Waterloo (14%, 28 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Sumner, in a few figures
Sumner’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Sumner is Waterloo, 28 miles away as the crow flies. 14% of working residents (153) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Sumner has added jobs fast
Jobs based in Sumner went from 585 in 2013 to 839 in 2023, +43%. 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; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
How Sumner earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Sumner is better than 18% of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Sumner’s grade.
Unemployment (2.9%) is left out: Sumner’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Sumner could be anywhere from D to C+.
How far it is to work from Sumner
About 24% 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.
Goods jobs make up 33% of work in Sumner
839 jobs are based in Sumner.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Sumner, 2013 → 2023: 585 → 839. 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 Sumner’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who commutes out of Sumner, and who commutes in
On a workday 821 residents head out to work, 238 work right here, and 601 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,800 people are in Sumner on a workday afternoon, 11% fewer than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (0.79 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 Sumner’s working residents head each day
Where Sumner clocks in
14% of workers
5% 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.
About 21 minutes to work from Sumner
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Sumner workers work from home, vs 11% across Iowa. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 873 commuters (the 7% 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.
Sumner is a driving town
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Sumner is more walkable than 62% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Sumner 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 936 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). 5.4% of Sumner households have no vehicle (Iowa 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Sumner’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 1,400 to 2,700, Sumner ranks 4,151st of 5,509 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 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 141 | Van Meter IA | 1,978 | $135K | 2.6% | 1.9% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 171 | Ely IA | 2,366 | $106K | 2.4% | 1.5% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 207 | Granger IA | 2,179 | $112K | 3.4% | 2.1% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 4,149 | Salem NY | 2,595 | $83K | 17.6% | 6.4% | 19% | C− |
| 4,150 | Laguna Park TX | 1,596 | $61K | 13.8% | 5.2% | 4% | C− |
| 4,151 | Sumner IA | 2,022 | $59K | 13.6% | 2.9% | 22% | C− |
| 4,152 | White Pigeon MI | 1,824 | $51K | 26.0% | 5.6% | 6% | C− |
| 4,153 | Pagedale MO | 2,511 | $31K | 26.1% | 11.0% | 2% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,509 | 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 Sumner, 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 Sumner: questions
What is the median household income in Sumner?
$58,854 (±$9,492) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,059 across Iowa and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Sumner?
13.6%, against 11.1% across Iowa and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Sumner?
21 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Iowa and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Sumner work?
22% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Waterloo (14%, 28 mi), Waverly (5%, 21 mi), Cedar Rapids (4%, 65 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Sumner walkable?
Sumner is more walkable than 62% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 7.1 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Sumner without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 5% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Sumner, from the people who make the trip.
More of Sumner
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.