Allamakee County Court House · Photo: Jatakuck at English Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0Household incomes in Waukon are lower than in 74% of U.S. towns
About one in three work in Waukon itself; outside it, Decorah draws the most (12%, 16 miles). Below the poverty line: 10.0% of residents (Iowa 11.1%). For jobs and income Waukon is better than 38% of U.S. towns (C+); for walkability it is more walkable than 80% of U.S. towns (A−).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Waukon’s Jobs & income grade comes from
Unemployment holds Waukon’s grade up (3.0%, U.S. 5.2%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 21% of U.S. towns).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Waukon could be anywhere from D to B.
The workday shuffle in and out of Waukon
On a workday 1,183 residents head out to work, 603 work right here, and 1,283 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 (1.06 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 Waukon work
Where Waukon clocks in
12% 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.
Jobs in Waukon: what the 1,886 are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Waukon, 2013 → 2023: 1,817 → 1,886. 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 Waukon’s own residents hold wherever they work.
From Waukon, about 17 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Waukon workers work from home, vs 11% across Iowa. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,806 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.
Half of Waukon commutes less than 15 miles
About 25% 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.
Good to walk, short on transit: Waukon
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 6.1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 4.4% across Iowa, on an EPA index of 7.8.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,931 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). 4.5% of Waukon households have no vehicle (Iowa 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Waukon’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 4,264 U.S. towns of 2,700 to 5,200, Waukon comes 2,729th on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Mission Hills KS | 3,522 | $250K | 1.2% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Ho-Ho-Kus NJ | 4,313 | $250K | 0.0% | 1.7% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 150 | Solon IA | 3,345 | $113K | 3.2% | 0.9% | 9% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 236 | Huxley IA | 4,715 | $112K | 4.5% | 1.3% | 8% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 314 | Windsor Heights IA | 5,059 | $92K | 6.2% | 1.4% | 3% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 2,727 | Columbia Township IN | 3,528 | $55K | 9.3% | 4.1% | 10% | C+ |
| 2,728 | Edgewood OH | 4,107 | $63K | 15.1% | 3.3% | 10% | C+ |
| 2,729 | Waukon IA | 3,849 | $60K | 10.0% | 3.0% | 34% | C+ |
| 2,730 | Allegan MI | 5,127 | $53K | 13.9% | 3.7% | 26% | C+ |
| 2,731 | Wilmington Township IN | 4,074 | $69K | 15.7% | 4.3% | 23% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,264 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 18% | 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 Waukon, 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 Waukon: questions
What is the median household income in Waukon?
$60,269 (±$12,375) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,059 across Iowa and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Waukon?
10.0%, against 11.1% across Iowa and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Waukon?
17 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Iowa and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Waukon work?
34% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Decorah (12%, 16 mi), Postville (3%, 14 mi), La Crosse (3%, 40 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Waukon walkable?
Waukon is more walkable than 80% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 7.8 out of 20, and 6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Waukon without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Waukon, from the people who make the trip.
More of Waukon
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.