Photo: Billwhittaker · CC BY-SA 3.0Fewer people are out of work in Waverly (3.5%) than in 61% of U.S. towns
Waverly grades B− for jobs and income and A for walkability. About one in three work in Waverly itself; outside it, Waterloo draws the most (17%, 17 miles). A typical one-way commute lasts 17 minutes (Iowa 20, U.S. 26).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Waverly’s Jobs & income grade comes from
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Waverly is better than 54% of U.S. towns, #68 of 140 in Iowa. Unemployment holds Waverly’s grade up; the poverty rate pulls it down (10.9%, U.S. 12.5%). It also does well on household income.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Waverly could be anywhere from C+ to B+.
Waverly by day and by night
On a workday 3,033 residents head out to work, 1,430 work right here, and 4,361 people come in from elsewhere.
About 12,000 people are in Waverly on a workday afternoon, 13% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.30 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 Waverly ends
Where Waverly clocks in
17% of workers
10% 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.
What Waverly’s employers do
5,791 jobs are based in Waverly.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Waverly, 2013 → 2023: 6,404 → 5,791. 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 Waverly’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 17 minutes each way, quicker than most of Iowa
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Waverly workers work from home, vs 11% across Iowa. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 4,710 commuters (the 11% 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.
The distance from Waverly to work
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.
Good to walk, short on transit: Waverly
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Waverly is more walkable than 89% of U.S. towns, #8 of 140 in Iowa. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 12.4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 4.4% across Iowa, on an EPA index of 8.4.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 5,271 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). 2.5% of Waverly households have no vehicle (Iowa 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Waverly’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 2,878 U.S. towns of 7,000 to 14,000, Waverly comes 1,610th on jobs and income
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 180 | Bondurant IA | 9,647 | $136K | 6.2% | 0.9% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 459 | Tiffin IA | 7,156 | $101K | 7.6% | 0.4% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 642 | Sioux Center IA | 8,864 | $93K | 2.2% | 1.2% | 50% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,608 | Palmetto FL | 13,562 | $63K | 13.5% | 2.6% | 7% | B− |
| 1,609 | Fox Lake IL | 10,849 | $71K | 13.1% | 4.2% | 6% | B− |
| 1,610 | Waverly IA | 10,561 | $80K | 10.9% | 3.5% | 32% | B− |
| 1,611 | St. Joseph Township MI | 9,703 | $95K | 8.6% | 6.8% | 7% | B− |
| 1,612 | Wellington CO | 12,169 | $107K | 8.8% | 6.5% | 6% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 2,878 | 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 Waverly, 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 Waverly: questions
What is the median household income in Waverly?
$80,284 (±$8,947) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,059 across Iowa and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Waverly?
10.9%, against 11.1% across Iowa and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Waverly?
17 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Iowa and 26 nationally. 11% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Waverly work?
32% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Waterloo (17%, 17 mi), Cedar Falls (10%, 14 mi), Cedar Rapids (3%, 66 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Waverly walkable?
Waverly is more walkable than 89% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 8.4 out of 20, and 12% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Waverly 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 Waverly, from the people who make the trip.
More of Waverly
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.