Photo: Farragutful · CC BY-SA 3.0Wilton has lower unemployment (0.6%) than 97% of U.S. towns
For 5% of workers, the job is at home; Iowa has 11%. Jobs and income earn Wilton B+; getting around on foot earns it B−. About one in ten work in Wilton itself; outside it, Muscatine draws the most (27%, 12 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Wilton
Wilton trades workers with the towns around it
Wilton has about as many jobs (1,138) as working residents (1,240), but they are mostly different people: 1,121 residents leave for work each day while 1,019 people come in. Only 10% of the jobs in Wilton are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
Wilton and Muscatine trade workers both ways
Muscatine is the top workplace for Wilton residents (27%) and also where the most people who work in Wilton come from (19% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Wilton makes and builds things
40% of the jobs based in Wilton are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Wilton residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 29%. 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’s behind Wilton’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Wilton is better than 73% of U.S. towns, #35 of 140 in Iowa. Unemployment is its strongest input; household income ranks lowest, though still above most U.S. towns ($76,648, U.S. $80,734). It also does well on household income and the poverty rate and job access by car.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Wilton could be anywhere from B− to A.
Who commutes out of Wilton, and who commutes in
On a workday 1,121 residents head out to work, 119 work right here, and 1,019 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 (0.92 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 Wilton work
Where Wilton clocks in
27% of workers
8% 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.
Wilton works in goods: 40% of its jobs
1,138 jobs are based in Wilton.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Wilton, 2013 → 2023: 1,133 → 1,138. 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 Wilton’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Getting to work from Wilton takes about 23 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Wilton workers work from home, vs 11% across Iowa. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,595 commuters (the 5% 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 Wilton to work
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.
Few in Wilton walk, bike or ride to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Wilton is more walkable than 47% of U.S. towns, #114 of 140 in Iowa. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 4.4% across Iowa.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,672 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 0.3% of Wilton households have no vehicle (Iowa 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Wilton’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 2,000 to 3,900, Wilton ranks 1,140th of 4,882 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 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 148 | Solon IA | 3,345 | $113K | 3.2% | 0.9% | 9% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 192 | Ely IA | 2,366 | $106K | 2.4% | 1.5% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 236 | Granger IA | 2,179 | $112K | 3.4% | 2.1% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,138 | Brookwood AL | 2,467 | $81K | 7.5% | 1.7% | 6% | B+ |
| 1,139 | Palmer Lake CO | 2,591 | $125K | 4.4% | 5.5% | 2% | B+ |
| 1,140 | Wilton IA | 2,892 | $77K | 8.9% | 0.6% | 10% | B+ |
| 1,141 | Avilla IN | 2,487 | $79K | 5.8% | 2.9% | 7% | B+ |
| 1,142 | Blissfield MI | 3,262 | $62K | 2.3% | 2.6% | 12% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,882 | Cibecue AZ | 2,228 | $26K | 57.2% | 13.3% | 12% | 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 Wilton, 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 Wilton: questions
What is the median household income in Wilton?
$76,648 (±$18,593) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,059 across Iowa and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Wilton?
8.9%, against 11.1% across Iowa and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Wilton?
23 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Iowa and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Wilton work?
10% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Muscatine (27%, 12 mi), Iowa City (9%, 26 mi), Davenport (8%, 22 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Wilton walkable?
Wilton is more walkable than 47% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 7.9 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Wilton without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and <1% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Wilton, from the people who make the trip.
More of Wilton
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.