Photo: David Wilson · CC BY 2.0Households in Woodward have lower incomes than those in 65% of U.S. towns
Home is the office for 3% of workers, against 11% across Iowa. Poverty touches 7.0% of residents, where Iowa as a whole has 11.1%. For jobs and income Woodward is better than 58% of U.S. towns (B); for walkability it is more walkable than 79% of U.S. towns (A−).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The work figures that set Woodward apart
Woodward’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Woodward is Des Moines, 25 miles away as the crow flies. 20% of working residents (167) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Nearly all the work in Woodward is services
97% of the jobs based here are in services, such as health care, schools and offices. Only 1% are in factories, building or farms. The jobs ↓
Most jobs in Woodward pay over $40,000 a year
73% of the jobs based in Woodward pay over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year), the top earnings band in the Census data. The jobs ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2024, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; with 822 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
How the Jobs & income grade adds up in Woodward
The poverty rate holds Woodward’s grade up; household income pulls it down ($65,658, U.S. $80,734). It also does well on job access by car.
Unemployment (1.1%) is left out: Woodward’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Woodward could be anywhere from C to A−.
Near or far: the trip to work from Woodward
Straight-line distance from each worker’s home block to their main job’s block. LEHD 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
In Woodward, services account for most jobs
1,024 jobs are based in Woodward.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Woodward, 2014 → 2024: 1,216 → 1,024. 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 2024.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Woodward’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Woodward fills up on a workday
On a workday 795 residents head out to work, 27 work right here, and 997 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,600 people are in Woodward on a workday afternoon, 14% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.25 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2024, primary jobs.
20% of working residents work in Des Moines
Where Woodward clocks in
15% 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.
Each way, about 19 minutes from Woodward
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Woodward workers work from home, vs 11% across Iowa. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 510 commuters (the 3% 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.
Walkable streets, thin transit: Woodward
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 20.0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 4.4% across Iowa, on an EPA index of 6.7.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 528 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). 0.0% of Woodward households have no vehicle (Iowa 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 11% of Woodward’s commuters take a bus or train.
Woodward is 1,589th of 5,877 U.S. towns of 1,000 to 1,900 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | 1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 115 | University Heights IA | 1,177 | $111K | 14.5% | 1.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 136 | Walford IA | 1,359 | $129K | 1.1% | 2.8% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 274 | Slater IA | 1,617 | $98K | 3.8% | 1.1% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,587 | Mazon Township IL | 1,482 | $82K | 8.1% | 2.1% | 3% | B |
| 1,588 | Tornado WV | 1,114 | $83K | 8.8% | 0.4% | 1% | B |
| 1,589 | Woodward IA | 1,426 | $66K | 7.0% | 1.1% | 3% | B |
| 1,590 | Avon MN | 1,777 | $92K | 9.8% | 2.6% | 12% | B |
| 1,591 | Manchester NY | 1,628 | $66K | 7.2% | 0.0% | 4% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 5,877 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 1% | 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 Woodward, 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 2024, 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 Woodward: questions
What is the median household income in Woodward?
$65,658 (±$13,936) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,059 across Iowa and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Woodward?
7.0%, against 11.1% across Iowa and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Woodward?
19 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Iowa and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Woodward work?
3% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Des Moines (20%, 25 mi), West Des Moines (15%, 22 mi), Urbandale (8%, 17 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Woodward walkable?
Woodward is more walkable than 79% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 6.7 out of 20, and 20% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Woodward without a car?
11% of commuters take transit and 0% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Woodward, from the people who make the trip.
More of Woodward
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2024, 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.