Waterloo Community Mausoleum · Photo: Nyttend · Public domainWaterloo has higher unemployment (6.4%) than 78% of U.S. towns
The average commute, 24 minutes each way, matches the Indiana norm. Jobs and income earn Waterloo C+; getting around on foot earns it B−. Only 6% work in Waterloo itself; outside it, Fort Wayne draws the most (19%, 25 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 Waterloo
Waterloo makes and builds things
76% of the jobs based in Waterloo are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Waterloo residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 39%. The jobs ↓
Waterloo trades workers with the towns around it
Waterloo has about as many jobs (1,044) as working residents (1,113), but they are mostly different people: 1,046 residents leave for work each day while 977 people come in. Only 6% of the jobs in Waterloo are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
Waterloo’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Waterloo is Fort Wayne, 25 miles away as the crow flies. 19% of working residents (210) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Waterloo has added jobs fast
Jobs based in Waterloo went from 674 in 2013 to 1,044 in 2023, +55%. The jobs ↓
The jobs in Waterloo pay better than its residents’ jobs
72% of the jobs based in Waterloo pay over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year), against 56% of the jobs Waterloo residents hold. 94% of the jobs here are held by people who live outside Waterloo. 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.
Income, poverty and work: Waterloo’s grade explained
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Waterloo is better than 35% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Waterloo’s grade up (ahead of 62% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Waterloo could be anywhere from C− to A−.
Goods, not services: 76% of the jobs in Waterloo
1,044 jobs are based in Waterloo.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Waterloo, 2013 → 2023: 674 → 1,044. 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 Waterloo’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who leaves, who stays, who comes in
On a workday 1,046 residents head out to work, 67 work right here, and 977 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 (0.94 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.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Waterloo
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.
Commuting out of Waterloo: the destinations
Where Waterloo clocks in
13% of workers
5% 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.
Waterloo’s commute takes about 24 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Waterloo workers work from home, vs 11% across Indiana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,069 commuters (the 7% who work from home are left out). Across Indiana: 85% 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.
In Waterloo, the car does most of the work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Waterloo is more walkable than 52% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 4.1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.3% across Indiana, on an EPA index of 5.9.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,146 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). 2.7% of Waterloo households have no vehicle (Indiana 6.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Waterloo’s commuters take a bus or train.
Waterloo is 3,109th of 5,404 U.S. towns of 1,500 to 2,900 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 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 6 | Meridian Hills IN | 1,800 | $212K | 0.8% | 3.6% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 106 | Galena IN | 1,549 | $128K | 1.8% | 4.8% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 165 | Foxcliff Estates IN | 1,674 | $142K | 2.8% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,107 | Shohola Township PA | 2,687 | $94K | 5.1% | 12.6% | 7% | C+ |
| 3,108 | Germantown WI | 1,892 | $74K | 8.0% | 9.7% | 3% | C+ |
| 3,109 | Waterloo IN | 2,168 | $67K | 12.5% | 6.4% | 6% | C+ |
| 3,110 | Charlotte TN | 1,647 | $59K | 11.7% | 7.0% | 4% | C+ |
| 3,111 | Moody TX | 1,650 | $70K | 17.6% | 4.1% | 2% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,404 | 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 Waterloo, the top three, the last and three more from Indiana.
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 Waterloo: questions
What is the median household income in Waterloo?
$67,083 (±$12,920) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $71,957 across Indiana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Waterloo?
12.5%, against 12.3% across Indiana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Waterloo?
24 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Indiana and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Waterloo work?
6% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Fort Wayne (19%, 25 mi), Auburn (13%, 5 mi), Kendallville (5%, 11 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Waterloo walkable?
Waterloo is more walkable than 52% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 5.9 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Waterloo without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Waterloo, from the people who make the trip.
More of Waterloo
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.