Household incomes put Iva near the very bottom of U.S. towns
Household incomes here are among the lowest in the country. 39.3% of residents are in poverty; South Carolina has 14.1%. For jobs and income Iva is better than 3% of U.S. towns (D−); for walkability it is more walkable than 13% of U.S. towns (D).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Iva at work: what stands out
Commutes from Iva are quick
The average trip to work takes 20 minutes, against 26 across South Carolina. That’s about 46 hours a year less on the road than the typical South Carolina worker. Time on the road ↓
Few Iva workers work from home
Only 1% of workers work from home, against 12% across South Carolina. Almost everyone here travels to a job. Time on the road ↓
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; with 434 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
The figures behind Iva’s Jobs & income grade
Job access by car holds Iva’s grade up (ahead of 30% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($25,000, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (8.7%) is left out: Iva’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Iva could be anywhere from D− to D.
About 20 minutes to work from Iva
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Iva workers work from home, vs 12% across South Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 272 commuters (the 1% who work from home are left out). Across South Carolina: 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.
Iva fills up on a workday
On a workday 403 residents head out to work, 31 work right here, and 616 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,400 people are in Iva on a workday afternoon, 18% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.49 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.
15% of working residents work in Anderson
Where Iva clocks in
15% of workers
8% of workers
2% 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.
Services make up most of the work in Iva
647 jobs are based in Iva.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Iva, 2013 → 2023: 538 → 647. 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 Iva’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The distance from Iva to work
About 21% 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.
For most of Iva, work means a drive
The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: hardly any commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 2.4% across South Carolina.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 275 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). 15.5% of Iva households have no vehicle (South Carolina 5.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Iva’s commuters take a bus or train.
U.S. towns of 800 to 1,600, and where Iva sits
| # | 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% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 324 | Cane Savannah SC | 1,551 | $132K | 4.6% | 11.8% | 0% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 625 | Shell Point SC | 1,439 | $82K | 3.1% | 6.4% | 1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,015 | Meggett SC | 1,484 | $98K | 11.0% | 2.0% | 6% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 4,033 | Little Valley NY | 1,077 | $45K | 28.2% | 1.4% | 14% | D− |
| 4,034 | Snyder OK | 1,214 | $41K | 22.7% | 2.6% | 12% | D− |
| 4,035 | Iva SC | 1,209 | $25K | 39.3% | 8.7% | 7% | D− |
| 4,036 | Troy ME | 1,116 | $45K | 17.8% | 3.8% | 1% | D− |
| 4,037 | Freeborn Township MO | 1,369 | $46K | 27.0% | 1.7% | 12% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,312 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 0% | 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 Iva, the top three, the last and three more from South Carolina.
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 Iva: questions
What is the median household income in Iva?
$25,000 (±$9,194) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $69,324 across South Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Iva?
39.3%, against 14.1% across South Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Iva?
20 minutes each way on average, against 26 across South Carolina and 26 nationally. 1% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Iva work?
7% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Anderson (15%, 15 mi), Greenville (8%, 40 mi), Mauldin (2%, 38 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Iva walkable?
Iva is more walkable than 13% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 5.9 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Iva without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 16% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Iva, from the people who make the trip.
More of Iva
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.