Average for workers who did not work from home.
COUNTY · IA · GEOID 191532024 5-YEAR
COMMUTE PROFILE
Polk County, Iowa
Mean one-way trip20.0 min±0.4 min MOE
Worked from home15.7%±0.6 pp MOE
Drove alone72.4%±0.6 pp MOE
60+ minute trip2.8%among commuters
U.S. Census Bureau ACS estimates for residents age 16+ who work. Commute time excludes people working from home.
01 / THE SHIFT
What changed in the published estimate?
These periods overlap: 2021 covers 2017–2021 and 2024 covers 2020–2024. Changes are directional comparisons, not independent annual measurements.
Share of workers age 16+ who usually worked from home.
Public transportation excluding taxi.
Car, truck, or van—drove alone.
02 / MODE SHARE
How residents usually get to work
Each share uses 264,612 estimated workers as its denominator. Categories shown here do not include every ACS mode.
03 / PEER CONTEXT
Compared with similar-size countys
Percentiles are single-metric context, never a “good commute” score.
Mean commute time is lower than about 98% of covered countys in the 500k+ population band.
The work-from-home share is lower than about 58% of covered countys in the 500k+ population band.
The public-transit share is lower than about 86% of covered countys in the 500k+ population band.
The 60+ minute share is lower than about 97% of covered countys in the 500k+ population band.
04 / ESTIMATE BASE
The counts behind the shares
Population estimate503,175± — MOE
Workers age 16+264,612± 2,475 MOE
Workers with travel time222,945± 2,292 MOE
Estimated home workers41,667± 1,757 MOE
Why the ± matters
ACS values are survey estimates. The margin of error is the 90% confidence interval published by the Census Bureau or calculated for a share from published component margins. Small differences can be sampling noise.
05 / SAME STATE
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