Charles City is a somewhat small city located in the state of Iowa. With a population of 7,239 people and two associated neighborhoods, Charles City is the 55th largest community in Iowa.

Telecommuters are a relatively large percentage of the workforce: 7.39% of people work from home. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce it is high relative to the nation. These workers are often telecommuters who work in knowledge-based, white-collar professions. For example, Silicon Valley has large numbers of people who telecommute. Other at-home workers may be self-employed people who operate small businesses out of their homes.

Residents of the city have the good fortune of having one of the shortest daily commutes compared to the rest of the country. On average, they spend only 14.58 minutes getting to work every day.

Being a small city, Charles City does not have a public transit system used by locals to get to and from work.

The citizens of Charles City are slightly less educated than the national average of 21.84% for the average city or town: 16.51% of adults in Charles City have a bachelor's degree or advanced degree

The per capita income in Charles City in 2018 was $31,659, which is lower middle income relative to Iowa, and middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $126,636 for a family of four. However, Charles City contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

Charles City is a somewhat ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Charles City home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Charles City residents report their race to be White, followed by Asian. Important ancestries of people in Charles City include German, Irish, English, Norwegian, and Swedish.

The most common language spoken in Charles City is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Italian.