Grinnell is a somewhat small city located in the state of Iowa. With a population of 9,493 people and two associated neighborhoods, Grinnell is the 44th largest community in Iowa.

Of important note, Grinnell is also a city of artists. Grinnell has more artists, designers and people working in media than 90% of the communities in America. This concentration of artists helps shape Grinnell’s character.

Also of interest is that Grinnell has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US.

One interesting thing about the economy is that relatively large numbers of people worked from their home: 12.96% of the workforce. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce this is high compared to the rest of the county. 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.

Because there are quite a few people attending college in Grinnell, it is thought of as a college town. To the benefit of the many students in the area, Grinnell provides a number of services, amenities and opportunities geared towards their needs and activities.

One of the benefits of Grinnell is that there is very little traffic. The average commute to work is 14.07 minutes, which is substantially less than the national average. Not only does this mean that the drive to work is less aggravating, but noise and pollution levels are lower as a result.

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

The citizens of Grinnell are very well educated compared to the average community in the nation: 39.50% of adults in Grinnell have a bachelor's degree or even advanced degree.

The per capita income in Grinnell in 2018 was $36,917, which is upper middle income relative to Iowa and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $147,668 for a family of four. However, Grinnell contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

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

The most common language spoken in Grinnell is English. Other important languages spoken here include Polish and Spanish.