Photo: Farragutful · CC BY-SA 4.0Households in Ada earn less than those in 67% of U.S. towns
Working from home is the commute for 3% of workers, against 18% across Minnesota. Below the poverty line: 16.8% of residents (Minnesota 9.3%). For jobs and income Ada is better than 11% of U.S. towns (D); for walkability it is more walkable than 88% of U.S. towns (A).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Ada in brief
Ada’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Ada is Fargo, ND, 33 miles away as the crow flies. 10% of working residents (82) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Few Ada workers work from home
Only 3% of workers work from home, against 18% across Minnesota. Almost everyone here travels to a job. Time on the road ↓
Commutes from Ada are quick
The average trip to work takes 16 minutes, against 23 across Minnesota. That’s about 54 hours a year less on the road than the typical Minnesota worker. 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 797 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Jobs & income in Ada: the grade in detail
Household income holds Ada’s grade up ($64,091, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 6% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (7.2%) is left out: Ada’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, Ada could be anywhere from D− to C.
How far Ada’s workers travel
About 17% 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.
A commute of about 16 minutes in Ada
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Ada workers work from home, vs 18% across Minnesota. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 815 commuters (the 3% who work from home are left out). Across Minnesota: 84% drive alone, 2% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
The daily commute in and out of Ada
On a workday 498 residents head out to work, 299 work right here, and 395 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 (0.87 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.
10% of working residents work in Fargo
Where Ada clocks in
10% of workers
4% 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.
Health, schools and offices: most of the jobs in Ada
694 jobs are based in Ada.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Ada, 2013 → 2023: 692 → 694. 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 Ada’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Ada is easy on foot, hard by bus
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 11.6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 5.7% across Minnesota, on an EPA index of 8.2.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 843 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). 11.6% of Ada households have no vehicle (Minnesota 6.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 3% of Ada’s commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, Ada is 4,765th of 5,760 U.S. towns of 1,200 to 2,300
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Hewlett Harbor NY | 1,332 | $250K | 1.9% | 7.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 7 | Medicine Lake MN | 1,342 | $184K | 2.7% | 0.0% | 0% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 27 | Louisville Township MN | 1,361 | $143K | 1.1% | 0.9% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 29 | Tonka Bay MN | 1,561 | $156K | 3.5% | 9.7% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,763 | Zolfo Springs FL | 1,754 | $61K | 32.0% | 5.0% | 3% | D |
| 4,764 | Oberlin KS | 1,606 | $52K | 11.5% | 2.5% | 37% | D |
| 4,765 | Ada MN | 1,712 | $64K | 16.8% | 7.2% | 38% | D |
| 4,766 | Canby MN | 1,674 | $58K | 14.9% | 6.7% | 39% | D |
| 4,767 | Bridgeport NE | 1,421 | $60K | 15.5% | 9.3% | 29% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,760 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 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 Ada, the top three, the last and three more from Minnesota.
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 Ada: questions
What is the median household income in Ada?
$64,091 (±$13,806) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $89,062 across Minnesota and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Ada?
16.8%, against 9.3% across Minnesota and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Ada?
16 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Minnesota and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Ada work?
38% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Fargo (10%, 33 mi), Moorhead (4%, 32 mi), Borup (4%, 8 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Ada walkable?
Ada is more walkable than 88% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 8.2 out of 20, and 12% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Ada without a car?
3% of commuters take transit and 12% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Ada, from the people who make the trip.
More of Ada
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.