Photo: Bjoertvedt · CC BY-SA 3.0Aurora’s household incomes are lower than in 95% of U.S. towns
9% of workers have no commute at all (Minnesota 18%). 20.1% of residents live below the poverty line, against 9.3% across Minnesota. For jobs and income Aurora is better than 3% of U.S. towns (D−); for walkability it is more walkable than 55% of U.S. towns (B).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Aurora and work: the main findings
Aurora makes and builds things
44% of the jobs based in Aurora are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Aurora residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 17%. The jobs ↓
Aurora has added jobs fast
Jobs based in Aurora went from 580 in 2013 to 887 in 2023, +53%. The jobs ↓
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 630 working residents, small shifts move the shares; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
Breaking down the Jobs & income grade for Aurora
All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Aurora’s grade.
Unemployment (4.4%) is left out: Aurora’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, Aurora could be anywhere from D− to D.
Aurora works in goods: 44% of its jobs
887 jobs are based in Aurora.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Aurora, 2013 → 2023: 580 → 887. 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 Aurora’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The workday shuffle in and out of Aurora
On a workday 544 residents head out to work, 86 work right here, and 801 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,900 people are in Aurora on a workday afternoon, 16% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.41 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.
17% of working residents work in Virginia
Where Aurora clocks in
17% of workers
8% 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.
Aurora’s commute takes about 26 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Aurora workers work from home, vs 18% across Minnesota. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 580 commuters (the 9% 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 commute from Aurora, by distance
About 29% 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.
Driving is how Aurora gets around
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 4.6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 5.7% across Minnesota, on an EPA index of 5.9.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 639 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). 25.2% of Aurora households have no vehicle (Minnesota 6.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Aurora’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Aurora compares with U.S. towns of 1,200 to 2,200
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,106 | Munfordville KY | 1,730 | $33K | 33.3% | 4.4% | 15% | D− |
| 5,107 | Stanton MI | 1,383 | $49K | 31.2% | 8.4% | 11% | D− |
| 5,108 | Aurora MN | 1,643 | $42K | 20.1% | 4.4% | 14% | D− |
| 5,109 | Albany MO | 1,730 | $45K | 19.4% | 2.3% | 27% | D− |
| 5,110 | Canyonville OR | 1,659 | $48K | 26.3% | 11.3% | 6% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,381 | 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 Aurora, 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 Aurora: questions
What is the median household income in Aurora?
$42,083 (±$9,597) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $89,062 across Minnesota and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Aurora?
20.1%, against 9.3% across Minnesota and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Aurora?
26 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Minnesota and 26 nationally. 9% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Aurora work?
14% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Virginia (17%, 13 mi), White Township (15%, 2 mi), Biwabik (8%, 5 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Aurora walkable?
Aurora is more walkable than 55% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 5.9 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Aurora without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 25% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Aurora, from the people who make the trip.
More of Aurora
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.