Photo: Lorie Shaull · CC BY 2.0With 0.5 jobs for every working resident, most of Babbitt works elsewhere
Employers in Babbitt report 296 jobs for 610 working residents. The two grades for Babbitt are D for jobs and income and B− for walkability. Measured by household income, Babbitt is behind 80% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Babbitt, in brief
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Babbitt
On income, poverty and job access, Babbitt is better than 13% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Babbitt’s grade up (10.5%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (near the bottom of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (4.8%) is left out: Babbitt’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, Babbitt could be anywhere from D− to C.
About 33 minutes each way, longer than most of Minnesota
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 10.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Babbitt workers work from home, vs 18% across Minnesota. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 525 commuters (the 12% 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.
Who commutes out of Babbitt, and who commutes in
On a workday 455 residents head out to work, 155 work right here, and 141 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,000 people are in Babbitt on a workday afternoon, 23% fewer than live here.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
15% of working residents work in Ely
Where Babbitt clocks in
15% of workers
9% of workers
6% 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.
What Babbitt’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Babbitt, 2013 → 2023: 283 → 296. 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 Babbitt’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How far it is to work from Babbitt
About 25% 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.
Babbitt is a driving town
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Babbitt is more walkable than 50% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Babbitt near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 599 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). 7.1% of Babbitt households have no vehicle (Minnesota 6.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Babbitt’s commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, Babbitt is 4,241st of 5,400 U.S. towns of 1,000 to 1,800
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 9 | Medicine Lake MN | 1,342 | $184K | 2.7% | 0.0% | 0% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 32 | Dellwood MN | 1,148 | $225K | 4.1% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 34 | Louisville Township MN | 1,361 | $143K | 1.1% | 0.9% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,239 | Cambridge City IN | 1,730 | $51K | 19.9% | 4.7% | 7% | D |
| 4,240 | Lincoln Center KS | 1,136 | $49K | 9.6% | 4.4% | 19% | D |
| 4,241 | Babbitt MN | 1,363 | $56K | 10.5% | 4.8% | 25% | D |
| 4,242 | Addison NY | 1,541 | $56K | 17.8% | 8.5% | 14% | D |
| 4,243 | Walnut Cove NC | 1,609 | $45K | 18.4% | 4.4% | 5% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,400 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 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 Babbitt, the top three, the last and three more from Minnesota.
Babbitt and its neighbors
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Babbitt workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Babbitt | – | D | B− | 33 min | $55,875 |
| Bassett Township | under 2% | — | — | 58 min | — |
| Stony River Township | under 2% | — | — | 42 min | — |
| Waasa Township | under 2% | — | — | 39 min | — |
| Hoyt Lakes | under 2% | C | D | 29 min | $65,764 |
Same-state neighbors only. Bassett Township, Stony River Township and Waasa Township: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Babbitt’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
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 Babbitt: questions
What is the median household income in Babbitt?
$55,875 (±$13,667) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $89,062 across Minnesota and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Babbitt?
10.5%, against 9.3% across Minnesota and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Babbitt?
33 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Minnesota and 26 nationally. 12% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Babbitt work?
25% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Ely (15%, 18 mi), Virginia (9%, 29 mi), Duluth (6%, 61 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Babbitt walkable?
Babbitt is more walkable than 50% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 7.1 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Babbitt without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 7% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Babbitt, from the people who make the trip.
More of Babbitt
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.