Photo: Calebrw · CC BY-SA 3.0With 0.5 jobs for every working resident, most of Bird Island works elsewhere
About one in ten work in Bird Island itself; outside it, Olivia draws the most (16%, 5 miles). There are 249 jobs in Bird Island; 461 of its residents have a job. 4% of workers have no commute at all; Minnesota has 18%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Bird Island at work: what stands out
Bird Island and Olivia trade workers both ways
Olivia is the top workplace for Bird Island residents (16%) and also where the most people who work in Bird Island come from (19% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Fewer jobs are based in Bird Island than ten years ago
Jobs counted in Bird Island fell from 400 in 2014 to 249 in 2024, −38%. That can be real closings or a large employer now reporting its workers at another address; the data can’t tell the two apart. The jobs ↓
A big share show a job far from home
30% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. How far ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2024, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; with 461 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
The places Bird Island commutes to
Where Bird Island clocks in
7% 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.
What Bird Island’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Bird Island, 2014 → 2024: 400 → 249. 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 2024.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Bird Island’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Near or far: the trip to work from Bird Island
About 30% 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 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Who leaves Bird Island for work, and who comes in
On a workday 413 residents head out to work, 48 work right here, and 201 people come in from elsewhere.
About 770 people are in Bird Island on a workday afternoon, 22% 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 2024, primary jobs.
From Bird Island, about 21 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Bird Island workers work from home, vs 18% across Minnesota. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 477 commuters (the 4% 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.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Two sources, two years. Trips, distances and jobs based here: Census LEHD 2024, 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 Bird Island: questions
What is the median household income in Bird Island?
$75,833 (±$19,462) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $89,062 across Minnesota and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Bird Island?
7.7%, against 9.3% across Minnesota and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Bird Island?
21 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Minnesota and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Bird Island work?
10% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Olivia (16%, 5 mi), Willmar (7%, 26 mi), Redwood Falls (4%, 18 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Can you get around Bird Island without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 5% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Bird Island, from the people who make the trip.
More of Bird Island
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2024, 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.