Photo: Tony Webster from Minneapolis, Minnesota · CC BY-SA 2.0Unemployment in Cold Spring (5.3%) is higher than in 65% of U.S. towns
For jobs and income Cold Spring is better than 44% of U.S. towns (C+); for walkability it is more walkable than 54% of U.S. towns (B−). Home is the office for 8% of workers, against 18% across Minnesota. About one in five work in Cold Spring itself; outside it, St. Cloud draws the most (23%, 13 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Cold Spring, in a few figures
Cold Spring trades workers with the towns around it
Cold Spring has about as many jobs (2,153) as working residents (2,020), but they are mostly different people: 1,638 residents leave for work each day while 1,771 people come in. Only 18% of the jobs in Cold Spring are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
Cold Spring and St. Cloud trade workers both ways
St. Cloud is the top workplace for Cold Spring residents (23%) and also where the most people who work in Cold Spring come from (11% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
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.
Breaking down the Jobs & income grade for Cold Spring
Job access by car holds Cold Spring’s grade up (ahead of 52% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Cold Spring could be anywhere from D to A.
Cold Spring by day and by night
On a workday 1,638 residents head out to work, 382 work right here, and 1,771 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 (1.07 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.
Commuting out of Cold Spring: the destinations
Where Cold Spring clocks in
23% 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.
31% of the jobs in Cold Spring make or build things
2,153 jobs are based in Cold Spring.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Cold Spring, 2013 → 2023: 2,410 → 2,153. 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 Cold Spring’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Each way, about 24 minutes from Cold Spring
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Cold Spring workers work from home, vs 18% across Minnesota. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,070 commuters (the 8% 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.
Near or far: the trip to work from Cold Spring
About 19% 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.
For most of Cold Spring, work means a drive
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 3.4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 5.7% across Minnesota, on an EPA index of 6.4.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 2,260 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). 14.4% of Cold Spring households have no vehicle (Minnesota 6.7%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Cold Spring’s commuters take a bus or train.
2,375th of 4,039: where Cold Spring ranks among U.S. towns of 3,000 to 5,800
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Mission Hills KS | 3,522 | $250K | 1.2% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Ho-Ho-Kus NJ | 4,313 | $250K | 0.0% | 1.7% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 6 | Independence MN | 3,763 | $187K | 1.1% | 0.8% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 15 | Deephaven MN | 3,794 | $198K | 1.7% | 1.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 16 | Elko New Market MN | 5,300 | $152K | 1.1% | 0.0% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,373 | Leroy Township MI | 3,881 | $85K | 12.8% | 7.1% | 6% | C+ |
| 2,374 | Fremont MI | 4,599 | $57K | 8.7% | 2.8% | 24% | C+ |
| 2,375 | Cold Spring MN | 4,329 | $72K | 9.8% | 5.3% | 19% | C+ |
| 2,376 | David City NE | 3,068 | $66K | 15.1% | 0.1% | 40% | C+ |
| 2,377 | Kitty Hawk NC | 3,670 | $94K | 4.7% | 8.9% | 18% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,039 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 18% | 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 Cold Spring, 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 Cold Spring: questions
What is the median household income in Cold Spring?
$72,228 (±$19,414) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $89,062 across Minnesota and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Cold Spring?
9.8%, against 9.3% across Minnesota and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Cold Spring?
24 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Minnesota and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Cold Spring work?
19% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are St. Cloud (23%, 13 mi), Wakefield Township (6%, 2 mi), Waite Park (5%, 10 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Cold Spring walkable?
Cold Spring is more walkable than 54% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 6.4 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Cold Spring without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 14% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Cold Spring, from the people who make the trip.
More of Cold Spring
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.