Photo: Myotus · CC BY 4.0Dassel’s household incomes are lower than in 74% of U.S. towns
Below the poverty line: 13.3% of residents (Minnesota 9.3%). Jobs and income earn Dassel C−; getting around on foot earns it B+. About one in ten stay in Dassel for work; outside it, Cokato is the main destination (11%, 6 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Dassel
Dassel is where the jobs are
Dassel has 1,039 jobs, 1.6 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Dassel makes and builds things
51% of the jobs based in Dassel are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Dassel residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 30%. 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 664 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
How the Jobs & income grade adds up in Dassel
On income, poverty and job access, Dassel is better than 22% of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Dassel’s grade.
Unemployment (0.8%) is left out: Dassel’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Dassel could be anywhere from D to B−.
How a workday changes Dassel
On a workday 586 residents head out to work, 78 work right here, and 961 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,900 people are in Dassel on a workday afternoon, 25% more than live here.
1.6 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
51% of the jobs in Dassel make or build things
1,039 jobs are based in Dassel.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Dassel, 2013 → 2023: 777 → 1,039. 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 Dassel’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Where Dassel’s workforce comes from
Where Dassel clocks in
11% 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.
Each way, about 25 minutes from Dassel
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Dassel workers work from home, vs 18% across Minnesota. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 540 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.
Near or far: the trip to work from Dassel
About 15% 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.
Few in Dassel walk, bike or ride to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Dassel is more walkable than 70% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Dassel 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 614 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). 7.4% of Dassel households have no vehicle (Minnesota 6.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Dassel’s commuters take a bus or train.
Dassel next to U.S. towns of 1,100 to 2,100: 3,884th of 5,794 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 8 | Medicine Lake MN | 1,342 | $184K | 2.7% | 0.0% | 0% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 30 | Dellwood MN | 1,148 | $225K | 4.1% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 32 | Louisville Township MN | 1,361 | $143K | 1.1% | 0.9% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,882 | Bethel Island CA | 1,864 | $75K | 34.6% | 35.5% | 2% | C− |
| 3,883 | Chenoa IL | 1,705 | $66K | 21.3% | 3.4% | 3% | C− |
| 3,884 | Dassel MN | 1,524 | $60K | 13.3% | 0.8% | 12% | C− |
| 3,885 | Silver Bay MN | 1,767 | $69K | 9.9% | 2.8% | 30% | C− |
| 3,886 | Choteau MT | 1,825 | $52K | 5.7% | 0.7% | 36% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,794 | 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 Dassel, 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 Dassel: questions
What is the median household income in Dassel?
$59,946 (±$11,560) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $89,062 across Minnesota and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Dassel?
13.3%, against 9.3% across Minnesota and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Dassel?
25 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Minnesota and 26 nationally. 12% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Dassel work?
12% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Cokato (11%, 6 mi), Hutchinson (8%, 14 mi), Litchfield (5%, 10 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Dassel walkable?
Dassel is more walkable than 70% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 7.5 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Dassel without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 7% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Dassel, from the people who make the trip.
More of Dassel
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.