Photo: Myotus · CC BY 4.0A job hub: Grand Rapids has 1.9 jobs per working resident, and 6,719 people come in to work
Employers in Grand Rapids report 9,040 jobs, and 4,646 of its residents work somewhere. The two grades for Grand Rapids are C− for jobs and income and A for walkability. 10% of workers work from home, next to 18% for Minnesota as a whole.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Grand Rapids
Grand Rapids is where the jobs are
Grand Rapids has 9,040 jobs, 2.0 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Commutes from Grand Rapids are quick
The average trip to work takes 15 minutes, against 23 across Minnesota. That’s about 61 hours a year less on the road than the typical Minnesota worker. Time on the road ↓
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.
What’s behind Grand Rapids’ Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Grand Rapids is better than 21% of U.S. towns, #253 of 273 in Minnesota. All four inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Grand Rapids’ grade.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Grand Rapids could be anywhere from D to C+.
Who commutes out of Grand Rapids, and who commutes in
On a workday 2,325 residents head out to work and 2,321 work right here.
About 16,000 people are in Grand Rapids on a workday afternoon, 39% more 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.
The daily trip from Grand Rapids: about 15 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 4.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Grand Rapids workers work from home, vs 18% across Minnesota. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 4,337 commuters (the 10% 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 travels to work in Grand Rapids, and from where
Where Grand Rapids clocks in
5% of workers
4% of workers
3% 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 Grand Rapids’ employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Grand Rapids, 2013 → 2023: 9,300 → 9,040. 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 Grand Rapids’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Grand Rapids
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.
Good to walk, short on transit: Grand Rapids
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Grand Rapids is more walkable than 85% of U.S. towns, #52 of 273 in Minnesota. Both inputs place Grand Rapids 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 4,796 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). 6.9% of Grand Rapids households have no vehicle (Minnesota 6.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 3% of Grand Rapids’ commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, Grand Rapids is 2,142nd of 2,507 U.S. towns of 8,000 to 15,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| 2 | Beverly Hills MI | 10,449 | $177K | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Ladue MO | 8,934 | $250K | 1.1% | 1.7% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 11 | Albertville MN | 8,544 | $133K | 1.1% | 0.2% | 5% | A+ |
| 12 | Mendota Heights MN | 11,475 | $133K | 2.8% | 1.4% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 26 | Victoria MN | 12,447 | $196K | 2.1% | 1.8% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,140 | University of California-Davis CA | 8,696 | $19K | 66.4% | 18.2% | 18% | C− |
| 2,141 | Orland CA | 8,381 | $65K | 16.9% | 5.0% | 15% | C− |
| 2,142 | Grand Rapids MN | 11,181 | $61K | 15.5% | 5.3% | 50% | C− |
| 2,143 | Waianae HI | 12,918 | $82K | 16.2% | 8.8% | 6% | C− |
| 2,144 | Country Club Estates GA | 8,780 | $53K | 29.7% | 3.9% | 1% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 2,507 | Roma TX | 11,543 | $25K | 37.1% | 12.4% | 22% | 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 Grand Rapids, the top three, the last and three more from Minnesota.
Grand Rapids and its neighbors
The biggest share goes to Cohasset (4%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Grand Rapids workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grand Rapids | – | C− | A | 15 min | $61,029 |
| Coleraine | 1% | C+ | B− | 19 min | $74,716 |
| La Prairie | 2% | — | — | 15 min | — |
| Harris Township | 1% | B | D | 28 min | $79,243 |
| Cohasset | 4% | C+ | D | 28 min | $92,692 |
| Arbo Township | under 2% | — | — | 24 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. La Prairie and Arbo Township: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Grand Rapids’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 Grand Rapids: questions
What is the median household income in Grand Rapids?
$61,029 (±$8,215) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $89,062 across Minnesota and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Grand Rapids?
15.5%, against 9.3% across Minnesota and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Grand Rapids?
15 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Minnesota and 26 nationally. 10% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Grand Rapids work?
50% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Duluth (5%, 73 mi), Cohasset (4%, 6 mi), Hibbing (3%, 30 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Grand Rapids walkable?
Grand Rapids is more walkable than 85% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 8.3 out of 20, and 7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Grand Rapids without a car?
3% 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 Grand Rapids, from the people who make the trip.
More of Grand Rapids
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.