With 0.4 jobs for every working resident, most of Ideal Township works elsewhere
Employers in Ideal Township report 210 jobs, against 494 working residents. Jobs and income earn Ideal Township B; getting around on foot earns it C. Measured by household income, Ideal Township is ahead of 83% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Ideal Township in brief
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 ↓
A lot of Ideal Township works from home
27% of Ideal Township workers work from home, against 18% across Minnesota. 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; with 494 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Ideal Township’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
On income, poverty and job access, Ideal Township is better than 65% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Ideal Township’s grade up (3.3%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 5% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income.
Unemployment (2.7%) is left out: Ideal Township’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, Ideal Township could be anywhere from B− to B+.
The distance from Ideal Township to work
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 2023.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
From Ideal Township, about 25 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Ideal Township workers work from home, vs 18% across Minnesota. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 368 commuters (the 27% 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.
The daily commute in and out of Ideal Township
On a workday 478 residents head out to work, 16 work right here, and 194 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,000 people are in Ideal Township 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 2023, primary jobs.
12% of working residents work in Crosslake
Where Ideal Township clocks in
9% 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.
Mostly services: health care, schools and offices
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Ideal Township, 2013 → 2023: 105 → 210. 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 Ideal Township’s own residents hold wherever they work.
In Ideal Township, the car does most of the work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Ideal Township is more walkable than 30% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Ideal Township 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 506 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). 2.7% of Ideal Township households have no vehicle (Minnesota 6.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Ideal Township’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 900 to 1,700, Ideal Township ranks 1,022nd of 4,866 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 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 8 | Medicine Lake MN | 1,342 | $184K | 2.7% | 0.0% | 0% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 29 | Dellwood MN | 1,148 | $225K | 4.1% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 31 | Louisville Township MN | 1,361 | $143K | 1.1% | 0.9% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,020 | White Sands NM | 1,609 | $90K | 1.9% | 0.0% | 7% | B |
| 1,021 | Cherry Branch NC | 1,684 | $104K | 1.4% | 0.4% | <1% | B |
| 1,022 | Ideal Township MN | 1,291 | $108K | 3.3% | 2.7% | 3% | B |
| 1,023 | Bement IL | 1,462 | $76K | 7.0% | 1.3% | 8% | B |
| 1,024 | Washington Township OH | 1,685 | $80K | 2.6% | 0.0% | 6% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 4,866 | 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 Ideal Township, the top three, the last and three more from Minnesota.
23% of Ideal Township works in a bordering town
The biggest share goes to Crosslake (12%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Ideal Township workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ideal Township | – | B | C | 25 min | $108,355 |
| Breezy Point | 3% | B− | C− | 26 min | $85,938 |
| Jenkins Township | under 3% | — | — | 22 min | — |
| Timothy Township | under 3% | — | — | 20 min | — |
| Crosslake | 12% | B− | B+ | 29 min | $79,635 |
| Pequot Lakes | 8% | C | B+ | 22 min | $63,699 |
Same-state neighbors only. Jenkins Township and Timothy Township: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Ideal Township’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 Ideal Township: questions
What is the median household income in Ideal Township?
$108,355 (±$20,765) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $89,062 across Minnesota and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Ideal Township?
3.3%, against 9.3% across Minnesota and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Ideal Township?
25 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Minnesota and 26 nationally. 27% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Ideal Township work?
3% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Crosslake (12%, 5 mi), Brainerd (9%, 22 mi), Pequot Lakes (8%, 7 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Ideal Township walkable?
Ideal Township is more walkable than 30% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 5.6 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Ideal Township without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Ideal Township, from the people who make the trip.
More of Ideal Township
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.