Martin T. Gunderson House · Photo: McGhiever · CC BY-SA 3.0Most of Kenyon commutes out: there are 0.4 jobs for every working resident
Home is the office for 5% of workers, against 18% across Minnesota. 392 jobs are based in Kenyon, against 946 working residents. For jobs and income Kenyon is better than 40% of U.S. towns (C+); for walkability it is more walkable than 82% of U.S. towns (A−).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Kenyon apart on work
Kenyon’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Kenyon is Rochester, 31 miles away as the crow flies. 10% of working residents (91) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Kenyon makes and builds things
38% of the jobs based in Kenyon are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Kenyon residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 29%. The jobs ↓
Fewer jobs are based in Kenyon than ten years ago
Jobs counted in Kenyon fell from 555 in 2013 to 392 in 2023, −29%. 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 ↓
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 946 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Income, poverty and work: Kenyon’s grade explained
Household income holds Kenyon’s grade up ($82,500, U.S. $80,734); the poverty rate pulls it down (13.6%, U.S. 12.5%).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Kenyon could be anywhere from C− to B+.
How far it is to work from Kenyon
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.
Making and building: 38% of jobs based in Kenyon
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Kenyon, 2013 → 2023: 555 → 392. 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 Kenyon’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who works in Kenyon, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 849 residents head out to work, 97 work right here, and 295 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,300 people are in Kenyon on a workday afternoon, 29% 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.
10% of working residents work in Rochester
Where Kenyon clocks in
10% 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.
From Kenyon, about 29 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Kenyon workers work from home, vs 18% across Minnesota. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 911 commuters (the 5% 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.
Kenyon is easy on foot, hard by bus
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 7.0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 5.7% across Minnesota, on an EPA index of 7.9.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 958 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). 4.0% of Kenyon households have no vehicle (Minnesota 6.7%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Kenyon’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 1,300 to 2,500, Kenyon ranks 2,767th of 5,656 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 8 | Medicine Lake MN | 1,342 | $184K | 2.7% | 0.0% | 0% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 26 | Louisville Township MN | 1,361 | $143K | 1.1% | 0.9% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 29 | Tonka Bay MN | 1,561 | $156K | 3.5% | 9.7% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,765 | Rawls Springs MS | 1,499 | $47K | 7.3% | 2.9% | <1% | C+ |
| 2,766 | Bent Creek NC | 1,384 | $72K | 15.6% | 12.5% | 1% | C+ |
| 2,767 | Kenyon MN | 1,885 | $83K | 13.6% | 4.8% | 10% | C+ |
| 2,768 | Clark Township IN | 1,895 | $77K | 11.0% | 0.9% | 4% | C+ |
| 2,769 | Wise Township MI | 1,385 | $68K | 8.4% | 4.0% | 1% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,656 | 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 Kenyon, the top three, the last and three more from Minnesota.
Kenyon and its neighbors
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Kenyon workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kenyon | – | C+ | A− | 29 min | $82,500 |
| Kenyon Township | under 2% | — | — | 35 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Kenyon Township: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Kenyon’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 Kenyon: questions
What is the median household income in Kenyon?
$82,500 (±$5,260) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $89,062 across Minnesota and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Kenyon?
13.6%, against 9.3% across Minnesota and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Kenyon?
29 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Minnesota and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Kenyon work?
10% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Rochester (10%, 31 mi), Northfield (9%, 16 mi), Faribault (8%, 15 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Kenyon walkable?
Kenyon is more walkable than 82% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 7.9 out of 20, and 7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Kenyon without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Kenyon, from the people who make the trip.
More of Kenyon
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.