Photo: Gabriel Vanslette · CC BY 3.0Household incomes in Lake Elmo are higher than in 95% of U.S. towns
Below the poverty line: 4.8% of residents, next to 9.3% across Minnesota. Jobs and income earn Lake Elmo A+; getting around on foot earns it C. 37% of workers work from home; Minnesota has 18%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work and commuting in Lake Elmo, in brief
Home offices are common in Lake Elmo
37% of Lake Elmo workers work from home, against 18% across Minnesota. Time on the road ↓
Lake Elmo has added jobs fast
Jobs based in Lake Elmo went from 1,654 in 2013 to 3,109 in 2023, +88%. The jobs ↓
Lake Elmo and St. Paul trade workers both ways
St. Paul is the top workplace for Lake Elmo residents (16%) and also where the most people who work in Lake Elmo come from (10% 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; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
How Lake Elmo earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Lake Elmo is better than 97% of U.S. towns, #28 of 273 in Minnesota. All four inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Lake Elmo’s grade. It also does well on the poverty rate and unemployment and job access by car.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Lake Elmo could be anywhere from A to A+.
How long Lake Elmo spends getting to work: about 23 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Lake Elmo workers work from home, vs 18% across Minnesota. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,938 commuters (the 37% 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.
65% of the jobs in Lake Elmo pay over $3,333 a month
3,109 jobs are based in Lake Elmo.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Lake Elmo, 2013 → 2023: 1,654 → 3,109. 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 Lake Elmo’s own residents hold wherever they work.
16% of working residents work in St. Paul
Where Lake Elmo clocks in
16% of workers
13% of workers
5% 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.
How a workday changes Lake Elmo
On a workday 5,976 residents head out to work, 253 work right here, and 2,856 people come in from elsewhere.
About 11,000 people are in Lake Elmo on a workday afternoon, 22% fewer than live here.
0.50 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute 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.
Half of Lake Elmo commutes less than 14 miles
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.
Driving is how Lake Elmo gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Lake Elmo is more walkable than 33% of U.S. towns, #221 of 273 in Minnesota. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 5.7% across Minnesota.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 6,213 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 0.2 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 44% 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). 3.9% of Lake Elmo households have no vehicle (Minnesota 6.7%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Lake Elmo’s commuters take a bus or train.
Lake Elmo is 87th of 2,227 U.S. towns of 10,000 to 19,000 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Beverly Hills MI | 10,449 | $177K | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | New Albany OH | 11,803 | $238K | 1.4% | 0.9% | 11% | A+ |
| 3 | Plain Township OH | 13,257 | $219K | 2.1% | 0.8% | 10% | A+ |
| 4 | Rogers MN | 15,606 | $159K | 1.9% | 1.2% | 10% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 8 | Mendota Heights MN | 11,475 | $133K | 2.8% | 1.4% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 18 | Victoria MN | 12,447 | $196K | 2.1% | 1.8% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 85 | Timnath CO | 11,600 | $178K | 4.4% | 0.6% | 2% | A+ |
| 86 | Berkley MI | 15,145 | $116K | 4.5% | 2.2% | 4% | A+ |
| 87 | Lake Elmo MN | 14,376 | $154K | 4.8% | 2.3% | 4% | A+ |
| 88 | New Providence NJ | 14,092 | $162K | 2.1% | 3.8% | 7% | A+ |
| 89 | Harrisburg SD | 10,405 | $109K | 0.5% | 1.0% | 10% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,227 | Douglas AZ | 16,038 | $42K | 27.8% | 12.3% | 29% | 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 Lake Elmo, the top three, the last and three more from Minnesota.
Next door is work for 10% of Lake Elmo
The biggest share goes to Woodbury (5%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Lake Elmo workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lake Elmo | – | A+ | C | 23 min | $153,669 |
| Oakdale | 3% | A | A− | 24 min | $93,772 |
| Stillwater Township | under 3% | A+ | C− | 25 min | $161,563 |
| West Lakeland Township | under 3% | A+ | B− | 23 min | $216,310 |
| Woodbury | 5% | A | B+ | 24 min | $125,310 |
| Baytown Township | under 3% | A+ | C+ | 23 min | $188,125 |
| Grant | under 3% | A+ | B− | 25 min | $150,875 |
| Pine Springs | under 3% | — | — | 19 min | — |
| Oak Park Heights | 2% | A− | A− | 24 min | $82,476 |
Same-state neighbors only. Pine Springs: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Lake Elmo’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 Lake Elmo: questions
What is the median household income in Lake Elmo?
$153,669 (±$12,387) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $89,062 across Minnesota and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Lake Elmo?
4.8%, against 9.3% across Minnesota and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Lake Elmo?
23 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Minnesota and 26 nationally. 37% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Lake Elmo work?
4% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are St. Paul (16%, 10 mi), Minneapolis (13%, 18 mi), Woodbury (5%, 6 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Lake Elmo walkable?
Lake Elmo is more walkable than 33% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 7.1 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Lake Elmo 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 Lake Elmo, from the people who make the trip.
More of Lake Elmo
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.