Photo: Myotus · CC BY 4.0Households in Long Prairie have lower incomes than those in 76% of U.S. towns
The two grades for Long Prairie are C− for jobs and income and A− for walkability. Below the poverty line: 12.7% of residents (Minnesota 9.3%). Working from home is the commute for 9% of workers, against 18% across Minnesota.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Long Prairie stands out on work
Long Prairie makes and builds things
54% of the jobs based in Long Prairie are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Long Prairie residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 59%. The jobs ↓
Long Prairie gains people on a workday
About 4,700 people are in Long Prairie on a workday afternoon, 23% more than the 3,800 who live here: 1,700 come in to work and 810 head out. Day and night ↓
A young workforce
30% of Long Prairie’s working residents are 29 or younger. 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.
Where Long Prairie’s Jobs & income grade comes from
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Long Prairie is better than 24% of U.S. towns, #248 of 273 in Minnesota. Unemployment holds Long Prairie’s grade up (4.5%, U.S. 5.2%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 23% of U.S. towns).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Long Prairie could be anywhere from D to B+.
Factories, building and farms: 54% of the jobs in Long Prairie
2,623 jobs are based in Long Prairie.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Long Prairie, 2013 → 2023: 2,633 → 2,623. 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 Long Prairie’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Long Prairie by day and by night
On a workday 812 residents head out to work, 943 work right here, and 1,680 people come in from elsewhere.
About 4,700 people are in Long Prairie on a workday afternoon, 23% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.49 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
7% of working residents work in Long Prairie Township
Where Long Prairie clocks in
7% of workers
3% 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.
About 24 minutes to work from Long Prairie
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Long Prairie workers work from home, vs 18% across Minnesota. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,355 commuters (the 9% 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.
Short hops and long hauls from Long Prairie
About 16% 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.
Long Prairie is easy on foot, hard by bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Long Prairie is more walkable than 80% of U.S. towns, #86 of 273 in Minnesota. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 15.5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 5.7% across Minnesota, on an EPA index of 7.0.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,490 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). 9.7% of Long Prairie households have no vehicle (Minnesota 6.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 9% of Long Prairie’s commuters take a bus or train.
3,279th of 4,264: where Long Prairie ranks among U.S. towns of 2,700 to 5,200
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Mission Hills KS | 3,522 | $250K | 1.2% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Ho-Ho-Kus NJ | 4,313 | $250K | 0.0% | 1.7% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5 | Independence MN | 3,763 | $187K | 1.1% | 0.8% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 15 | Deephaven MN | 3,794 | $198K | 1.7% | 1.7% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 17 | Greenfield MN | 2,962 | $154K | 1.2% | 0.4% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,277 | Hempfield Township PA | 3,646 | $50K | 8.9% | 6.4% | 8% | C− |
| 3,278 | Arabi LA | 4,625 | $57K | 21.7% | 9.4% | 3% | C− |
| 3,279 | Long Prairie MN | 3,830 | $59K | 12.7% | 4.5% | 54% | C− |
| 3,280 | Chisholm MN | 4,625 | $51K | 14.0% | 3.9% | 20% | C− |
| 3,281 | Waverly NY | 4,191 | $54K | 7.3% | 7.7% | 17% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,264 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 18% | 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 Long Prairie, the top three, the last and three more from Minnesota.
Long Prairie and the towns next door
The biggest share goes to Long Prairie Township (7%).
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Long Prairie workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Long Prairie | – | C− | A− | 24 min | $58,786 |
| Long Prairie Township | 7% | — | — | 23 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Long Prairie Township: not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Long Prairie’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 Long Prairie: questions
What is the median household income in Long Prairie?
$58,786 (±$10,264) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $89,062 across Minnesota and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Long Prairie?
12.7%, against 9.3% across Minnesota and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Long Prairie?
24 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Minnesota and 26 nationally. 9% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Long Prairie work?
54% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Long Prairie Township (7%, 2 mi), Alexandria (3%, 26 mi), St. Cloud (3%, 46 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Long Prairie walkable?
Long Prairie is more walkable than 80% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 7.0 out of 20, and 16% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Long Prairie without a car?
9% of commuters take transit and 10% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Long Prairie, from the people who make the trip.
More of Long Prairie
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.