Madison Lake has 0.5 jobs for every working resident, so most commute out
Only 2% work in Madison Lake itself; outside it, Mankato draws the most (44%, 9 miles). Madison Lake has 242 jobs, against 533 working residents. Jobs and income earn Madison Lake B; getting around on foot earns it B−.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Madison Lake, in brief
What’s behind Madison Lake’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Madison Lake is better than 64% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Madison Lake’s grade up (6.8%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down. It also does well on household income.
Unemployment (4.4%) is left out: Madison Lake’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Madison Lake could be anywhere from C+ to A−.
Where the trip to work from Madison Lake ends
Where Madison Lake clocks in
44% 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.
Who commutes out of Madison Lake, and who commutes in
On a workday 525 residents head out to work, 8 work right here, and 234 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,000 people are in Madison Lake 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.
Goods jobs make up 45% of work in Madison Lake
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Madison Lake, 2013 → 2023: 238 → 242. 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 Madison Lake’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 23 minutes each way for Madison Lake’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Madison Lake workers work from home, vs 18% across Minnesota. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 564 commuters (the 13% 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 Madison Lake
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.
For most of Madison Lake, work means a drive
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Madison Lake is more walkable than 46% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 4.5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 5.7% across Minnesota, on an EPA index of 5.1.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 648 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). 0.0% of Madison Lake households have no vehicle (Minnesota 6.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Madison Lake’s commuters take a bus or train.
Madison Lake next to U.S. towns of 900 to 1,800: 1,178th of 5,400 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 9 | Medicine Lake MN | 1,342 | $184K | 2.7% | 0.0% | 0% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 32 | Dellwood MN | 1,148 | $225K | 4.1% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 34 | Louisville Township MN | 1,361 | $143K | 1.1% | 0.9% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,176 | Orange Township OH | 1,276 | $75K | 2.1% | 0.0% | 5% | B |
| 1,177 | Cypress Landing NC | 1,044 | $84K | 0.5% | 0.0% | 2% | B |
| 1,178 | Madison Lake MN | 1,315 | $88K | 6.8% | 4.4% | 2% | B |
| 1,179 | Union Township OH | 1,710 | $84K | 5.2% | 0.0% | 2% | B |
| 1,180 | Townsend Township OH | 1,542 | $72K | 4.0% | 0.0% | 3% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 5,400 | 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 Madison Lake, the top three, the last and three more from Minnesota.
Around Madison Lake: the bordering towns
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Madison Lake workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Madison Lake | – | B | B− | 23 min | $87,727 |
| Jamestown Township | under 2% | — | — | 21 min | — |
| Le Ray Township | under 2% | — | — | 29 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Jamestown Township and Le Ray Township: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Madison Lake’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 Madison Lake: questions
What is the median household income in Madison Lake?
$87,727 (±$14,266) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $89,062 across Minnesota and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Madison Lake?
6.8%, against 9.3% across Minnesota and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Madison Lake?
23 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Minnesota and 26 nationally. 13% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Madison Lake work?
2% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Mankato (44%, 9 mi), St. Peter (7%, 11 mi), North Mankato (7%, 12 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Madison Lake walkable?
Madison Lake is more walkable than 46% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 5.1 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Madison Lake without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 0% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Madison Lake, from the people who make the trip.
More of Madison Lake
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.