Photo: Myotus · CC BY 4.0Mahnomen has lower household incomes than 93% of U.S. towns
Jobs and income earn Mahnomen D−; getting around on foot earns it A. 18.6% of residents are in poverty, next to 9.3% for Minnesota as a whole. Home is the office for 2% of workers, against 18% across Minnesota.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The work figures that set Mahnomen apart
Mahnomen is where the jobs are
Mahnomen has 1,225 jobs, 3.0 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 2,000 people are in town, 69% more than the 1,200 who live here. Day and night ↓
Commutes from Mahnomen are quick
The average trip to work takes 13 minutes, against 23 across Minnesota. That’s about 77 hours a year less on the road than the typical Minnesota worker. Time on the road ↓
Few Mahnomen workers work from home
Only 3% of workers work from home, against 18% across Minnesota. Almost everyone here travels to a job. 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 411 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Inside Mahnomen’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Mahnomen is better than 4% of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Mahnomen’s grade.
Unemployment (9.8%) is left out: Mahnomen’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, Mahnomen could be anywhere from D− to D.
Mahnomen on a workday afternoon
On a workday 229 residents head out to work, 182 work right here, and 1,043 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,000 people are in Mahnomen on a workday afternoon, 69% more than live here.
3.0 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than 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.
About 13 minutes each way, quicker than most of Minnesota
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 4.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Mahnomen workers work from home, vs 18% across Minnesota. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 354 commuters (the 2% 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 trip into Mahnomen
Where Mahnomen clocks in
5% of workers
4% 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.
Mahnomen is a services town
1,225 jobs are based in Mahnomen.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Mahnomen, 2013 → 2023: 1,767 → 1,225. 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 Mahnomen’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How many miles Mahnomen commutes
About 24% 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.
Mahnomen is more walkable than most U.S. towns, with limited transit
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Mahnomen is more walkable than 86% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 15.2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 5.7% across Minnesota, on an EPA index of 7.7.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 363 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). 8.4% of Mahnomen households have no vehicle (Minnesota 6.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 2% of Mahnomen’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Mahnomen compares with U.S. towns of 800 to 1,600
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 7 | Medicine Lake MN | 1,342 | $184K | 2.7% | 0.0% | 0% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 26 | Dellwood MN | 1,148 | $225K | 4.1% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 28 | Louisville Township MN | 1,361 | $143K | 1.1% | 0.9% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,954 | Hill City KS | 1,376 | $49K | 16.7% | 6.7% | 36% | D− |
| 3,955 | Eastport ME | 1,285 | $46K | 15.2% | 2.8% | 44% | D− |
| 3,956 | Mahnomen MN | 1,181 | $45K | 18.6% | 9.8% | 44% | D− |
| 3,957 | Montgomery WV | 1,186 | $28K | 28.3% | 10.2% | 11% | D− |
| 3,958 | Erie Township KS | 1,245 | $46K | 17.9% | 0.0% | 8% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,312 | 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 Mahnomen, the top three, the last and three more from Minnesota.
Work in the towns next to Mahnomen
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Mahnomen workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mahnomen | – | D− | A | 13 min | $45,341 |
| Pembina Township | 2% | — | — | 18 min | — |
| Marsh Creek Township | under 2% | — | — | 23 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Pembina Township and Marsh Creek Township: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Pembina Township. Darker towns draw more of Mahnomen’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 Mahnomen: questions
What is the median household income in Mahnomen?
$45,341 (±$6,357) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $89,062 across Minnesota and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Mahnomen?
18.6%, against 9.3% across Minnesota and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Mahnomen?
13 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Minnesota and 26 nationally. 2% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Mahnomen work?
44% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Detroit Lakes (5%, 36 mi), Minneapolis (4%, 208 mi), Waubun (3%, 9 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Mahnomen walkable?
Mahnomen is more walkable than 86% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 7.7 out of 20, and 15% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Mahnomen without a car?
2% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Mahnomen, from the people who make the trip.
More of Mahnomen
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.