Church of St. Boniface · Photo: Gobonobo · CC BY-SA 3.0At 0.7%, unemployment in Melrose is lower than in 96% of U.S. towns
The two grades for Melrose are B− for jobs and income and B+ for walkability. About one in four stay in Melrose for work; outside it, St. Cloud is the main destination (10%, 33 miles). Measured by household income, Melrose is behind 75% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Melrose apart on work
How Melrose earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Melrose is better than 54% of U.S. towns, #182 of 273 in Minnesota. Unemployment holds Melrose’s grade up; household income pulls it down ($59,677, U.S. $80,734). It also does well on the poverty rate.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Melrose could be anywhere from C+ to B+.
Short hops and long hauls from Melrose
About 22% 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.
The daily flow of workers through Melrose
On a workday 1,241 residents head out to work, 391 work right here, and 1,595 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.22 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.
Where Melrose goes to work
Where Melrose clocks in
10% of workers
9% of workers
4% 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.
65% of the jobs in Melrose pay over $3,333 a month
1,986 jobs are based in Melrose.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Melrose, 2013 → 2023: 2,454 → 1,986. 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 Melrose’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The trip to work from Melrose: about 20 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Melrose workers work from home, vs 18% across Minnesota. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,607 commuters (the 16% 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 commute in Melrose is mostly behind the wheel
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Melrose is more walkable than 74% of U.S. towns, #120 of 273 in Minnesota. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 9.0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 5.7% across Minnesota, on an EPA index of 6.7.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,904 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). 7.3% of Melrose households have no vehicle (Minnesota 6.7%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Melrose’s commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, Melrose is 2,006th of 4,264 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,004 | Port Angeles East WA | 3,137 | $68K | 4.7% | 3.2% | 6% | B− |
| 2,005 | Brentwood MD | 3,828 | $70K | 11.8% | 5.5% | 2% | B− |
| 2,006 | Melrose MN | 3,888 | $60K | 8.5% | 0.7% | 24% | B− |
| 2,007 | Duryea PA | 5,157 | $62K | 22.6% | 0.7% | 5% | B− |
| 2,008 | Rush Creek Township OH | 4,158 | $87K | 11.1% | 3.3% | 6% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 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 Melrose, the top three, the last and three more from Minnesota.
The towns around Melrose
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Melrose workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Melrose | – | B− | B+ | 20 min | $59,677 |
| Melrose Township | under 2% | — | — | 16 min | — |
| Grove Township | under 2% | — | — | 17 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Melrose Township: not graded. Grove Township: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Melrose’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 Melrose: questions
What is the median household income in Melrose?
$59,677 (±$7,221) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $89,062 across Minnesota and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Melrose?
8.5%, against 9.3% across Minnesota and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Melrose?
20 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Minnesota and 26 nationally. 16% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Melrose work?
24% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are St. Cloud (10%, 33 mi), Sauk Centre (9%, 8 mi), Albany (4%, 13 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Melrose walkable?
Melrose is more walkable than 74% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 6.7 out of 20, and 9% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Melrose without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 7% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Melrose, from the people who make the trip.
More of Melrose
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.