Photo: Myotus · CC BY 4.0Household incomes in Menahga are lower than in 77% of U.S. towns
Menahga grades C− for jobs and income and A− for walkability. The poverty rate is 10.1%; Minnesota has 9.3%. About one in five work in Menahga; the top destination outside it is Park Rapids (17%, 11 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Menahga stands out on work
Menahga is where the jobs are
Menahga has 790 jobs, 1.6 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Menahga has added jobs fast
Jobs based in Menahga went from 560 in 2013 to 790 in 2023, +41%. 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; with 510 working residents, small shifts move the shares; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
Jobs & income in Menahga: the grade in detail
On income, poverty and job access, Menahga is better than 20% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Menahga’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 14% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (8.5%) is left out: Menahga’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, Menahga could be anywhere from D to C+.
How a workday changes Menahga
On a workday 397 residents head out to work, 113 work right here, and 677 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,600 people are in Menahga on a workday afternoon, 21% more than live here.
1.5 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.
The 790 jobs based in Menahga
790 jobs are based in Menahga.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Menahga, 2013 → 2023: 560 → 790. 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 Menahga’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The towns that send workers to Menahga
Where Menahga clocks in
17% of workers
6% 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.
Menahga’s commute takes about 19 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Menahga workers work from home, vs 18% across Minnesota. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 432 commuters (the 11% 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 Menahga
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.
Walkable streets, thin transit: Menahga
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Menahga is more walkable than 83% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 7.0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 5.7% across Minnesota, on an EPA index of 8.1.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 487 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). 8.0% of Menahga households have no vehicle (Minnesota 6.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Menahga’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Menahga ranks: 3,730th of 5,400 U.S. towns of 1,000 to 1,800
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,728 | Bradley WV | 1,424 | $44K | 11.8% | 5.0% | 1% | C− |
| 3,729 | Pigeon MI | 1,180 | $52K | 8.8% | 0.9% | 23% | C− |
| 3,730 | Menahga MN | 1,361 | $58K | 10.1% | 8.5% | 22% | C− |
| 3,731 | Greenwich OH | 1,382 | $68K | 18.5% | 5.5% | 4% | C− |
| 3,732 | Dunes City OR | 1,400 | $65K | 10.1% | 2.2% | 3% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 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 Menahga, the top three, the last and three more from Minnesota.
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 Menahga: questions
What is the median household income in Menahga?
$58,036 (±$11,111) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $89,062 across Minnesota and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Menahga?
10.1%, against 9.3% across Minnesota and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Menahga?
19 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Minnesota and 26 nationally. 11% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Menahga work?
22% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Park Rapids (17%, 11 mi), Wadena (6%, 21 mi), Staples (4%, 30 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Menahga walkable?
Menahga is more walkable than 83% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 8.1 out of 20, and 7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Menahga without a car?
0% 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 Menahga, from the people who make the trip.
More of Menahga
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.