Isaac Bargen House · Photo: Jatakuck · CC BY-SA 3.0Mountain Lake has lower household incomes than 64% of U.S. towns
Poverty touches 14.3% of residents, next to 9.3% for Minnesota as a whole. Mountain Lake grades C− for jobs and income and B for walkability. 9% of workers work from home, where Minnesota as a whole has 18%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Mountain Lake, in brief
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Mountain Lake
On income, poverty and job access, Mountain Lake is better than 17% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Mountain Lake’s grade up ($66,490, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 13% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (2.5%) is left out: Mountain Lake’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, Mountain Lake could be anywhere from D to C.
The trip to work from Mountain Lake: about 14 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 4.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Mountain Lake workers work from home, vs 18% across Minnesota. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 795 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.
A workday in Mountain Lake: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 719 residents head out to work, 216 work right here, and 411 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,600 people are in Mountain Lake on a workday afternoon, 16% fewer than live here.
0.67 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute 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.
17% of working residents work in Windom
Where Mountain Lake clocks in
17% of workers
6% of workers
5% 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.
Mountain Lake makes things: 32% of its jobs are in goods
627 jobs are based in Mountain Lake.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Mountain Lake, 2013 → 2023: 583 → 627. 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 Mountain Lake’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Miles to work from Mountain Lake
About 20% 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.
Few in Mountain Lake walk, bike or ride to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Mountain Lake is more walkable than 60% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 4.3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 5.7% across Minnesota, on an EPA index of 6.5.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 872 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). 7.4% of Mountain Lake households have no vehicle (Minnesota 6.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Mountain Lake’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 5,234 U.S. towns of 1,400 to 2,600, Mountain Lake comes 3,952nd on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 23 | Tonka Bay MN | 1,561 | $156K | 3.5% | 9.7% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 48 | Stillwater Township MN | 1,831 | $162K | 3.4% | 3.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 74 | Baytown Township MN | 2,232 | $188K | 2.2% | 2.8% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,950 | Aberdeen ID | 1,852 | $83K | 14.2% | 8.0% | 14% | C− |
| 3,951 | St. Maries ID | 2,457 | $60K | 12.7% | 5.0% | 38% | C− |
| 3,952 | Mountain Lake MN | 1,949 | $66K | 14.3% | 2.5% | 23% | C− |
| 3,953 | Porter ME | 1,652 | $60K | 9.8% | 3.1% | 6% | C− |
| 3,954 | Pierson FL | 1,555 | $57K | 10.2% | 0.0% | 9% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,234 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Mountain Lake, the top three, the last and three more from Minnesota.
Next door to Mountain Lake
The biggest share goes to Mountain Lake Township (6%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Mountain Lake workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mountain Lake | – | C− | B | 14 min | $66,490 |
| Midway Township | 2% | — | — | 16 min | — |
| Mountain Lake Township | 6% | — | — | 9 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Midway Township and Mountain Lake Township: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Mountain 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 Mountain Lake: questions
What is the median household income in Mountain Lake?
$66,490 (±$8,769) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $89,062 across Minnesota and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Mountain Lake?
14.3%, against 9.3% across Minnesota and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Mountain Lake?
14 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Minnesota and 26 nationally. 9% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Mountain Lake work?
23% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Windom (17%, 11 mi), Mountain Lake Township (6%, 4 mi), St. James (5%, 15 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Mountain Lake walkable?
Mountain Lake is more walkable than 60% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 6.5 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Mountain Lake without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 7% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Mountain Lake, from the people who make the trip.
More of Mountain 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.