Photo: Bmzuckerman · CC BY 4.0Work and commuting in Owatonna
Owatonna grades B for jobs and income and B for walkability. Working from home is the commute for 8% of workers, where Minnesota as a whole has 18%. More than half work in Owatonna; the top destination outside it is Faribault (7%, 14 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Owatonna at work: what stands out
Jobs & income in Owatonna: the grade in detail
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Owatonna is better than 60% of U.S. towns, #174 of 273 in Minnesota. All four inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Owatonna’s grade. It also does well on household income and the poverty rate and job access by car.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Owatonna could be anywhere from B− to A−.
A commute of about 18 minutes in Owatonna
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Owatonna workers work from home, vs 18% across Minnesota. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 11,769 commuters (the 8% 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.
Who works in Owatonna, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 5,108 residents head out to work, 6,562 work right here, and 8,580 people come in from elsewhere.
About 30,000 people are in Owatonna on a workday afternoon, 13% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.30 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.
Out of Owatonna to work: where people go
Where Owatonna clocks in
7% 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.
34% of the jobs in Owatonna make or build things
15,142 jobs are based in Owatonna.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Owatonna, 2013 → 2023: 17,268 → 15,142. 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 Owatonna’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Near or far: the trip to work from Owatonna
About 15% 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.
Most trips from Owatonna start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Owatonna is more walkable than 62% of U.S. towns, #156 of 273 in Minnesota. Both inputs place Owatonna near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 12,829 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 6% 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 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 41% 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). 7.0% of Owatonna households have no vehicle (Minnesota 6.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Owatonna’s commuters take a bus or train.
Owatonna next to U.S. towns of 19,000 to 36,000: 855th of 1,477 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | West Springfield VA | 22,532 | $163K | 1.9% | 1.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Mountain Brook AL | 21,661 | $201K | 3.2% | 1.2% | 8% | A+ |
| 3 | Lake Forest IL | 19,731 | $235K | 3.5% | 1.8% | 12% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 7 | Prior Lake MN | 28,140 | $134K | 3.1% | 1.5% | 10% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 29 | Otsego MN | 24,525 | $120K | 3.5% | 1.7% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 55 | Andover MN | 33,874 | $138K | 3.3% | 2.8% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 853 | Niles IL | 30,443 | $75K | 8.5% | 6.7% | 7% | B |
| 854 | Southgate MI | 28,931 | $66K | 9.4% | 4.2% | 6% | B |
| 855 | Owatonna MN | 26,633 | $81K | 9.2% | 3.6% | 56% | B |
| 856 | Culpeper VA | 22,074 | $95K | 12.8% | 2.3% | 22% | B |
| 857 | Randallstown MD | 35,957 | $86K | 9.2% | 6.7% | 2% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 1,477 | Nogales AZ | 19,495 | $43K | 28.0% | 15.7% | 37% | 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 Owatonna, the top three, the last and three more from Minnesota.
Owatonna and the towns next door
The biggest share goes to Owatonna Township (1%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Owatonna workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Owatonna | – | B | B | 18 min | $80,750 |
| Owatonna Township | 1% | — | — | 20 min | — |
| Clinton Falls Township | under 1% | — | — | 18 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Owatonna Township and Clinton Falls Township: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Owatonna’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 Owatonna: questions
What is the median household income in Owatonna?
$80,750 (±$8,366) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $89,062 across Minnesota and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Owatonna?
9.2%, against 9.3% across Minnesota and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Owatonna?
18 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Minnesota and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Owatonna work?
56% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Faribault (7%, 14 mi), Rochester (4%, 38 mi), Waseca (2%, 13 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Owatonna walkable?
Owatonna is more walkable than 62% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 7.0 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Owatonna 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 Owatonna, from the people who make the trip.
More of Owatonna
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.