Photo: Iulus Ascanius at English Wikipedia · Public domainPequot Lakes’ household incomes are lower than in 68% of U.S. towns
About one in seven stay in Pequot Lakes for work; outside it, Brainerd is the main destination (11%, 17 miles). Poverty touches 6.6% of residents, against 9.3% across Minnesota. The two grades for Pequot Lakes are C for jobs and income and B+ for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Pequot Lakes apart on work
Why Pequot Lakes gets the Jobs & income grade it does
On income, poverty and job access, Pequot Lakes is better than 35% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Pequot Lakes’ grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 17% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (10.4%) is left out: Pequot Lakes’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, Pequot Lakes could be anywhere from C− to B−.
How a workday changes Pequot Lakes
On a workday 994 residents head out to work, 149 work right here, and 925 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 (0.94 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2024, primary jobs.
Out of Pequot Lakes to work: where people go
Where Pequot Lakes clocks in
11% 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.
What work there is in Pequot Lakes: 1,074 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Pequot Lakes, 2014 → 2024: 964 → 1,074. 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 2024.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Pequot Lakes’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How long Pequot Lakes spends getting to work: about 22 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Pequot Lakes workers work from home, vs 18% across Minnesota. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 693 commuters (the 18% 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.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Pequot Lakes
About 29% 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 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
In Pequot Lakes, most people drive to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Pequot Lakes is more walkable than 67% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 2.4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 5.7% across Minnesota.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 847 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). 1.5% of Pequot Lakes households have no vehicle (Minnesota 6.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Pequot Lakes’ commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, Pequot Lakes is 3,253rd of 5,401 U.S. towns of 1,700 to 3,400
| # | 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% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 19 | Greenfield MN | 2,962 | $154K | 1.2% | 0.4% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 24 | Empire MN | 3,063 | $148K | 1.9% | 0.5% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 37 | May Township MN | 2,638 | $137K | 2.0% | 0.7% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,251 | Delaware Township PA | 2,022 | $72K | 8.9% | 5.8% | 3% | C+ |
| 3,252 | Fowlerville MI | 2,874 | $46K | 14.2% | 4.3% | 8% | C |
| 3,253 | Pequot Lakes MN | 2,483 | $64K | 6.6% | 10.4% | 13% | C |
| 3,254 | Lawnside NJ | 3,340 | $72K | 20.4% | 11.5% | 7% | C |
| 3,255 | Lewisburg OH | 1,734 | $75K | 21.6% | 3.9% | 8% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 5,401 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 61% | 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 Pequot Lakes, the top three, the last and three more from Minnesota.
17% of Pequot Lakes works in a bordering town
The biggest share goes to Nisswa (6%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Pequot Lakes workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pequot Lakes | – | C | B+ | 22 min | $63,699 |
| Jenkins | 3% | — | — | 20 min | — |
| Loon Lake Township | under 2% | — | — | 26 min | — |
| Nisswa | 6% | A− | B | 22 min | $100,000 |
| Pelican Township | under 2% | — | — | 27 min | — |
| Breezy Point | 6% | B− | C− | 26 min | $85,938 |
| Ideal Township | 2% | B | C | 25 min | $108,355 |
Same-state neighbors only. Jenkins, Loon Lake Township and Pelican Township: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Pequot Lakes’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 2024, 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 Pequot Lakes: questions
What is the median household income in Pequot Lakes?
$63,699 (±$8,014) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $89,062 across Minnesota and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Pequot Lakes?
6.6%, against 9.3% across Minnesota and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Pequot Lakes?
22 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Minnesota and 26 nationally. 18% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Pequot Lakes work?
13% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Brainerd (11%, 17 mi), Baxter (7%, 17 mi), Breezy Point (6%, 4 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Pequot Lakes walkable?
Pequot Lakes is more walkable than 67% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 8.4 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Pequot Lakes without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Pequot Lakes, from the people who make the trip.
More of Pequot Lakes
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2024, 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.