Photo: Ben Franske · CC BY-SA 4.0Perham has higher unemployment (8.9%) than 92% of U.S. towns
At home: 5% of workers have no commute at all (Minnesota 18%). Jobs and income earn Perham D; getting around on foot earns it A. Measured by household income, Perham is behind 88% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Perham in brief
Perham is where the jobs are
Perham has 4,347 jobs, 2.7 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 6,500 people are in town, 72% more than the 3,700 who live here. Day and night ↓
Commutes from Perham are quick
The average trip to work takes 12 minutes, against 23 across Minnesota. That’s about 84 hours a year less on the road than the typical Minnesota worker. Time on the road ↓
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.
How the Jobs & income grade adds up in Perham
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Perham is better than 7% of U.S. towns, #271 of 273 in Minnesota. Job access by car holds Perham’s grade up (ahead of 28% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Perham could be anywhere from D− to C.
The workday shuffle in and out of Perham
On a workday 892 residents head out to work, 740 work right here, and 3,607 people come in from elsewhere.
About 6,500 people are in Perham on a workday afternoon, 72% more than live here.
2.7 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.
Perham’s commute takes about 12 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 3.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Perham workers work from home, vs 18% across Minnesota. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,495 commuters (the 5% 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.
Where Perham’s workforce comes from
Where Perham clocks in
8% 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.
A place that makes things: 30% of Perham’s jobs are in goods
4,347 jobs are based in Perham.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Perham, 2013 → 2023: 3,872 → 4,347. 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 Perham’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Half of Perham commutes less than 6 miles
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.
Walkable streets, thin transit: Perham
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Perham is more walkable than 90% of U.S. towns, #25 of 273 in Minnesota. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 10.0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 5.7% across Minnesota, on an EPA index of 8.7.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,574 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). 12.2% of Perham households have no vehicle (Minnesota 6.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Perham’s commuters take a bus or train.
U.S. towns of 2,600 to 5,100, and where Perham sits
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Mission Hills KS | 3,522 | $250K | 1.2% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 6 | Independence MN | 3,763 | $187K | 1.1% | 0.8% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 17 | Deephaven MN | 3,794 | $198K | 1.7% | 1.7% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 19 | Greenfield MN | 2,962 | $154K | 1.2% | 0.4% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,141 | Cherryvale SC | 2,611 | $40K | 23.0% | 26.7% | 1% | D |
| 4,142 | Kaplan LA | 4,116 | $40K | 35.3% | 8.8% | 12% | D |
| 4,143 | Perham MN | 3,746 | $50K | 19.1% | 8.9% | 45% | D |
| 4,144 | Ellisville MS | 4,473 | $32K | 22.9% | 10.9% | 11% | D |
| 4,145 | Heber-Overgaard AZ | 3,621 | $59K | 11.8% | 16.4% | 17% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 4,430 | 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 Perham, 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 Perham: questions
What is the median household income in Perham?
$49,716 (±$8,242) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $89,062 across Minnesota and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Perham?
19.1%, against 9.3% across Minnesota and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Perham?
12 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Minnesota and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Perham work?
45% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Detroit Lakes (8%, 19 mi), Gorman Township (6%, 6 mi), New York Mills (5%, 11 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Perham walkable?
Perham is more walkable than 90% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 8.7 out of 20, and 10% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Perham without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 12% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Perham, from the people who make the trip.
More of Perham
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.