Photo: Jeanqueq · CC BY-SA 4.0Households in Prior Lake earn more than those in 92% of U.S. towns
3.1% of residents live below the poverty line; Minnesota has 9.3%. Prior Lake grades A+ for jobs and income and B for walkability. About one in ten work in Prior Lake itself; outside it, Minneapolis draws the most (9%, 18 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
How Prior Lake earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Prior Lake is among the top U.S. towns, #13 of 273 in Minnesota. All four inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Prior Lake’s grade. It also does well on the poverty rate and unemployment and job access by car.
A firm grade. At either end of the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Prior Lake stays A+.
Who works in Prior Lake, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 12,144 residents head out to work, 1,289 work right here, and 5,956 people come in from elsewhere.
About 22,000 people are in Prior Lake on a workday afternoon, 22% fewer than live here.
0.54 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.
Commuting out of Prior Lake: the destinations
Where Prior Lake clocks in
9% of workers
7% of workers
7% 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.
Most jobs in Prior Lake are in services
7,245 jobs are based in Prior Lake.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Prior Lake, 2013 → 2023: 7,096 → 7,245. 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 Prior Lake’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Getting to work from Prior Lake takes about 25 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Prior Lake workers work from home, vs 18% across Minnesota. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 11,449 commuters (the 25% 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 in the region Prior Lake works
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.
For most of Prior Lake, work means a drive
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Prior Lake is more walkable than 62% of U.S. towns, #157 of 273 in Minnesota. Both inputs place Prior Lake 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 15,178 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% 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 1.0 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 59% 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). 2.9% of Prior Lake households have no vehicle (Minnesota 6.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Prior Lake’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 20,000 to 38,000, Prior Lake ranks 6th of 1,409 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 | Upper Dublin Township PA | 27,258 | $168K | 3.2% | 1.9% | 8% | A+ |
| 4 | Southlake TX | 31,175 | $250K | 1.5% | 2.7% | 11% | A+ |
| 5 | Leawood KS | 34,093 | $186K | 3.1% | 2.0% | 9% | A+ |
| 6 | Prior Lake MN | 28,140 | $134K | 3.1% | 1.5% | 10% | A+ |
| 7 | Upper Arlington OH | 35,893 | $155K | 3.3% | 2.0% | 7% | A+ |
| 8 | Hudson OH | 23,085 | $171K | 3.7% | 1.3% | 14% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 27 | Otsego MN | 24,525 | $120K | 3.5% | 1.7% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 53 | Andover MN | 33,874 | $138K | 3.3% | 2.8% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 56 | Chanhassen MN | 25,748 | $144K | 2.9% | 3.2% | 10% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,409 | Barstow CA | 24,804 | $53K | 23.1% | 11.9% | 17% | 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 Prior Lake, the top three, the last and three more from Minnesota.
Bordering towns draw 11% of Prior Lake’s workers
The biggest share goes to Shakopee (7%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Prior Lake workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prior Lake | – | A+ | B | 25 min | $134,255 |
| Spring Lake Township | under 4% | A+ | C− | 26 min | $146,953 |
| Shakopee | 7% | A | B | 22 min | $107,223 |
| Savage | 4% | A− | B− | 25 min | $125,513 |
| Credit River | under 4% | A+ | C | 24 min | $143,125 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Prior 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 Prior Lake: questions
What is the median household income in Prior Lake?
$134,255 (±$11,762) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $89,062 across Minnesota and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Prior Lake?
3.1%, against 9.3% across Minnesota and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Prior Lake?
25 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Minnesota and 26 nationally. 25% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Prior Lake work?
10% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Minneapolis (9%, 18 mi), Eden Prairie (7%, 9 mi), Bloomington (7%, 10 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Prior Lake walkable?
Prior Lake is more walkable than 62% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 7.6 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Prior Lake without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Prior Lake, from the people who make the trip.
More of Prior 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.