Photo: McGhiever · CC BY-SA 3.0Household incomes in Sandstone are lower than in 86% of U.S. towns
Poverty touches 25.2% of residents; Minnesota has 9.3%. The two grades for Sandstone are D− for jobs and income and A− for walkability. Working from home is the commute for 4% of workers, next to 18% for Minnesota as a whole.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Sandstone apart on work
A big share show a job far from home
39% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. How far ↓
Few Sandstone workers work from home
Only 4% of workers work from home, against 18% across Minnesota. Almost everyone here travels to a job. 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; with 690 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
How the Jobs & income grade adds up in Sandstone
On income, poverty and job access, Sandstone is better than 3% of U.S. towns, #273 of 273 in Minnesota. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Sandstone’s grade.
Unemployment (7.4%) is left out: Sandstone’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, Sandstone could be anywhere from D− to D.
Sandstone’s commute, mile by mile
About 39% 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.
The daily trip from Sandstone: about 24 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Sandstone workers work from home, vs 18% across Minnesota. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 547 commuters (the 4% 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.
The workday shuffle in and out of Sandstone
On a workday 611 residents head out to work, 79 work right here, and 824 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 (1.31 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.
Commuting out of Sandstone: the destinations
Where Sandstone clocks in
18% of workers
3% of workers
3% 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 Sandstone: 903 jobs
903 jobs are based in Sandstone.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Sandstone, 2013 → 2023: 988 → 903. 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 Sandstone’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Sandstone is more walkable than most U.S. towns, with limited transit
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Sandstone is more walkable than 83% of U.S. towns, #65 of 273 in Minnesota. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 7.5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 5.7% across Minnesota, on an EPA index of 8.0.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 567 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). 9.9% of Sandstone households have no vehicle (Minnesota 6.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Sandstone’s commuters take a bus or train.
Where Sandstone sits among U.S. towns of 1,800 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% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 17 | Greenfield MN | 2,962 | $154K | 1.2% | 0.4% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 22 | Empire MN | 3,063 | $148K | 1.9% | 0.5% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 35 | May Township MN | 2,638 | $137K | 2.0% | 0.7% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,636 | Malone FL | 1,865 | $45K | 16.8% | 4.1% | 3% | D− |
| 4,637 | Millen GA | 2,952 | $42K | 29.9% | 6.5% | 22% | D− |
| 4,638 | Sandstone MN | 2,543 | $52K | 25.2% | 7.4% | 11% | D− |
| 4,639 | Linden TX | 1,809 | $44K | 32.1% | 5.8% | 14% | D− |
| 4,640 | Tappahannock VA | 2,193 | $47K | 25.2% | 0.0% | 13% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,868 | 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 Sandstone, the top three, the last and three more from Minnesota.
Sandstone and its neighbors
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Sandstone workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sandstone | – | D− | A− | 24 min | $51,875 |
| Sandstone Township | under 3% | — | — | 36 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Sandstone Township: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Sandstone’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 Sandstone: questions
What is the median household income in Sandstone?
$51,875 (±$10,440) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $89,062 across Minnesota and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Sandstone?
25.2%, against 9.3% across Minnesota and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Sandstone?
24 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Minnesota and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Sandstone work?
11% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Hinckley (18%, 8 mi), Moose Lake (3%, 23 mi), Duluth (3%, 56 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Sandstone walkable?
Sandstone is more walkable than 83% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 8.0 out of 20, and 7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Sandstone without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 10% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Sandstone, from the people who make the trip.
More of Sandstone
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.