Photo: McGhiever · CC BY-SA 4.0Household incomes in Sauk Centre Township are higher than in 76% of U.S. towns
Sauk Centre Township grades B for jobs and income and B for walkability. The poverty rate is 6.3%, next to 9.3% for Minnesota as a whole. Home is the office for 10% of workers (Minnesota 18%).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Sauk Centre Township stands out on work
Sauk Centre Township and Sauk Centre trade workers both ways
Sauk Centre is the top workplace for Sauk Centre Township residents (37%) and also where the most people who work in Sauk Centre Township come from (17% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Fewer jobs are based in Sauk Centre Township than ten years ago
Jobs counted in Sauk Centre Township fell from 503 in 2014 to 298 in 2024, −41%. That can be real closings or a large employer now reporting its workers at another address; the data can’t tell the two apart. The jobs ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2024, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; with 478 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Where Sauk Centre Township’s Jobs & income grade comes from
On income, poverty and job access, Sauk Centre Township is better than 60% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Sauk Centre Township’s grade up ($98,611, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 21% of U.S. towns). It also does well on the poverty rate.
Unemployment (0.8%) is left out: Sauk Centre Township’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Sauk Centre Township could be anywhere from C to A−.
37% of working residents work in Sauk Centre
Where Sauk Centre Township clocks in
37% 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.
66% of the jobs in Sauk Centre Township pay over $3,333 a month
298 jobs are based in Sauk Centre Township.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Sauk Centre Township, 2014 → 2024: 503 → 298. 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 Sauk Centre Township’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who commutes out of Sauk Centre Township, and who commutes in
On a workday 458 residents head out to work, 20 work right here, and 278 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,100 people are in Sauk Centre Township on a workday afternoon, 15% fewer than live here.
0.62 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 2024, primary jobs.
How long Sauk Centre Township spends getting to work: about 23 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Sauk Centre Township workers work from home, vs 18% across Minnesota. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 543 commuters (the 10% 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 Sauk Centre Township works
About 18% 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 Sauk Centre Township, the car does most of the work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Sauk Centre Township is more walkable than 61% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 7.9% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 5.7% across Minnesota, on an EPA index of 5.5.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 604 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 under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% 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). 1.6% of Sauk Centre Township households have no vehicle (Minnesota 6.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Sauk Centre Township’s commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, Sauk Centre Township is 1,220th of 4,866 U.S. towns of 900 to 1,700
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | 1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 8 | Medicine Lake MN | 1,342 | $184K | 2.7% | 0.0% | 0% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 29 | Dellwood MN | 1,148 | $225K | 4.1% | 0.9% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 31 | Louisville Township MN | 1,361 | $143K | 1.1% | 0.9% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,218 | Centerburg OH | 1,691 | $76K | 9.5% | 2.7% | 8% | B |
| 1,219 | Scott Township IN | 1,198 | $67K | 0.0% | 10.9% | 2% | B |
| 1,220 | Sauk Centre Township MN | 1,234 | $99K | 6.3% | 0.8% | 4% | B |
| 1,221 | Stoddard NH | 1,468 | $95K | 4.8% | 3.6% | 3% | B |
| 1,222 | Egan LA | 1,015 | $93K | 10.3% | 6.9% | <1% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 4,866 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 1% | 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 Sauk Centre Township, the top three, the last and three more from Minnesota.
Around Sauk Centre Township: the bordering towns
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Sauk Centre Township workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sauk Centre Township | – | B | B | 23 min | $98,611 |
| Melrose Township | under 2% | — | — | 16 min | — |
| Kandota Township | under 2% | — | — | 24 min | — |
| Ashley Township | under 2% | — | — | 27 min | — |
| Getty Township | under 2% | — | — | 20 min | — |
| Birchdale Township | under 2% | — | — | 26 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Melrose Township: not graded. Kandota Township, Ashley Township, Getty Township and Birchdale Township: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Sauk Centre Township’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 Sauk Centre Township: questions
What is the median household income in Sauk Centre Township?
$98,611 (±$16,889) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $89,062 across Minnesota and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Sauk Centre Township?
6.3%, against 9.3% across Minnesota and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Sauk Centre Township?
23 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Minnesota and 26 nationally. 10% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Sauk Centre Township work?
4% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Sauk Centre (37%, 3 mi), St. Cloud (5%, 41 mi), Melrose (5%, 8 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Sauk Centre Township walkable?
Sauk Centre Township is more walkable than 61% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 5.5 out of 20, and 8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Sauk Centre Township without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Sauk Centre Township, from the people who make the trip.
More of Sauk Centre Township
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.