Photo: McGhiever · CC BY-SA 4.0Unemployment in Sauk Centre (6.5%) is higher than in 78% of U.S. towns
About one in three stay in Sauk Centre for work; outside it, Melrose is the main destination (6%, 8 miles). For jobs and income Sauk Centre is better than 15% of U.S. towns (D); for walkability it is more walkable than 87% of U.S. towns (A). 10% of workers work from home; Minnesota has 18%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Sauk Centre, in brief
How the Jobs & income grade adds up in Sauk Centre
All four inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Sauk Centre’s grade.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Sauk Centre could be anywhere from D− to B−.
From Sauk Centre, about 29 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Sauk Centre workers work from home, vs 18% across Minnesota. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,167 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.
Sauk Centre fills up on a workday
On a workday 1,180 residents head out to work, 598 work right here, and 1,826 people come in from elsewhere.
About 5,300 people are in Sauk Centre on a workday afternoon, 14% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.36 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.
Where Sauk Centre goes to work
Where Sauk Centre clocks in
5% of workers
4% 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.
Inside Sauk Centre’s 2,424 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Sauk Centre, 2013 → 2023: 2,770 → 2,424. 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 Sauk Centre’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Miles to work from Sauk Centre
About 22% 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.
Sauk Centre is more walkable than most U.S. towns, with limited transit
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 11.0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 5.7% across Minnesota, on an EPA index of 8.1.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 2,418 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). 13.3% of Sauk Centre households have no vehicle (Minnesota 6.7%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Sauk Centre’s commuters take a bus or train.
3,305th of 3,798: where Sauk Centre ranks among U.S. towns of 3,300 to 6,300
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Mission Hills KS | 3,522 | $250K | 1.2% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 9 | Independence MN | 3,763 | $187K | 1.1% | 0.8% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 18 | Deephaven MN | 3,794 | $198K | 1.7% | 1.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 19 | Elko New Market MN | 5,300 | $152K | 1.1% | 0.0% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,303 | Zapata TX | 4,897 | $45K | 32.5% | 2.1% | 14% | D |
| 3,304 | Marseilles IL | 4,809 | $58K | 21.5% | 7.5% | 6% | D |
| 3,305 | Sauk Centre MN | 4,663 | $63K | 19.5% | 6.5% | 34% | D |
| 3,306 | Muldrow OK | 3,375 | $45K | 19.2% | 6.2% | 9% | D |
| 3,307 | Clairton PA | 5,876 | $37K | 33.0% | 8.2% | 5% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 3,798 | 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 Sauk Centre, 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 Sauk Centre: questions
What is the median household income in Sauk Centre?
$62,628 (±$13,665) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $89,062 across Minnesota and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Sauk Centre?
19.5%, against 9.3% across Minnesota and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Sauk Centre?
29 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 work?
34% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Melrose (6%, 8 mi), St. Cloud (5%, 40 mi), Long Prairie (4%, 17 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Sauk Centre walkable?
Sauk Centre is more walkable than 87% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 8.1 out of 20, and 11% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Sauk Centre without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 13% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Sauk Centre, from the people who make the trip.
More of Sauk Centre
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.