Work, pay and getting to work in Wanamingo
Working from home is the commute for 5% of workers, next to 18% for Minnesota as a whole. For jobs and income Wanamingo is better than 36% of U.S. towns (C+); for walkability it is more walkable than 73% of U.S. towns (B+). Only 5% work in Wanamingo; the top destination outside it is Rochester (25%, 25 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Wanamingo stands out on work
Wanamingo’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Wanamingo is Rochester, 25 miles away as the crow flies. 25% of working residents (157) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Wanamingo makes and builds things
56% of the jobs based in Wanamingo are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Wanamingo residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 20%. The jobs ↓
Most jobs in Wanamingo pay over $40,000 a year
74% of the jobs based in Wanamingo pay over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year), the top earnings band in the Census data. The jobs ↓
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 620 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Why Wanamingo gets the Jobs & income grade it does
All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Wanamingo’s grade.
Unemployment (2.0%) is left out: Wanamingo’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, Wanamingo could be anywhere from D to B+.
The commute from Wanamingo, by distance
About 15% 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.
56% of the jobs in Wanamingo make or build things
460 jobs are based in Wanamingo.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Wanamingo, 2013 → 2023: 485 → 460. 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 Wanamingo’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How a workday changes Wanamingo
On a workday 592 residents head out to work, 28 work right here, and 432 people come in from elsewhere.
About 950 people are in Wanamingo on a workday afternoon, 14% fewer than live here.
0.74 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.
Where Wanamingo’s working residents head each day
Where Wanamingo clocks in
25% 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.
From Wanamingo, about 23 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Wanamingo workers work from home, vs 18% across Minnesota. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 725 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.
In Wanamingo, most people drive to work
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 7.2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 5.7% across Minnesota, on an EPA index of 6.9.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 761 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). 12.6% of Wanamingo households have no vehicle (Minnesota 6.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 2% of Wanamingo’s commuters take a bus or train.
Wanamingo places 1,827th of 3,771 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 800 to 1,500
| # | 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% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 7 | Medicine Lake MN | 1,342 | $184K | 2.7% | 0.0% | 0% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 24 | Dellwood MN | 1,148 | $225K | 4.1% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 26 | Louisville Township MN | 1,361 | $143K | 1.1% | 0.9% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,825 | Wayne Township PA | 1,399 | $75K | 9.4% | 6.7% | 4% | C+ |
| 1,826 | Leavittsburg OH | 1,283 | $54K | 13.2% | 1.5% | 2% | C+ |
| 1,827 | Wanamingo MN | 1,111 | $72K | 13.4% | 2.0% | 5% | C+ |
| 1,828 | Avis PA | 1,461 | $61K | 9.2% | 7.0% | 2% | C+ |
| 1,829 | North Collins NY | 1,252 | $67K | 13.8% | 7.6% | 9% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,771 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 0% | 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 Wanamingo, the top three, the last and three more from Minnesota.
Wanamingo and its neighbors
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Wanamingo workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wanamingo | – | C+ | B+ | 23 min | $71,731 |
| Minneola Township | under 2% | — | — | 29 min | — |
| Wanamingo Township | under 2% | — | — | 27 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Minneola Township and Wanamingo Township: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Wanamingo’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 Wanamingo: questions
What is the median household income in Wanamingo?
$71,731 (±$23,467) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $89,062 across Minnesota and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Wanamingo?
13.4%, against 9.3% across Minnesota and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Wanamingo?
23 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Minnesota and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Wanamingo work?
5% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Rochester (25%, 25 mi), Zumbrota (16%, 6 mi), Red Wing (3%, 21 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Wanamingo walkable?
Wanamingo is more walkable than 73% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 6.9 out of 20, and 7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Wanamingo without a car?
2% 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 Wanamingo, from the people who make the trip.
More of Wanamingo
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.