Photo: McGhiever · CC BY-SA 4.0Where Winona earns its living
Transit is limited for a town this walkable: about 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident at the evening peak, against 26.2 in Minneapolis. Jobs and income earn Winona C+; getting around on foot earns it A. For 9% of workers, the job is at home (Minnesota 18%).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Winona in brief
Commutes from Winona are quick
The average trip to work takes 14 minutes, against 23 across Minnesota. That’s about 69 hours a year less on the road than the typical Minnesota worker. Time on the road ↓
Winona is where the jobs are
Winona has 17,560 jobs, 1.6 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
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.
Winona’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
On family income, poverty and job access, Winona is better than 42% of U.S. towns, #218 of 273 in Minnesota. Family income holds Winona’s grade up ($97,679, U.S. $99,999); the poverty rate pulls it down (14.7%, U.S. 11.9%).
24% of Winona’s residents are college students, and off-campus students count in the Census poverty figures. Where students are 15% or more of the people the Census checks for poverty (17% here), the grade uses the rate without them: 14.7%, against 23.1% for all residents. Unemployment (2.7%) is left out here: students looking for part-time work count as unemployed. Income is ranked as median family income ($97,679), since student households pull the household median down ($56,337).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for family income and poverty, Winona could be anywhere from C to B.
About 14 minutes to work from Winona
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 4.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Winona workers work from home, vs 18% across Minnesota. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 13,194 commuters (the 9% 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 daily commute in and out of Winona
On a workday 4,472 residents head out to work, 6,766 work right here, and 10,794 people come in from elsewhere.
About 33,000 people are in Winona on a workday afternoon, 24% more than live here.
1.6 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than 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.
Who travels to work in Winona, and from where
Where Winona clocks in
6% 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.
The 17,560 jobs based in Winona
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Winona, 2013 → 2023: 18,222 → 17,560. 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 Winona’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How many miles Winona commutes
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.
Winona 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, Winona is more walkable than 89% of U.S. towns, #28 of 273 in Minnesota. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 10.9% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 5.7% across Minnesota, on an EPA index of 8.4.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 14,492 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 5% 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 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 42% 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). 7.3% of Winona households have no vehicle (Minnesota 6.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Winona’s commuters take a bus or train.
Winona is 1,109th of 1,477 U.S. towns of 19,000 to 36,000 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 | Lake Forest IL | 19,731 | $235K | 3.5% | 1.8% | 12% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 7 | Prior Lake MN | 28,140 | $134K | 3.1% | 1.5% | 10% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 29 | Otsego MN | 24,525 | $120K | 3.5% | 1.7% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 55 | Andover MN | 33,874 | $138K | 3.3% | 2.8% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,107 | Easton PA | 30,402 | $69K | 16.3% | 5.4% | 10% | C+ |
| 1,108 | Kerrville TX | 25,578 | $62K | 11.5% | 2.9% | 41% | C+ |
| 1,109 | Winona MN | 26,530 | $56K | 23.1% | 2.7% | 60% | C+ |
| 1,110 | Shawswick Township IN | 20,901 | $60K | 13.1% | 2.5% | 28% | C+ |
| 1,111 | Clarksville IN | 22,253 | $60K | 16.5% | 5.2% | 10% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,477 | Nogales AZ | 19,495 | $43K | 28.0% | 15.7% | 37% | 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 Winona, the top three, the last and three more from Minnesota.
Work in the towns next to Winona
The biggest share goes to Goodview (6%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Winona workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winona | – | C+ | A | 14 min | $56,337 |
| Wilson Township | under 1% | B+ | B− | 18 min | $98,600 |
| Goodview | 6% | B+ | B+ | 13 min | $74,712 |
| Homer Township | under 1% | B | C− | 26 min | $93,750 |
| Rollingstone Township | under 1% | — | — | 18 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Rollingstone Township: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Winona’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.
- Students. 24% of residents are college students; the poverty input leaves off-campus students out (above).
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Winona: questions
What is the median household income in Winona?
$56,337 (±$2,914) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $89,062 across Minnesota and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Winona?
23.1% of residents live below the poverty line; leaving out college students, 14.7%. Minnesota: 9.3%.
How long is the commute from Winona?
14 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Minnesota and 26 nationally. 9% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Winona work?
60% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Goodview (6%, 3 mi), Rochester (6%, 40 mi), La Crosse (4%, 27 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Winona walkable?
Winona is more walkable than 89% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 8.4 out of 20, and 11% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Winona without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 7% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Winona, from the people who make the trip.
More of Winona
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.