Photo: Schwerdf · CC BY 4.0Jobs and the daily commute in Winthrop
Working from home is the commute for 6% of workers, next to 18% for Minnesota as a whole. Jobs and income earn Winthrop C+; getting around on foot earns it B−. About one in ten work in Winthrop; the top destination outside it is New Ulm (11%, 17 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Winthrop
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Winthrop
On income, poverty and job access, Winthrop is better than 43% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Winthrop’s grade up (6.1%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 21% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (6.5%) is left out: Winthrop’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, Winthrop could be anywhere from C− to B.
A commute of about 28 minutes in Winthrop
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Winthrop workers work from home, vs 18% across Minnesota. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 447 commuters (the 6% 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.
A workday in Winthrop: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 523 residents head out to work, 55 work right here, and 411 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 (0.81 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 Winthrop’s working residents head each day
Where Winthrop clocks in
11% of workers
6% 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.
Goods, not services: 31% of the jobs in Winthrop
466 jobs are based in Winthrop.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Winthrop, 2013 → 2023: 427 → 466. 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 Winthrop’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How many miles Winthrop commutes
About 25% 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.
Getting around Winthrop: mostly by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Winthrop is more walkable than 45% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Winthrop near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 477 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). 6.3% of Winthrop households have no vehicle (Minnesota 6.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Winthrop’s commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, Winthrop is 2,256th of 5,400 U.S. towns of 900 to 1,800
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 9 | Medicine Lake MN | 1,342 | $184K | 2.7% | 0.0% | 0% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 32 | Dellwood MN | 1,148 | $225K | 4.1% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 34 | Louisville Township MN | 1,361 | $143K | 1.1% | 0.9% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,254 | Little Falls NY | 1,481 | $72K | 7.5% | 2.0% | 3% | C+ |
| 2,255 | Benton Township PA | 1,367 | $74K | 6.2% | 2.9% | 3% | C+ |
| 2,256 | Winthrop MN | 1,341 | $69K | 6.1% | 6.5% | 10% | C+ |
| 2,257 | Sterling Township PA | 1,523 | $70K | 8.1% | 3.2% | 4% | C+ |
| 2,258 | Marsing ID | 1,230 | $70K | 10.2% | 1.7% | 8% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,400 | 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 Winthrop, the top three, the last and three more from Minnesota.
Next door to Winthrop
The biggest share goes to Transit Township (2%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Winthrop workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winthrop | – | C+ | B− | 28 min | $69,219 |
| Alfsborg Township | under 2% | — | — | 19 min | — |
| Cornish Township | under 2% | — | — | 30 min | — |
| Transit Township | 2% | — | — | 29 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Alfsborg Township, Cornish Township and Transit Township: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Winthrop’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 Winthrop: questions
What is the median household income in Winthrop?
$69,219 (±$13,386) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $89,062 across Minnesota and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Winthrop?
6.1%, against 9.3% across Minnesota and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Winthrop?
28 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Minnesota and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Winthrop work?
10% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are New Ulm (11%, 17 mi), Gaylord (10%, 7 mi), Hutchinson (6%, 24 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Winthrop walkable?
Winthrop is more walkable than 45% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 7.1 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Winthrop without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Winthrop, from the people who make the trip.
More of Winthrop
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.