Photo: Andrew Filer · CC BY-SA 2.0Lisbon has lower household incomes than 67% of U.S. towns
Jobs and income earn Lisbon D; getting around on foot earns it B+. Poverty touches 15.4% of residents; North Dakota has 10.8%. About one in three work in Lisbon; the top destination outside it is Gwinner (22%, 14 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Lisbon’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
On income, poverty and job access, Lisbon is better than 12% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Lisbon’s grade up ($64,327, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 7% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (3.5%) is left out: Lisbon’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, Lisbon could be anywhere from D− to C+.
Who commutes out of Lisbon, and who commutes in
On a workday 717 residents head out to work, 371 work right here, and 632 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 (0.92 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.
The towns that employ Lisbon’s residents
Where Lisbon clocks in
10% 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.
What work there is in Lisbon: 1,003 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Lisbon, 2013 → 2023: 1,110 → 1,003. 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 Lisbon’s own residents hold wherever they work.
From Lisbon, about 16 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Lisbon workers work from home, vs 8% across North Dakota. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 843 commuters (the 7% who work from home are left out). Across North Dakota: 85% drive alone, <1% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
How far Lisbon goes to work
About 20% 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.
For most of Lisbon, work means a drive
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Lisbon is more walkable than 73% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Lisbon 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 911 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). 7.8% of Lisbon households have no vehicle (North Dakota 5.9%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Lisbon’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Lisbon ranks: 4,464th of 5,404 U.S. towns of 1,500 to 2,900
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 389 | Gibbs Township ND | 2,856 | $156K | 1.4% | 2.9% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 765 | Harrison Township ND | 1,734 | $122K | 5.1% | 5.2% | 3% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,101 | Casselton ND | 2,485 | $73K | 7.1% | 0.9% | 19% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,462 | Jasper Township IL | 1,723 | $64K | 15.3% | 2.7% | 3% | D |
| 4,463 | DeQuincy LA | 2,878 | $44K | 16.5% | 1.9% | 13% | D |
| 4,464 | Lisbon ND | 2,184 | $64K | 15.4% | 3.5% | 34% | D |
| 4,465 | Roseville OH | 1,751 | $45K | 13.5% | 2.7% | 2% | D |
| 4,466 | Rushville Township IL | 2,344 | $54K | 15.0% | 5.6% | 21% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,404 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Lisbon, the top three, the last and three more from North Dakota.
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 Lisbon: questions
What is the median household income in Lisbon?
$64,327 (±$9,036) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $76,657 across North Dakota and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Lisbon?
15.4%, against 10.8% across North Dakota and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Lisbon?
16 minutes each way on average, against 18 across North Dakota and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Lisbon work?
34% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Gwinner (22%, 14 mi), Fargo (10%, 50 mi), West Fargo (4%, 47 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Lisbon walkable?
Lisbon is more walkable than 73% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 8.5 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Lisbon without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Lisbon, from the people who make the trip.
More of Lisbon
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.