Photo: Senior Airman Brittany Y. Auld · Public domainHouseholds in Minot AFB have lower incomes than those in 70% of U.S. towns
About one in ten stay in Minot AFB for work; outside it, Minot is the main destination (37%, 13 miles). 1.2% of residents are in poverty, where North Dakota as a whole has 10.8%. Jobs and income earn Minot AFB B−; getting around on foot earns it B.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work and commuting in Minot AFB, in brief
Minot AFB and Minot trade workers both ways
Minot is the top workplace for Minot AFB residents (37%) and also where the most people who work in Minot AFB come from (50% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
A big share show a job far from home
50% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. How far ↓
The jobs in Minot AFB pay better than its residents’ jobs
62% of the jobs based in Minot AFB pay over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year), against 41% of the jobs Minot AFB residents hold. 86% of the jobs here are held by people who live outside Minot AFB. 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 549 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Minot AFB
On income, poverty and job access, Minot AFB is better than 51% of U.S. towns, #13 of 23 in North Dakota. The poverty rate holds Minot AFB’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 23% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (6.1%) is left out: Minot AFB’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, Minot AFB could be anywhere from C+ to B.
The towns that employ Minot AFB’s residents
Where Minot AFB clocks in
11% 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.
How far Minot AFB’s workers travel
About 50% 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.
The kinds of work in Minot AFB
362 jobs are based in Minot AFB.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Minot AFB, 2013 → 2023: 293 → 362. 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 Minot AFB’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The workday shuffle in and out of Minot AFB
On a workday 500 residents head out to work, 49 work right here, and 313 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.
0.66 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.
How long Minot AFB spends getting to work: about 10 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 3.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Minot AFB workers work from home, vs 8% across North Dakota. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,290 commuters (the 3% 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.
Most trips from Minot AFB start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Minot AFB is more walkable than 58% of U.S. towns, #16 of 23 in North Dakota. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 4.1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 4.2% across North Dakota, on an EPA index of 6.4.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 2,368 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). 3.0% of Minot AFB households have no vehicle (North Dakota 5.9%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Minot AFB’s commuters take a bus or train.
Minot AFB next to U.S. towns of 3,400 to 6,600: 2,025th of 3,840 on jobs and income
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 173 | Hay Creek Township ND | 4,380 | $161K | 0.7% | 1.2% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 317 | Apple Creek Township ND | 3,515 | $157K | 2.2% | 1.9% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 800 | Lincoln ND | 4,493 | $88K | 5.6% | 1.1% | 1% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 2,023 | Williamsburg Township OH | 5,900 | $66K | 9.6% | 3.3% | 6% | B− |
| 2,024 | Saratoga WI | 5,141 | $74K | 5.9% | 3.6% | 5% | B− |
| 2,025 | Minot AFB ND | 4,878 | $63K | 1.2% | 6.1% | 9% | B− |
| 2,026 | Paris ME | 5,409 | $75K | 12.5% | 1.5% | 17% | B− |
| 2,027 | Beekmantown NY | 5,396 | $87K | 12.8% | 2.4% | 10% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,840 | 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 Minot AFB, 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 Minot AFB: questions
What is the median household income in Minot AFB?
$62,500 (±$15,177) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $76,657 across North Dakota and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Minot AFB?
1.2%, against 10.8% across North Dakota and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Minot AFB?
10 minutes each way on average, against 18 across North Dakota and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Minot AFB work?
9% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Minot (37%, 13 mi), Fargo (11%, 236 mi), Grand Forks (4%, 199 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Minot AFB walkable?
Minot AFB is more walkable than 58% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 6.4 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Minot AFB without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Minot AFB, from the people who make the trip.
More of Minot AFB
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.