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Work & commute in Rockville · A commuter town

95% of Rockville’s working residents leave town for work

Most working residents leave Rockville for work: only 5% work in town. The top destinations are St. Cloud (33%), Cold Spring (7%) and Waite Park (6%). Half commute less than 10 miles.

Work in town
5%
57 of 1,119 working residents
Typical commute
10 mi
half travel less, straight-line
Time each way
24 min
More than MN (23 min)
Work from home
8%
Less than MN (18%)
Jobs based here
641
A commuter town

What kind of work town is Rockville?

Read from the numbers below. The page puts what stands out first.

★ What stands out · The commute map

33% of working residents work in St. Cloud

A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.

Cold Spring: 76 residents work here (7%)Sauk Rapids: 18 residents work here (2%)St. Joseph: 39 residents work here (3%)Sartell: 25 residents work here (2%)Willmar: 19 residents work here (2%)Waite Park: 70 residents work here (6%)St. Cloud: 367 residents work here (33%)RockvilleSt. AugustaMinneapolis: 24 residents work here (2%)CollegevilleEden LakeMaine PrairieSt. JosephWakefield: 21 residents work here (2%)St. CloudCold SpringWaite ParkSt. JosephSartellMinneapolisRockville
1
St. Cloud8.3 mi away
33%367
2
Cold Spring5.3 mi away
7%76
3
Waite Park5.3 mi away
6%70
4
Rockville (in town)right here
5%57
5
St. Joseph6.9 mi away
3%39
6
Sartell11.6 mi away
2%25
7
Minneapolis61.8 mi away
2%24
8
Wakefield6.9 mi away
2%21
9
Willmar43.1 mi away
2%19
10
Sauk Rapids12 mi away
2%18
Everywhere elseother towns and states
36%403
The top trips

Where Rockville clocks in

Lines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.

The jobs

Rockville makes things: 54% of its jobs are in goods

641 jobs are based in Rockville. Here is what they are, next to the jobs Rockville’s own residents hold wherever they work.

Jobs based in RockvilleJobs Rockville residents hold

What kind of work

Goods: factories, building, farms54%27%
Trade, transport & utilities12%23%
Services: health, schools, offices34%50%

What it pays

$1,250 a month or less15%14%
$1,251–$3,333 a month23%17%
Over $3,333 a month63%69%

Who does it

29 or younger28%22%
30 to 5446%48%
55 and older26%30%
+55%

Jobs based in Rockville, 2013 → 2023: 413 → 641. 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.

Day and night

Rockville quiets down on a workday

On a workday 1,062 residents head out to work, 57 work right here, and 584 people come in from elsewhere.

1,062live here, work elsewhere
57live and work here
584work here, live elsewhere
Night and day
At night2,500
Workday2,000
2,500live here− 1,100head out to work+ 580come in to work= 2,000on a workday

About 2,000 people are in Rockville on a workday afternoon, 19% fewer than live here.

Job hub or commuter town?
0.57jobs per workerCommuter townJob hub

0.57 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 far

Half of Rockville commutes less than 10 miles

Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.

10 mi25 mi50 mi70 miSt. Cloud: 33% · 8.3 miCold Spring: 7% · 5.3 miWaite Park: 6% · 5.3 miSt. Joseph: 3% · 6.9 miSartell: 2% · 11.6 miMinneapolis: 2% · 61.8 miWakefield: 2% · 6.9 miWillmar: 2% · 43.1 miSauk Rapids: 2% · 12 miSt. Cloud 33%Cold Spring 7%Waite Park 6%St. Joseph 3%Sartell 2%Rockville
RockvilleTop destinations (size = commuters)
51%Under 10 mi567 residents
22%10–24 mi245 residents
9%25–50 mi98 residents
19%Over 50 mi207 residents

About 19% 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.

Time on the road

About 24 minutes each way, about the MN average

From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.

A year of commuting
180 hours

Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.5 full days in the car, bus or train.

Average commute minutes, one way

Rockville24 min
Minnesota23 min
U.S.26 min
Working from home
8%

of Rockville workers work from home, vs 18% across Minnesota. Their commute is the hallway.

About 1 in 10
Next door

Rockville and the towns next door

The biggest share goes to Wakefield (2%). Darker towns draw more of Rockville’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.

How to read these numbers

What this data can and can’t tell you

  • Every worker, home to work. The Census links each worker’s home block to their main job’s block, for jobs covered by unemployment insurance. That’s most jobs, but not the self-employed.
  • Where the employer says. A job counts where the employer reports it. Some big employers report one address for many sites, which can make a few commutes look longer than they are.
  • Two surveys. Flows, distances and jobs: LEHD 2023. Commute time, working from home and working out of state: the Census American Community Survey.
  • Straight lines. Distances are as the crow flies between home and work. Roads, rivers and traffic make the real trip longer.
Beyond the commute

More of Rockville

Rockville home →

Commuter talk

Getting to work from Rockville, from the people who make the trip.

Town Square →
Weigh in
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Ask neighbors

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.

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