Key findings
- Wadena County is a net importer of workers: Data indicates a larger number of employees work in the county than the number of residents who work outside the county.
- Wadena’s incoming workforce is highly local: 59.8 percent of employees were coming from local zip codes and 28.9 percent from regional zip codes, most commonly North Dakota.
- Employees from North Dakota were predominantly from the Fargo metropolitan area, a city located near U.S. Highway 94, which also goes through Wadena.
- Wadena residents leave the area for work: 52.4 percent of residents work in local zip codes, and 27.5 percent work in regional zip codes across Minnesota and into North Dakota and Wisconsin.
- Visits from tourists increase significantly in the summer and fall: Visits were up during summer weekends and deer hunting season in November.
- Resident visits are consistent over the year, and employee visits are stable, with a small decrease over the summer.
About the report
Crossing a county line doesn’t cause us to stop and turn around — so why should the county data stop there? Traditional boundaries for data collection have created significant barriers to regional economic development strategies, limiting our ability to measure growth and development across geographic areas.
A new age of mobility has transformed the data available to community and economic development professionals. The expansion of cell phone towers and internet service has provided reliable access in rural communities, where it was previously unavailable. Each time a cell phone connects to a tower or pings a Global Positioning System (GPS) location, a digital footprint is left behind. This information provides insight into how our communities function based on patterns of mobility.
While GPS data from vehicles helps to track counts, it still limits the ability to understand movements after a vehicle is parked. Tapping into the availability of mobile data to understand how people move through their communities revolutionizes our understanding of communities.
Wadena County in Northwest Minnesota wanted to “blur the lines between counties” near them. Using new technology, Extension gained a deeper understanding of the rural county. Extension findings illustrate how residents and employers in the county truly live, work, and play regionally, serving as a case study for the application of mobile data to community development.
Reviewed in 2025