Photo: LeeAnne Adams · CC BY 2.0Household incomes in La Crosse trail those of 83% of U.S. towns
Jobs and income earn La Crosse C−; getting around on foot earns it B+. The poverty rate is 8.1%, next to 11.3% for Kansas as a whole. Working from home is the commute for 2% of workers, where Kansas as a whole has 12%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The work figures that set La Crosse apart
La Crosse’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside La Crosse is Hays, 24 miles away as the crow flies. 11% of working residents (53) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Few La Crosse workers work from home
Only 3% of workers work from home, against 12% across Kansas. Almost everyone here travels to a job. Time on the road ↓
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 489 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
How La Crosse earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, La Crosse is better than 19% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds La Crosse’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 7% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (0.5%) is left out: La Crosse’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, La Crosse could be anywhere from D to C.
How far it is to work from La Crosse
About 23% 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 trip to work from La Crosse: about 16 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of La Crosse workers work from home, vs 12% across Kansas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 536 commuters (the 3% who work from home are left out). Across Kansas: 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.
Who commutes out of La Crosse, and who commutes in
On a workday 359 residents head out to work, 130 work right here, and 352 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 (0.99 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.
11% of working residents work in Hays
Where La Crosse clocks in
9% 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 La Crosse’s employers do
482 jobs are based in La Crosse.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in La Crosse, 2013 → 2023: 611 → 482. 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 La Crosse’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Driving is how La Crosse gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, La Crosse is more walkable than 67% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place La Crosse 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 550 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). 7.2% of La Crosse households have no vehicle (Kansas 5.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of La Crosse’s commuters take a bus or train.
La Crosse next to U.S. towns of 900 to 1,700: 3,388th of 4,866 on jobs and income
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 49 | Lake Quivira KS | 1,005 | $178K | 3.8% | 0.0% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 52 | Lexington Township KS | 1,512 | $135K | 0.0% | 2.7% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 96 | Delaware Township KS | 1,121 | $119K | 2.4% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,386 | Green Valley WI | 1,044 | $67K | 12.4% | 1.9% | 2% | C− |
| 3,387 | Mercer WI | 1,649 | $63K | 9.5% | 0.6% | 31% | C− |
| 3,388 | La Crosse KS | 1,225 | $54K | 8.1% | 0.5% | 27% | C− |
| 3,389 | Hettinger ND | 1,119 | $63K | 9.6% | 3.6% | 38% | C− |
| 3,390 | Hines OR | 1,610 | $78K | 14.9% | 0.4% | 12% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,866 | 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 La Crosse, the top three, the last and three more from Kansas.
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 La Crosse: questions
What is the median household income in La Crosse?
$53,750 (±$6,139) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,275 across Kansas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in La Crosse?
8.1%, against 11.3% across Kansas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from La Crosse?
16 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Kansas and 26 nationally. 2% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in La Crosse work?
27% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Hays (11%, 24 mi), Great Bend (9%, 30 mi), La Crosse-Brookdale Township (8%, 4 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is La Crosse walkable?
La Crosse is more walkable than 67% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 7.6 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around La Crosse without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 7% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from La Crosse, from the people who make the trip.
More of La Crosse
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.