Photo: Brian Stansberry · CC BY 4.0Brodhead’s household incomes are lower than in 98% of U.S. towns
For jobs and income Brodhead is better than 5% of U.S. towns (D); for walkability it is more walkable than 24% of U.S. towns (C−). Below the poverty line: 29.1% of residents, against 16.1% across Kentucky. Only 2% work in Brodhead; the top destination outside it is Mount Vernon (19%, 6 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Why Brodhead gets the Jobs & income grade it does
Job access by car holds Brodhead’s grade up (ahead of 34% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($35,333, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (4.9%) is left out: Brodhead’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, Brodhead could be anywhere from D− to D.
Brodhead on a workday afternoon
On a workday 379 residents head out to work, 6 work right here, and 150 people come in from elsewhere.
About 890 people are in Brodhead on a workday afternoon, 21% fewer than live here.
0.41 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.
Where Brodhead goes to work
Where Brodhead clocks in
19% of workers
10% of workers
6% 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.
Brodhead is a services town
156 jobs are based in Brodhead.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Brodhead, 2013 → 2023: 61 → 156. 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 Brodhead’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The trip to work from Brodhead: about 25 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Brodhead workers work from home, vs 10% across Kentucky. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 520 commuters (the 5% who work from home are left out). Across Kentucky: 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.
Miles to work from Brodhead
About 15% 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.
Most of Brodhead commutes by car
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 547 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). 9.5% of Brodhead households have no vehicle (Kentucky 6.8%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Brodhead’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Brodhead ranks: 3,383rd of 3,771 U.S. towns of 800 to 1,500
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 43 | Audubon Park KY | 1,457 | $101K | 1.6% | 1.3% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 60 | Coldstream KY | 1,325 | $109K | 2.8% | 0.8% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 76 | Heritage Creek KY | 1,244 | $100K | 2.4% | 1.6% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,381 | Blue Ridge GA | 1,297 | $45K | 20.5% | 0.0% | 23% | D |
| 3,382 | Harper KS | 1,287 | $54K | 19.1% | 0.8% | 18% | D |
| 3,383 | Brodhead KY | 1,116 | $35K | 29.1% | 4.9% | 2% | D |
| 3,384 | Bagley MN | 1,310 | $45K | 17.7% | 6.6% | 33% | D |
| 3,385 | Summit MS | 1,417 | $29K | 45.8% | 9.8% | 2% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 3,771 | 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 Brodhead, the top three, the last and three more from Kentucky.
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 Brodhead: questions
What is the median household income in Brodhead?
$35,333 (±$8,843) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $63,726 across Kentucky and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Brodhead?
29.1%, against 16.1% across Kentucky and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Brodhead?
25 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Kentucky and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Brodhead work?
2% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Mount Vernon (19%, 6 mi), Berea (10%, 14 mi), Richmond (6%, 23 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Brodhead walkable?
Brodhead is more walkable than 24% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 5.3 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Brodhead without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 10% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Brodhead, from the people who make the trip.
More of Brodhead
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.