Photo: Jared Winkler · CC BY-SA 4.0Unemployment in Wilber (0.8%) is lower than in 96% of U.S. towns
5% of workers have no commute at all (Nebraska 11%). For jobs and income Wilber is better than 61% of U.S. towns (B); for walkability it is more walkable than 23% of U.S. towns (C−). About one in seven stay in Wilber for work; outside it, Lincoln is the main destination (23%, 27 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Wilber, in brief
The figures behind Wilber’s Jobs & income grade
Unemployment holds Wilber’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 13% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income and the poverty rate.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Wilber could be anywhere from B− to B+.
How many miles Wilber commutes
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.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Who leaves Wilber for work, and who comes in
On a workday 693 residents head out to work, 96 work right here, and 356 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,600 people are in Wilber on a workday afternoon, 17% fewer than live here.
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.
Where Wilber goes to work
Where Wilber clocks in
23% 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.
Wilber is a services town
452 jobs are based in Wilber.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Wilber, 2013 → 2023: 430 → 452. 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 Wilber’s own residents hold wherever they work.
From Wilber, about 19 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Wilber workers work from home, vs 11% across Nebraska. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 930 commuters (the 5% who work from home are left out). Across Nebraska: 86% 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.
Wilber is a driving town
The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 3.5% across Nebraska.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 977 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). 6.2% of Wilber households have no vehicle (Nebraska 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Wilber’s commuters take a bus or train.
Wilber is 1,637th of 5,509 U.S. towns of 1,400 to 2,700 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 189 | Yutan NE | 1,451 | $103K | 0.7% | 8.8% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 282 | Buccaneer Bay NE | 1,418 | $161K | 4.9% | 0.0% | <1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 331 | Beaver Lake NE | 2,114 | $122K | 1.7% | 3.0% | 3% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,635 | Barr Township PA | 1,996 | $78K | 3.5% | 3.3% | 4% | B |
| 1,636 | Kitsap Lake WA | 2,186 | $101K | 12.7% | 3.1% | 1% | B |
| 1,637 | Wilber NE | 1,978 | $85K | 8.6% | 0.8% | 12% | B |
| 1,638 | Dillsburg PA | 2,635 | $84K | 8.8% | 5.3% | 3% | B |
| 1,639 | Inland Township MI | 2,493 | $81K | 6.3% | 1.9% | 1% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 5,509 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Wilber, the top three, the last and three more from Nebraska.
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 Wilber: questions
What is the median household income in Wilber?
$84,712 (±$9,031) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $76,475 across Nebraska and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Wilber?
8.6%, against 10.6% across Nebraska and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Wilber?
19 minutes each way on average, against 19 across Nebraska and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Wilber work?
12% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Lincoln (23%, 27 mi), Crete (14%, 10 mi), Beatrice (7%, 18 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Wilber walkable?
Wilber is more walkable than 23% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 6.3 out of 20, and <1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Wilber without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Wilber, from the people who make the trip.
More of Wilber
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.