Photo: Royalbroil · CC BY-SA 3.0Adams has lower household incomes than 94% of U.S. towns
25.7% of residents are in poverty; Wisconsin has 10.6%. Adams grades D− for jobs and income and A− for walkability. 3% of workers work from home, where Wisconsin as a whole has 13%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work and commuting in Adams, in brief
A big share show a job far from home
31% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. How far ↓
Stores, warehouses and trucking
41% of the jobs in Adams are in trade, transport and utilities, against 25% of the jobs its residents hold. The jobs ↓
Few Adams workers work from home
Only 3% of workers work from home, against 13% across Wisconsin. 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 620 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Income, poverty and work: Adams’ grade explained
On income, poverty and job access, Adams is better than 4% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Adams’ grade up (ahead of 23% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($43,364, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (5.6%) is left out: Adams’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, Adams could be anywhere from D− to D.
Miles to work from Adams
About 31% 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.
Jobs in Adams: what the 876 are
876 jobs are based in Adams.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Adams, 2013 → 2023: 958 → 876. 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 Adams’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The trip to work from Adams: about 26 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Adams workers work from home, vs 13% across Wisconsin. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 764 commuters (the 3% who work from home are left out). Across Wisconsin: 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.
Who commutes out of Adams, and who commutes in
On a workday 535 residents head out to work, 85 work right here, and 791 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,100 people are in Adams on a workday afternoon, 14% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.41 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.
16% of working residents work in Friendship
Where Adams clocks in
Lines 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.
Adams is more walkable than most U.S. towns, with limited transit
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Adams is more walkable than 76% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Adams 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 785 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). 9.4% of Adams households have no vehicle (Wisconsin 6.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Adams’ commuters take a bus or train.
Adams and other U.S. towns of 1,300 to 2,400
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Hewlett Harbor NY | 1,332 | $250K | 1.9% | 7.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 35 | Maple Bluff WI | 1,305 | $199K | 3.0% | 1.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 40 | Wind Point WI | 1,620 | $143K | 0.4% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 41 | North Prairie WI | 2,193 | $153K | 2.8% | 0.9% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,944 | Tazewell TN | 2,363 | $42K | 33.1% | 6.9% | 17% | D− |
| 4,945 | Rotan TX | 1,333 | $53K | 19.4% | 4.2% | 28% | D− |
| 4,946 | Adams WI | 1,803 | $43K | 25.7% | 5.6% | 14% | D− |
| 4,947 | Millcreek Township IN | 1,422 | $49K | 18.4% | 2.4% | 6% | D− |
| 4,948 | Buckeye Township MI | 1,416 | $53K | 21.0% | 8.4% | 1% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,343 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 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 Adams, the top three, the last and three more from Wisconsin.
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 Adams: questions
What is the median household income in Adams?
$43,364 (±$4,916) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,485 across Wisconsin and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Adams?
25.7%, against 10.6% across Wisconsin and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Adams?
26 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Wisconsin and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Adams work?
14% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Friendship (16%, 1 mi), Lake Delton (3%, 25 mi), Wisconsin Dells (3%, 22 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Adams walkable?
Adams is more walkable than 76% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 8.4 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Adams without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 9% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Adams, from the people who make the trip.
More of Adams
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.