Augusta has lower household incomes than 83% of U.S. towns
Jobs and income earn Augusta D; getting around on foot earns it B−. Below the poverty line: 18.2% of residents, next to 10.6% for Wisconsin as a whole. About one in ten work in Augusta; the top destination outside it is Eau Claire (16%, 21 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Augusta at work: what stands out
The figures behind Augusta’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Augusta is better than 13% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Augusta’s grade up (ahead of 33% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($53,714, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (1.3%) is left out: Augusta’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, Augusta could be anywhere from D to C.
In Augusta, 46% of jobs are in factories, building or farming
548 jobs are based in Augusta.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Augusta, 2013 → 2023: 675 → 548. 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 Augusta’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Augusta on a workday afternoon
On a workday 443 residents head out to work, 53 work right here, and 495 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 (1.10 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.
Where people from Augusta work
Where Augusta 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.
Getting to work from Augusta takes about 23 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Augusta workers work from home, vs 13% across Wisconsin. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 503 commuters (the 9% 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.
Half of Augusta commutes less than 20 miles
About 22% 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.
In Augusta, most people drive to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Augusta is more walkable than 51% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 3.0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 4.8% across Wisconsin, on an EPA index of 6.4.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 551 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). 8.8% of Augusta households have no vehicle (Wisconsin 6.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Augusta’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 6,308 U.S. towns of 1,000 to 2,000, Augusta comes 4,938th 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 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 29 | Nashotah WI | 1,298 | $148K | 1.1% | 0.6% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 50 | Maple Bluff WI | 1,305 | $199K | 3.0% | 1.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 55 | Wind Point WI | 1,620 | $143K | 0.4% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,936 | Tunkhannock PA | 1,718 | $58K | 21.6% | 5.5% | 9% | D |
| 4,937 | Farwell TX | 1,387 | $57K | 16.3% | 0.0% | 11% | D |
| 4,938 | Augusta WI | 1,483 | $54K | 18.2% | 1.3% | 11% | D |
| 4,939 | Hiram ME | 1,712 | $63K | 12.6% | 4.4% | 5% | D |
| 4,940 | Dafter Township MI | 1,333 | $66K | 16.0% | 2.1% | 2% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 6,308 | 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 Augusta, 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 Augusta: questions
What is the median household income in Augusta?
$53,714 (±$4,650) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,485 across Wisconsin and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Augusta?
18.2%, against 10.6% across Wisconsin and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Augusta?
23 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Wisconsin and 26 nationally. 9% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Augusta work?
11% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Eau Claire (16%, 21 mi), Osseo (9%, 8 mi), Bridge Creek (8%, 4 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Augusta walkable?
Augusta is more walkable than 51% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 6.4 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Augusta 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 Augusta, from the people who make the trip.
More of Augusta
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.