Island Woolen Company Office Building · Photo: Tgkrause · CC BY-SA 3.0Fewer people are out of work in Baraboo (2.9%) than in 71% of U.S. towns
Commuters spend 22 minutes getting to work on average, against 22 across Wisconsin and 26 nationally. Baraboo grades B for jobs and income and B+ for walkability. About one in four stay in Baraboo for work; outside it, Madison is the main destination (12%, 30 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Baraboo at work: what stands out
Baraboo trades workers with the towns around it
Baraboo has about as many jobs (6,900) as working residents (6,427), but they are mostly different people: 4,834 residents leave for work each day while 5,307 people come in. Only 23% of the jobs in Baraboo are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
Baraboo’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Baraboo is Madison, 31 miles away as the crow flies. 12% of working residents (774) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Baraboo draws workers from far and wide
The 6,900 jobs in Baraboo are filled from a wide area. Baraboo’s own residents hold 23% and the ten next-biggest home towns 22%; the other 55% come from many towns beyond those. The commute map ↓
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.
How the Jobs & income grade adds up in Baraboo
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Baraboo is better than 58% of U.S. towns, #265 of 362 in Wisconsin. Unemployment holds Baraboo’s grade up; household income pulls it down ($69,750, U.S. $80,734). It also does well on the poverty rate.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Baraboo could be anywhere from C+ to B+.
A workday in Baraboo: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 4,834 residents head out to work, 1,593 work right here, and 5,307 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 (1.07 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.
Half of Baraboo commutes less than 14 miles
About 20% 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.
Where Baraboo goes to work
Where Baraboo clocks in
12% of workers
3% 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.
Jobs in Baraboo: what the 6,900 are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Baraboo, 2013 → 2023: 7,078 → 6,900. 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 Baraboo’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Time on the road from Baraboo: about 22 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Baraboo workers work from home, vs 13% across Wisconsin. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 6,102 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.
In Baraboo, the car does most of the work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Baraboo is more walkable than 74% of U.S. towns, #82 of 362 in Wisconsin. Both inputs place Baraboo 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 6,676 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). 8.3% of Baraboo households have no vehicle (Wisconsin 6.4%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Baraboo’s commuters take a bus or train.
Baraboo next to U.S. towns of 9,000 to 18,000: 1,368th of 2,526 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| 2 | Beverly Hills MI | 10,449 | $177K | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | New Albany OH | 11,803 | $238K | 1.4% | 0.9% | 11% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 53 | Greenville WI | 13,388 | $118K | 1.7% | 0.8% | 10% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 71 | Whitefish Bay WI | 14,489 | $157K | 3.7% | 2.6% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 79 | Verona WI | 16,821 | $120K | 1.4% | 1.6% | 21% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,366 | Easthampton MA | 15,851 | $72K | 8.0% | 4.7% | 16% | B |
| 1,367 | Little Canada MN | 10,567 | $78K | 11.5% | 5.9% | 4% | B |
| 1,368 | Baraboo WI | 13,224 | $70K | 8.4% | 2.9% | 25% | B |
| 1,369 | Malibu CA | 9,574 | $194K | 12.6% | 6.7% | 9% | B |
| 1,370 | Kaufman TX | 10,717 | $63K | 10.6% | 3.4% | 14% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 2,526 | Douglas AZ | 16,038 | $42K | 27.8% | 12.3% | 29% | 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 Baraboo, the top three, the last and three more from Wisconsin.
Baraboo and its neighbors
The biggest share goes to West Baraboo (3%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Baraboo workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baraboo | – | B | B+ | 22 min | $69,750 |
| West Baraboo | 3% | B− | A− | 19 min | $60,880 |
| Greenfield | under 2% | — | — | 25 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Greenfield: the same community as the city of that name, graded once. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Baraboo’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
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 Baraboo: questions
What is the median household income in Baraboo?
$69,750 (±$9,019) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,485 across Wisconsin and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Baraboo?
8.4%, against 10.6% across Wisconsin and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Baraboo?
22 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Wisconsin and 26 nationally. 9% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Baraboo work?
25% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Madison (12%, 30 mi), Lake Delton (7%, 9 mi), West Baraboo (3%, 2 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Baraboo walkable?
Baraboo is more walkable than 74% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 8.1 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Baraboo without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Baraboo, from the people who make the trip.
More of Baraboo
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.