About half of Barre’s working residents commute to La Crosse
Household incomes here are higher than in 81% of U.S. towns. Barre grades A− for jobs and income and C for walkability. Hardly any stay in Barre for work; outside it, La Crosse is the main destination (47%, 8 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jobs and commuting in Barre: the gist
Nearly half of Barre works in La Crosse
271 working residents, 47%, have their main job in La Crosse, 7.5 miles away. That’s 47 times as many as work in Barre itself. The commute map ↓
Most Barre residents work close to home
69% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home, about two in three. How far ↓
Barre is a place people come home to
There are 122 jobs based in Barre, about two for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Barre has about 810 people in it, 36% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
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 579 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Income, poverty and work: Barre’s grade explained
On income, poverty and job access, Barre is better than 82% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Barre’s grade up (4.3%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 48% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income.
Unemployment (0.9%) is left out: Barre’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, Barre could be anywhere from B+ to A.
Where Barre’s working residents head each day
Where Barre clocks in
47% of workers
5% 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.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Barre
About 18% 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.
A workday in Barre: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 576 residents head out to work, 3 work right here, and 119 people come in from elsewhere.
About 810 people are in Barre on a workday afternoon, 36% fewer than live here.
0.21 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.
Barre is a services town
122 jobs are based in Barre.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Barre, 2013 → 2023: 56 → 122. 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 Barre’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The trip to work from Barre: about 20 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Barre workers work from home, vs 13% across Wisconsin. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 608 commuters (the 10% 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.
Driving is how Barre gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Barre is more walkable than 33% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Barre 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 677 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 2.4% of Barre households have no vehicle (Wisconsin 6.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Barre’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 4,866 U.S. towns of 900 to 1,700, Barre comes 419th 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 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 22 | Nashotah WI | 1,298 | $148K | 1.1% | 0.6% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 42 | Maple Bluff WI | 1,305 | $199K | 3.0% | 1.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 46 | Wind Point WI | 1,620 | $143K | 0.4% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 417 | Berry WI | 1,138 | $84K | 2.2% | 1.0% | <1% | A− |
| 418 | Medford MN | 1,377 | $108K | 4.9% | 3.3% | 3% | A− |
| 419 | Barre WI | 1,262 | $106K | 4.3% | 0.9% | 1% | A− |
| 420 | Riverside IA | 1,086 | $84K | 2.3% | 2.0% | 8% | A− |
| 421 | Hensley Township IL | 1,006 | $108K | 3.8% | 0.0% | 1% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,866 | 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 Barre, the top three, the last and three more from Wisconsin.
Barre and its neighbors
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Barre workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barre | – | A− | C | 20 min | $105,956 |
| Medary | under 2% | A | C+ | 22 min | $105,114 |
| Greenfield | under 2% | A− | C− | 27 min | $105,417 |
| Bangor | under 2% | — | — | 20 min | — |
| Hamilton | under 2% | A− | C | 21 min | $112,500 |
Same-state neighbors only. Bangor: the same community as the village of that name, graded once. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Barre’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 Barre: questions
What is the median household income in Barre?
$105,956 (±$6,390) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,485 across Wisconsin and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Barre?
4.3%, against 10.6% across Wisconsin and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Barre?
20 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Wisconsin and 26 nationally. 10% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Barre work?
1% work in town.
Is Barre walkable?
Barre is more walkable than 33% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 5.9 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Barre without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Barre, from the people who make the trip.
More of Barre
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.