Photo: Visit Beloit · CC BY-SA 4.0Beloit has lower household incomes than 69% of U.S. towns
Transit is limited for a town this walkable: about 2.9 trips an hour stop near the typical resident at the evening peak, against 12.9 in Milwaukee. Below the poverty line: 15.0% of residents (Wisconsin 10.6%). Beloit grades C+ for jobs and income and A for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The work figures that set Beloit apart
Beloit trades workers with the towns around it
Beloit has about as many jobs (16,684) as working residents (15,897), but they are mostly different people: 11,457 residents leave for work each day while 12,244 people come in. Only 27% of the jobs in Beloit are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
Many of the people who work in Beloit live in another state
Rockford, IL (4%), South Beloit, IL (3%) and Rockton, IL (2%) are among the top places Beloit’s workers come from. Counting only the top ten home towns, 13% of the jobs here are held by people from out of state. The commute map ↓
Beloit and Janesville trade workers both ways
Janesville is the top workplace for Beloit residents (16%) and also where the most people who work in Beloit come from (11% of its jobs). 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 Beloit
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Beloit is better than 37% of U.S. towns, #323 of 362 in Wisconsin. Job access by car holds Beloit’s grade up (ahead of 71% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Beloit could be anywhere from C to B−.
How many people are in Beloit by day
On a workday 11,457 residents head out to work, 4,440 work right here, and 12,244 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 (1.05 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 Janesville
Where Beloit clocks in
16% of workers
8% 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.
The kinds of work in Beloit
16,684 jobs are based in Beloit.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Beloit, 2013 → 2023: 14,508 → 16,684. 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 Beloit’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Getting to work from Beloit takes about 23 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Beloit workers work from home, vs 13% across Wisconsin. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 15,984 commuters (the 7% 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.
Miles to work from Beloit
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.
Beloit 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, Beloit is more walkable than 86% of U.S. towns, #28 of 362 in Wisconsin. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 3.9% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 4.8% across Wisconsin.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 17,173 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 91% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 51% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 2.9 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 75% 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). 8.9% of Beloit households have no vehicle (Wisconsin 6.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Beloit’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Beloit ranks: 915th of 1,131 U.S. towns of 26,000 to 49,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Upper Dublin Township PA | 27,258 | $168K | 3.2% | 1.9% | 8% | A+ |
| 2 | Southlake TX | 31,175 | $250K | 1.5% | 2.7% | 11% | A+ |
| 3 | Leawood KS | 34,093 | $186K | 3.1% | 2.0% | 9% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 18 | Brookfield WI | 41,448 | $130K | 3.2% | 2.5% | 12% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 58 | New Berlin WI | 39,953 | $101K | 4.1% | 2.2% | 10% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 69 | Oak Creek WI | 38,296 | $97K | 4.9% | 1.3% | 12% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 913 | Chelsea MA | 40,130 | $72K | 20.7% | 9.2% | 11% | C+ |
| 914 | Denison TX | 26,822 | $67K | 15.0% | 4.6% | 22% | C+ |
| 915 | Beloit WI | 36,649 | $63K | 15.0% | 5.3% | 28% | C+ |
| 916 | North Highlands CA | 47,957 | $65K | 19.6% | 6.3% | 6% | C+ |
| 917 | Dalton GA | 35,322 | $64K | 18.6% | 4.3% | 38% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,131 | Bullhead City AZ | 43,987 | $51K | 18.7% | 11.5% | 26% | 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 Beloit, the top three, the last and three more from Wisconsin.
Beloit and its neighbors
Jobs & commute next door
Darker towns draw more of Beloit’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 Beloit: questions
What is the median household income in Beloit?
$62,663 (±$3,466) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,485 across Wisconsin and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Beloit?
15.0%, against 10.6% across Wisconsin and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Beloit?
23 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Wisconsin and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Beloit work?
28% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Janesville (16%, 11 mi), Madison (8%, 44 mi), Beloit (3%, 4 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Beloit walkable?
Beloit is more walkable than 86% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 12.7 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Beloit without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 9% of households have no car. 51% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Beloit, from the people who make the trip.
More of Beloit
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.