Photo: Royalbroil · CC BY-SA 3.0Unemployment in Berlin (2.3%) is lower than in 80% of U.S. towns
Home is the office for 5% of workers, against 13% across Wisconsin. For jobs and income Berlin is better than 42% of U.S. towns (C+); for walkability it is more walkable than 77% of U.S. towns (A−). About one in five stay in Berlin for work; outside it, Oshkosh is the main destination (13%, 20 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Berlin: the figures worth knowing
How the Jobs & income grade adds up in Berlin
Unemployment holds Berlin’s grade up; the poverty rate pulls it down (16.0%, U.S. 12.5%).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Berlin could be anywhere from C− to B.
Berlin by day and by night
On a workday 2,067 residents head out to work, 532 work right here, and 1,756 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 (0.88 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 Berlin goes to work
Where Berlin clocks in
13% 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.
Goods jobs make up 33% of work in Berlin
2,288 jobs are based in Berlin.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Berlin, 2013 → 2023: 2,879 → 2,288. 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 Berlin’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Getting to work from Berlin takes about 21 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Berlin workers work from home, vs 13% across Wisconsin. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,278 commuters (the 5% 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.
The commute from Berlin, by distance
About 25% 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.
Walkable streets, thin transit: Berlin
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 7.2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 4.8% across Wisconsin, on an EPA index of 7.3.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 2,403 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). 11.0% of Berlin households have no vehicle (Wisconsin 6.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Berlin’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Berlin ranks: 2,187th of 3,502 U.S. towns of 3,900 to 7,500
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Ho-Ho-Kus NJ | 4,313 | $250K | 0.0% | 1.7% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 18 | Fox Point WI | 6,583 | $141K | 2.5% | 0.4% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 28 | Elm Grove WI | 6,354 | $158K | 4.4% | 0.7% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 57 | Jackson WI | 3,950 | $117K | 0.6% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,185 | Troy Township OH | 7,113 | $62K | 9.3% | 4.6% | 11% | C+ |
| 2,186 | Kalaheo HI | 4,435 | $111K | 11.4% | 5.3% | 7% | C+ |
| 2,187 | Berlin WI | 5,588 | $59K | 16.0% | 2.3% | 20% | C+ |
| 2,188 | Felix Township IL | 4,531 | $71K | 8.6% | 7.5% | 2% | C+ |
| 2,189 | Coarsegold CA | 3,967 | $81K | 6.2% | 4.9% | 10% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,502 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 18% | 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 Berlin, the top three, the last and three more from Wisconsin.
Work in the towns next to Berlin
Jobs & commute next door
Darker towns draw more of Berlin’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 Berlin: questions
What is the median household income in Berlin?
$59,472 (±$6,853) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,485 across Wisconsin and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Berlin?
16.0%, against 10.6% across Wisconsin and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Berlin?
21 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Wisconsin and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Berlin work?
20% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Oshkosh (13%, 20 mi), Ripon (8%, 10 mi), Appleton (3%, 35 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Berlin walkable?
Berlin is more walkable than 77% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 7.3 out of 20, and 7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Berlin without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 11% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Berlin, from the people who make the trip.
More of Berlin
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.