Photo: Tgkrause · CC BY-SA 3.0Households in Brodhead have lower incomes than those in 88% of U.S. towns
Working from home is the commute for 4% of workers, against 13% across Wisconsin. The poverty rate is 14.9%, next to 10.6% for Wisconsin as a whole. For jobs and income Brodhead is better than 25% of U.S. towns (C); for walkability it is more walkable than 41% of U.S. towns (C+).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Brodhead
Brodhead trades workers with the towns around it
Brodhead has about as many jobs (1,388) as working residents (1,424), but they are mostly different people: 1,160 residents leave for work each day while 1,124 people come in. Only 19% of the jobs in Brodhead are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
Brodhead makes and builds things
50% of the jobs based in Brodhead are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Brodhead residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 31%. The jobs ↓
Few Brodhead workers work from home
Only 4% of workers work from home, against 13% across Wisconsin. Almost everyone here travels to a job. Time on the road ↓
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.
Income, poverty and work: Brodhead’s grade explained
Job access by car holds Brodhead’s grade up (ahead of 56% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($49,583, U.S. $80,734).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Brodhead could be anywhere from D to B+.
How many people are in Brodhead by day
On a workday 1,160 residents head out to work, 264 work right here, and 1,124 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 (0.97 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.
Brodhead makes things: 50% of its jobs are in goods
1,388 jobs are based in Brodhead.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Brodhead, 2013 → 2023: 1,319 → 1,388. 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 Brodhead’s own residents hold wherever they work.
A commute of about 26 minutes in Brodhead
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Brodhead workers work from home, vs 13% across Wisconsin. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,532 commuters (the 4% 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.
14% of working residents work in Monroe
Where Brodhead clocks in
14% of workers
13% of workers
2% 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 Brodhead
About 17% 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.
Few in Brodhead walk, bike or ride to work
The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.7% 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 1,599 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). 4.9% of Brodhead households have no vehicle (Wisconsin 6.4%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Brodhead’s commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, Brodhead is 3,492nd of 4,698 U.S. towns of 2,200 to 4,300
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 38 | Ottawa WI | 3,642 | $153K | 1.0% | 1.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 51 | Jackson WI | 3,950 | $117K | 0.6% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 65 | Center WI | 3,706 | $115K | 1.6% | 0.0% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,490 | Springfield KY | 3,033 | $49K | 10.3% | 5.5% | 27% | C |
| 3,491 | Wildwood Crest NJ | 3,000 | $69K | 9.6% | 10.7% | 10% | C |
| 3,492 | Brodhead WI | 3,214 | $50K | 14.9% | 5.2% | 19% | C |
| 3,493 | Whitefield NH | 2,535 | $63K | 11.0% | 4.3% | 15% | C |
| 3,494 | Roosevelt Gardens FL | 3,031 | $50K | 22.2% | 8.0% | <1% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 4,698 | 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 Brodhead, the top three, the last and three more from Wisconsin.
The towns around Brodhead
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Brodhead workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brodhead | – | C | C+ | 26 min | $49,583 |
| Decatur | under 2% | A− | C | 29 min | $101,167 |
| Spring Valley | under 2% | — | — | 20 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Spring Valley: 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 Brodhead’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 Brodhead: questions
What is the median household income in Brodhead?
$49,583 (±$11,197) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,485 across Wisconsin and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Brodhead?
14.9%, against 10.6% across Wisconsin and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Brodhead?
26 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Wisconsin and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Brodhead work?
19% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Monroe (14%, 13 mi), Madison (13%, 33 mi), Janesville (2%, 19 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Brodhead walkable?
Brodhead is more walkable than 41% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 7.7 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Brodhead without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 5% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Brodhead, from the people who make the trip.
More of Brodhead
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.