Cleveland's Hall and Blacksmith Shop · Photo: Tgkrause · CC BY-SA 3.0Brooklyn has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.2 for each
Jobs and income earn Brooklyn A; getting around on foot earns it C+. There are 101 jobs in Brooklyn; 586 of its residents have a job. Measured by household income, Brooklyn is ahead of 79% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Brooklyn
Brooklyn is a place people come home to
There are 101 jobs based in Brooklyn, about two for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Brooklyn has about 630 people in it, 43% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
One in three of Brooklyn works in Madison
189 working residents, 32%, have their main job in Madison, 19 miles away. That’s far more as work in Brooklyn itself. The commute map ↓
Brooklyn workers spend longer getting to work
The average trip takes 33 minutes each way, against 22 across Wisconsin. Over a year that’s about 253 hours of commuting, 84 more than the state’s typical worker. 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; with 586 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
How Brooklyn earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Brooklyn is better than 90% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate is its strongest input (3.6%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car ranks lowest, though still above most U.S. towns (ahead of 68% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income and job access by car.
Unemployment (3.7%) is left out: Brooklyn’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, Brooklyn could be anywhere from A− to A+.
How a workday changes Brooklyn
On a workday 585 residents head out to work, 1 work right here, and 100 people come in from elsewhere.
About 630 people are in Brooklyn on a workday afternoon, 43% fewer than live here.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
32% of working residents work in Madison
Where Brooklyn clocks in
32% of workers
6% 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.
The daily trip from Brooklyn: about 33 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 10.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Brooklyn workers work from home, vs 13% across Wisconsin. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 550 commuters (the 14% 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.
Brooklyn works in goods: 42% of its jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Brooklyn, 2013 → 2023: 106 → 101. 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 Brooklyn’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How far it is to work from Brooklyn
About 15% 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.
The commute in Brooklyn is mostly behind the wheel
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Brooklyn is more walkable than 37% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 3.1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 4.8% across Wisconsin, on an EPA index of 5.0.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 637 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). 1.3% of Brooklyn households have no vehicle (Wisconsin 6.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Brooklyn’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Brooklyn is 152nd among 3,771 U.S. towns of 800 to 1,500
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 19 | Nashotah WI | 1,298 | $148K | 1.1% | 0.6% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 33 | Maple Bluff WI | 1,305 | $199K | 3.0% | 1.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 44 | Big Bend WI | 1,498 | $135K | 3.2% | 0.6% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 150 | Colwich KS | 1,445 | $88K | 1.3% | 7.1% | 4% | A |
| 151 | Brighton WI | 1,438 | $92K | 3.2% | 4.8% | 2% | A |
| 152 | Brooklyn WI | 1,117 | $103K | 3.6% | 3.7% | <1% | A |
| 153 | Twin Grove IL | 1,458 | $116K | 4.2% | 0.0% | 2% | A |
| 154 | Etna OH | 1,440 | $114K | 7.4% | 0.0% | <1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 3,771 | 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 Brooklyn, the top three, the last and three more from Wisconsin.
The towns around Brooklyn
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Brooklyn workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brooklyn | – | A | C+ | 33 min | $102,917 |
| Oregon | under 2% | A+ | D | 28 min | $150,536 |
| Albany | under 2% | — | — | 32 min | — |
| Exeter | under 2% | A | D | 27 min | $114,688 |
| Union | under 2% | A | D | 26 min | $99,279 |
Same-state neighbors only. Albany: 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 Brooklyn’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 Brooklyn: questions
What is the median household income in Brooklyn?
$102,917 (±$15,447) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,485 across Wisconsin and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Brooklyn?
3.6%, against 10.6% across Wisconsin and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Brooklyn?
33 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Wisconsin and 26 nationally. 14% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Brooklyn work?
<1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Madison (32%, 19 mi), Fitchburg (6%, 12 mi), Middleton (5%, 21 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Brooklyn walkable?
Brooklyn is more walkable than 37% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 5.0 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Brooklyn without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 1% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Brooklyn, from the people who make the trip.
More of Brooklyn
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.