Brooklyn has 0.3 jobs for every working resident, so most commute out
217 jobs are based in Brooklyn, against 794 working residents. For jobs and income Brooklyn is better than 87% of U.S. towns (A); for walkability it is more walkable than 14% of U.S. towns (D). Household incomes here are higher than in 83% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Brooklyn apart on work
39% of Brooklyn works in Madison
311 working residents, 39%, have their main job in Madison, 17 miles away. That’s 39 times as many as work in Brooklyn itself. The commute map ↓
Brooklyn is a place people come home to
There are 217 jobs based in Brooklyn, about three for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Brooklyn has about 970 people in it, 37% 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 794 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Brooklyn
All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Brooklyn’s grade. It also does well on the poverty rate and job access by car.
Unemployment (3.3%) 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 B+ to A+.
39% of working residents work in Madison
Where Brooklyn clocks in
39% 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 commute in and out of Brooklyn
On a workday 788 residents head out to work, 6 work right here, and 211 people come in from elsewhere.
About 970 people are in Brooklyn on a workday afternoon, 37% 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.
35% of the jobs in Brooklyn make or build things
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Brooklyn, 2013 → 2023: 136 → 217. 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.
Time on the road from Brooklyn: about 22 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.9 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 603 commuters (the 20% 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.
Near or far: the trip 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.
In Brooklyn, the car does most of the work
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 752 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). 0.9% of Brooklyn households have no vehicle (Wisconsin 6.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Brooklyn’s commuters take a bus or train.
Brooklyn places 417th of 5,794 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 1,100 to 2,100
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 24 | Nashotah WI | 1,298 | $148K | 1.1% | 0.6% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 42 | Maple Bluff WI | 1,305 | $199K | 3.0% | 1.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 47 | Wind Point WI | 1,620 | $143K | 0.4% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 415 | Brillion WI | 1,644 | $91K | 2.3% | 0.3% | 4% | A |
| 416 | Clermont GA | 1,165 | $136K | 4.7% | 3.1% | 2% | A |
| 417 | Brooklyn WI | 1,547 | $109K | 5.8% | 3.3% | 1% | A |
| 418 | Haverhill Township MN | 1,473 | $161K | 6.4% | 2.5% | <1% | A |
| 419 | Hurstbourne Acres KY | 2,003 | $67K | 4.6% | 1.2% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 5,794 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 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.
Brooklyn and the towns next door
The biggest share goes to Rutland (1%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
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?
$108,929 (±$11,841) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,485 across Wisconsin and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Brooklyn?
5.8%, against 10.6% across Wisconsin and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Brooklyn?
22 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Wisconsin and 26 nationally. 20% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Brooklyn work?
1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Madison (39%, 17 mi), Fitchburg (5%, 10 mi), Verona (4%, 13 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Brooklyn walkable?
Brooklyn is more walkable than 14% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 4.6 out of 20, and 1% 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. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
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.