Photo: Royalbroil · CC BY-SA 3.0Brussels has 0.3 jobs for every working resident, so most commute out
The two grades for Brussels are B+ for jobs and income and B for walkability. Brussels has 172 jobs for 612 working residents. Household incomes here are higher than in 77% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Brussels, in brief
38% of Brussels works in Sturgeon Bay
231 working residents, 38%, have their main job in Sturgeon Bay, 13 miles away. That’s 13 times as many as work in Brussels itself. The commute map ↓
Brussels is a place people come home to
There are 172 jobs based in Brussels, about three for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Brussels has about 650 people in it, 40% 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 612 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What’s behind Brussels’ Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Brussels is better than 69% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Brussels’ grade up ($100,700, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 36% of U.S. towns). It also does well on the poverty rate.
Unemployment (2.9%) is left out: Brussels’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, Brussels could be anywhere from B− to A−.
38% of working residents work in Sturgeon Bay
Where Brussels clocks in
38% of workers
8% of workers
4% 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.
Brussels quiets down on a workday
On a workday 592 residents head out to work, 20 work right here, and 152 people come in from elsewhere.
About 650 people are in Brussels on a workday afternoon, 40% 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.
A place that makes things: 35% of Brussels’ jobs are in goods
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Brussels, 2013 → 2023: 94 → 172. 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 Brussels’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The daily trip from Brussels: about 26 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Brussels workers work from home, vs 13% across Wisconsin. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 511 commuters (the 10% 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.
How far Brussels goes to work
About 16% 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 Brussels walk, bike or ride to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Brussels is more walkable than 62% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 4.7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 4.8% across Wisconsin, on an EPA index of 6.5.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 570 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). 2.7% of Brussels households have no vehicle (Wisconsin 6.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Brussels’ commuters take a bus or train.
658th of 3,771: where Brussels ranks among 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 656 | Groveland ID | 1,422 | $76K | 2.0% | 4.7% | 1% | B+ |
| 657 | State Center IA | 1,389 | $84K | 4.9% | 2.0% | 10% | B+ |
| 658 | Brussels WI | 1,089 | $101K | 6.0% | 2.9% | 3% | B+ |
| 659 | Fowler MI | 1,237 | $74K | 3.1% | 0.0% | 6% | B+ |
| 660 | East Nelson Township IL | 1,007 | $104K | 5.6% | 0.0% | 2% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 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 Brussels, the top three, the last and three more from Wisconsin.
Work in the towns next to Brussels
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Brussels workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brussels | – | B+ | B | 26 min | $100,700 |
| Forestville | under 2% | B | D | 23 min | $80,795 |
| Gardner | under 2% | B− | D | 24 min | $69,474 |
| Union | under 2% | — | — | 32 min | — |
| Lincoln | under 2% | — | — | 28 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Union: not graded. Lincoln: the same community as the town of that name, graded once. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Brussels’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 Brussels: questions
What is the median household income in Brussels?
$100,700 (±$8,524) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,485 across Wisconsin and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Brussels?
6.0%, against 10.6% across Wisconsin and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Brussels?
26 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Wisconsin and 26 nationally. 10% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Brussels work?
3% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Sturgeon Bay (38%, 13 mi), Green Bay (8%, 24 mi), Sturgeon Bay (4%, 18 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Brussels walkable?
Brussels is more walkable than 62% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 6.5 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Brussels without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Brussels, from the people who make the trip.
More of Brussels
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.