Fountain Lake Farm · Photo: User Royalbroil on en.wikipedia · CC BY-SA 2.5Buffalo has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.1 for each
31 jobs are based in Buffalo, against 481 working residents. For jobs and income Buffalo is better than 29% of U.S. towns (C); for walkability it is more walkable than 13% of U.S. towns (D). Hardly any work in Buffalo itself; outside it, Montello draws the most (18%, 8 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Buffalo stands out on work
Buffalo is a place people come home to
There are 31 jobs based in Buffalo, about one for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Buffalo has about 1,000 people in it, 31% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
Buffalo workers spend longer getting to work
The average trip takes 36 minutes each way, against 22 across Wisconsin. Over a year that’s about 276 hours of commuting, 107 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 2024, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; with 481 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Where Buffalo’s Jobs & income grade comes from
Household income holds Buffalo’s grade up ($78,092, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 21% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (4.0%) is left out: Buffalo’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, Buffalo could be anywhere from C− to B−.
How many people are in Buffalo by day
On a workday 478 residents head out to work, 3 work right here, and 28 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,000 people are in Buffalo on a workday afternoon, 31% 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 2024, primary jobs.
About 36 minutes each way, longer than most of Wisconsin
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 11.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Buffalo workers work from home, vs 13% across Wisconsin. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 567 commuters (the 12% 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.
Where Buffalo goes to work
Where Buffalo clocks in
Lines 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.
What Buffalo’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Buffalo, 2014 → 2024: 31 → 31. 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 2024.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Buffalo’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Near or far: the trip to work from Buffalo
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 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
In Buffalo, 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 648 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). 7.8% of Buffalo households have no vehicle (Wisconsin 6.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Buffalo’s commuters take a bus or train.
Buffalo places 3,662nd of 6,308 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 1,000 to 2,000
| # | 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% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 29 | Nashotah WI | 1,298 | $148K | 1.1% | 0.6% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 50 | Maple Bluff WI | 1,305 | $199K | 3.0% | 1.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 55 | Wind Point WI | 1,620 | $143K | 0.4% | 0.9% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,660 | Vinita Park MO | 1,923 | $54K | 20.8% | 7.1% | 3% | C |
| 3,661 | Scipio Township OH | 1,178 | $76K | 9.4% | 2.3% | 0% | C |
| 3,662 | Buffalo WI | 1,446 | $78K | 13.6% | 4.0% | 1% | C |
| 3,663 | Penn Valley CA | 1,678 | $65K | 9.3% | 0.0% | 4% | C |
| 3,664 | Kaumakani HI | 1,012 | $96K | 14.9% | 2.8% | 0% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 6,308 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 1% | 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 Buffalo, the top three, the last and three more from Wisconsin.
Buffalo and its neighbors
The biggest share goes to Montello (3%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Buffalo workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Buffalo | – | C | D | 36 min | $78,092 |
| Moundville | under 2% | — | — | 23 min | — |
| Kingston | under 2% | C− | B | 26 min | $82,813 |
| Marcellon | under 2% | A− | C− | 40 min | $99,063 |
| Packwaukee | under 2% | C− | C | 28 min | $64,167 |
| Montello | 3% | C+ | B− | 30 min | $87,795 |
Same-state neighbors only. Moundville: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Buffalo’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 2024, 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 Buffalo: questions
What is the median household income in Buffalo?
$78,092 (±$6,758) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,485 across Wisconsin and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Buffalo?
13.6%, against 10.6% across Wisconsin and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Buffalo?
36 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Wisconsin and 26 nationally. 12% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Buffalo work?
1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Montello (18%, 8 mi), Portage (12%, 12 mi), Westfield (3%, 16 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Buffalo walkable?
Buffalo is more walkable than 13% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 4.8 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Buffalo without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Buffalo, from the people who make the trip.
More of Buffalo
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2024, 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.