Photo: User:Royalbroil · CC BY-SA 2.5Most of Cato commutes out: there are 0.4 jobs for every working resident
330 jobs are based in Cato for 769 working residents. For jobs and income Cato is better than 65% of U.S. towns (B+); for walkability it is more walkable than 40% of U.S. towns (C+). Only 2% work in Cato itself; outside it, Manitowoc draws the most (22%, 9 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Cato in brief
Cato and Manitowoc trade workers both ways
Manitowoc is the top workplace for Cato residents (22%) and also where the most people who work in Cato come from (15% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Cato makes and builds things
58% of the jobs based in Cato are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Cato residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 41%. The jobs ↓
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 769 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Where Cato’s Jobs & income grade comes from
Household income is its strongest input ($91,912, U.S. $80,734); the poverty rate ranks lowest, though still above most U.S. towns (9.1%, U.S. 12.5%). It also does well on the poverty rate and job access by car.
Unemployment (1.2%) is left out: Cato’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, Cato could be anywhere from B− to A.
The towns that employ Cato’s residents
Where Cato clocks in
7% 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.
Cato works in goods: 58% of its jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Cato, 2013 → 2023: 260 → 330. 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 Cato’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who works in Cato, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 754 residents head out to work, 15 work right here, and 315 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,200 people are in Cato on a workday afternoon, 26% 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.
Getting to work from Cato takes about 22 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Cato workers work from home, vs 13% across Wisconsin. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 701 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.
How far it is to work from Cato
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 Cato, most people drive to work
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 2.6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 4.8% across Wisconsin, on an EPA index of 5.7.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 796 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). 1.5% of Cato households have no vehicle (Wisconsin 6.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Cato’s commuters take a bus or train.
Cato places 1,372nd of 5,760 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 1,200 to 2,300
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Hewlett Harbor NY | 1,332 | $250K | 1.9% | 7.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 22 | Nashotah WI | 1,298 | $148K | 1.1% | 0.6% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 38 | Maple Bluff WI | 1,305 | $199K | 3.0% | 1.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 43 | Wind Point WI | 1,620 | $143K | 0.4% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,370 | Franklin WI | 1,249 | $80K | 7.7% | 1.8% | 2% | B+ |
| 1,371 | Hustisford WI | 1,350 | $94K | 7.9% | 14.2% | 2% | B+ |
| 1,372 | Cato WI | 1,676 | $92K | 9.1% | 1.2% | 2% | B+ |
| 1,373 | Elverson PA | 1,396 | $78K | 9.4% | 2.1% | 2% | B+ |
| 1,374 | Howard Township IN | 1,220 | $96K | 0.4% | 0.0% | <1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,760 | 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 Cato, the top three, the last and three more from Wisconsin.
The towns around Cato
The biggest share goes to Valders (7%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Cato workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cato | – | B+ | C+ | 22 min | $91,912 |
| Valders | 7% | — | — | 28 min | — |
| Liberty | under 3% | B+ | D | 20 min | $87,656 |
| Franklin | under 3% | B+ | C+ | 24 min | $80,391 |
| Rockland | under 3% | — | — | 29 min | — |
| Manitowoc Rapids | under 3% | A− | B | 15 min | $94,107 |
Same-state neighbors only. Valders: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Rockland: 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 Cato’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 Cato: questions
What is the median household income in Cato?
$91,912 (±$10,279) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,485 across Wisconsin and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Cato?
9.1%, against 10.6% across Wisconsin and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Cato?
22 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Wisconsin and 26 nationally. 12% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Cato work?
2% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Manitowoc (22%, 9 mi), Valders (7%, 4 mi), Sheboygan (4%, 27 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Cato walkable?
Cato is more walkable than 40% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 5.7 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Cato without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Cato, from the people who make the trip.
More of Cato
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.