Photo: Amcc0619 · CC BY-SA 4.0Chippewa Falls has lower household incomes than 77% of U.S. towns
Chippewa Falls grades C+ for jobs and income and B+ for walkability. Below the poverty line: 15.4% of residents; Wisconsin has 10.6%. About one in four work in Chippewa Falls itself; outside it, Eau Claire draws the most (27%, 10 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Chippewa Falls and work: the main findings
Chippewa Falls and Eau Claire trade workers both ways
Eau Claire is the top workplace for Chippewa Falls residents (27%) and also where the most people who work in Chippewa Falls come from (16% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Chippewa Falls is where the jobs are
Chippewa Falls has 9,802 jobs, 1.6 for every working resident. 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.
The figures behind Chippewa Falls’ Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Chippewa Falls is better than 35% of U.S. towns, #325 of 362 in Wisconsin. Job access by car holds Chippewa Falls’ grade up (ahead of 56% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($57,873, U.S. $80,734). It also does well on unemployment.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Chippewa Falls could be anywhere from C− to B.
Who travels to work in Chippewa Falls, and from where
Where Chippewa Falls clocks in
3% 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.
Who commutes out of Chippewa Falls, and who commutes in
On a workday 4,668 residents head out to work, 1,605 work right here, and 8,197 people come in from elsewhere.
About 19,000 people are in Chippewa Falls on a workday afternoon, 23% more than live here.
1.6 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than out.
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 the jobs in Chippewa Falls make or build things
9,802 jobs are based in Chippewa Falls.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Chippewa Falls, 2013 → 2023: 9,353 → 9,802. 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 Chippewa Falls’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Chippewa Falls’ commute takes about 19 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Chippewa Falls workers work from home, vs 13% across Wisconsin. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 6,437 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.
Near or far: the trip to work from Chippewa Falls
About 18% 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.
Driving is how Chippewa Falls gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Chippewa Falls is more walkable than 72% of U.S. towns, #92 of 362 in Wisconsin. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 2.9% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 4.8% across Wisconsin.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 7,168 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). 7.7% of Chippewa Falls households have no vehicle (Wisconsin 6.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Chippewa Falls’ commuters take a bus or train.
1,593rd of 2,109: where Chippewa Falls ranks among U.S. towns of 11,000 to 21,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New Albany OH | 11,803 | $238K | 1.4% | 0.9% | 11% | A+ |
| 2 | Plain Township OH | 13,257 | $219K | 2.1% | 0.8% | 10% | A+ |
| 3 | Rogers MN | 15,606 | $159K | 1.9% | 1.2% | 10% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 41 | Greenville WI | 13,388 | $118K | 1.7% | 0.8% | 10% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 54 | Whitefish Bay WI | 14,489 | $157K | 3.7% | 2.6% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 59 | Verona WI | 16,821 | $120K | 1.4% | 1.6% | 21% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,591 | Harper Woods MI | 14,860 | $65K | 19.8% | 7.1% | 2% | C+ |
| 1,592 | Sedro-Woolley WA | 13,308 | $81K | 15.7% | 4.8% | 13% | C+ |
| 1,593 | Chippewa Falls WI | 15,293 | $58K | 15.4% | 4.0% | 26% | C+ |
| 1,594 | Bedford OH | 12,723 | $57K | 13.6% | 8.1% | 4% | C |
| 1,595 | Millington TN | 12,953 | $50K | 16.5% | 4.7% | 10% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 2,109 | Douglas AZ | 16,038 | $42K | 27.8% | 12.3% | 29% | 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 Chippewa Falls, the top three, the last and three more from Wisconsin.
Chippewa Falls and the towns next door
The biggest share goes to Lake Hallie (5%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Chippewa Falls workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chippewa Falls | – | C+ | B+ | 19 min | $57,873 |
| Eagle Point | under 2% | A | C− | 22 min | $110,654 |
| Lake Hallie | 5% | B+ | B− | 19 min | $86,740 |
| Wheaton | under 2% | A− | B− | 19 min | $103,053 |
| Tilden | under 2% | A− | C | 19 min | $106,985 |
| Lake Wissota | under 2% | — | — | 22 min | — |
| Lafayette | 1% | B+ | C− | 29 min | $101,651 |
Same-state neighbors only. Lake Wissota: a Census-designated place inside a larger town, graded as part of it. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Chippewa Falls’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 Chippewa Falls: questions
What is the median household income in Chippewa Falls?
$57,873 (±$6,743) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,485 across Wisconsin and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Chippewa Falls?
15.4%, against 10.6% across Wisconsin and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Chippewa Falls?
19 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Wisconsin and 26 nationally. 10% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Chippewa Falls work?
26% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Eau Claire (27%, 10 mi), Lake Hallie (5%, 4 mi), Altoona (3%, 10 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Chippewa Falls walkable?
Chippewa Falls is more walkable than 72% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 8.5 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Chippewa Falls without a car?
1% 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 Chippewa Falls, from the people who make the trip.
More of Chippewa Falls
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.