GALLINIPPER Shipwreck (Schooner) · Photo: Wisconsin Historical Society · Public domainMaking a living in Cleveland
Only 1% work in Cleveland itself; outside it, Sheboygan draws the most (11%, 12 miles). Jobs and income earn Cleveland A−; getting around on foot earns it C+. A typical one-way commute lasts 19 minutes, next to 22 for Wisconsin and 26 for the U.S.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Why Cleveland gets the Jobs & income grade it does
On income, poverty and job access, Cleveland is better than 78% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate is its strongest input (3.6%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car ranks lowest, though still above most U.S. towns (ahead of 56% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income and job access by car.
Unemployment (0.7%) is left out: Cleveland’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, Cleveland could be anywhere from B to A.
Who commutes out of Cleveland, and who commutes in
On a workday 646 residents head out to work, 9 work right here, and 413 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,300 people are in Cleveland on a workday afternoon, 15% fewer than live here.
0.64 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute 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.
Where people from Cleveland work
Where Cleveland clocks in
11% of workers
7% 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.
In Cleveland, services account for most jobs
422 jobs are based in Cleveland.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Cleveland, 2013 → 2023: 532 → 422. 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 Cleveland’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 19 minutes each way for Cleveland’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Cleveland workers work from home, vs 13% across Wisconsin. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 758 commuters (the 14% 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.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Cleveland
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.
Driving is how Cleveland gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Cleveland is more walkable than 35% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 2.1% 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 882 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). 1.4% of Cleveland households have no vehicle (Wisconsin 6.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Cleveland’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 5,794 U.S. towns of 1,100 to 2,100, Cleveland comes 731st on jobs and income
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 729 | Ucon ID | 1,196 | $89K | 4.2% | 1.4% | 1% | A− |
| 730 | East Gull Lake MN | 1,184 | $123K | 3.6% | 2.7% | 4% | A− |
| 731 | Cleveland WI | 1,582 | $83K | 3.6% | 0.7% | 1% | A− |
| 732 | Waldo Township OH | 1,125 | $90K | 4.5% | 0.6% | 2% | A− |
| 733 | Grand Prairie Township OH | 1,539 | $95K | 1.3% | 0.0% | 2% | 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 Cleveland, the top three, the last and three more from Wisconsin.
Around Cleveland: the bordering towns
The biggest share goes to Centerville (3%).
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Cleveland workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cleveland | – | A− | C+ | 19 min | $82,589 |
| Centerville | 3% | — | — | 16 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Centerville: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Cleveland’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 Cleveland: questions
What is the median household income in Cleveland?
$82,589 (±$14,630) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,485 across Wisconsin and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Cleveland?
3.6%, against 10.6% across Wisconsin and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Cleveland?
19 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Wisconsin and 26 nationally. 14% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Cleveland work?
1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Sheboygan (11%, 12 mi), Manitowoc (8%, 13 mi), Kohler (7%, 12 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Cleveland walkable?
Cleveland is more walkable than 35% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 5.7 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Cleveland without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 1% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Cleveland, from the people who make the trip.
More of Cleveland
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.