Photo: Bobak Ha'Eri · CC BY 3.0Household incomes in Colby trail those of 88% of U.S. towns
About one in ten stay in Colby for work; outside it, Abbotsford is the main destination (21%, 2 miles). 19.1% of residents are in poverty, where Wisconsin as a whole has 10.6%. Jobs and income earn Colby D; getting around on foot earns it A−.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Colby: the figures worth knowing
A lot of Colby works one town over
25% of working residents work in a town that borders Colby: Abbotsford (21%) and Hull (4%). Next door ↓
Colby makes and builds things
41% of the jobs based in Colby are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Colby residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 45%. The jobs ↓
Young people hold many of the jobs here
32% of the jobs based in Colby are held by workers 29 or younger, against 26% of Colby’s own working residents. 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 756 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
The figures behind Colby’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Colby is better than 12% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Colby’s grade up (ahead of 35% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($50,114, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (1.4%) is left out: Colby’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, Colby could be anywhere from D to C.
Colby works in goods: 41% of its jobs
960 jobs are based in Colby.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Colby, 2013 → 2023: 768 → 960. 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 Colby’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How many people are in Colby by day
On a workday 676 residents head out to work, 80 work right here, and 880 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,200 people are in Colby on a workday afternoon, 10% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.27 per resident).
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 Colby work
Where Colby clocks in
21% 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.
About 20 minutes each way for Colby’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Colby workers work from home, vs 13% across Wisconsin. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 701 commuters (the 7% 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 Colby goes to work
About 23% 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.
Good to walk, short on transit: Colby
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Colby is more walkable than 82% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 7.4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 4.8% across Wisconsin, on an EPA index of 7.8.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 755 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). 10.9% of Colby households have no vehicle (Wisconsin 6.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Colby’s commuters take a bus or train.
Colby next to U.S. towns of 1,400 to 2,600: 4,322nd of 5,234 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 37 | Wind Point WI | 1,620 | $143K | 0.4% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 38 | North Prairie WI | 2,193 | $153K | 2.8% | 0.9% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 53 | Vandenbroek WI | 1,701 | $129K | 1.6% | 5.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,320 | North Judson IN | 1,802 | $55K | 16.2% | 4.7% | 7% | D |
| 4,321 | Phillipsburg KS | 2,225 | $61K | 14.5% | 4.5% | 40% | D |
| 4,322 | Colby WI | 1,957 | $50K | 19.1% | 1.4% | 11% | D |
| 4,323 | Washington Township MI | 1,514 | $66K | 15.3% | 5.2% | 5% | D |
| 4,324 | Sky Valley CA | 2,255 | $51K | 17.6% | 9.5% | 4% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,234 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Colby, the top three, the last and three more from Wisconsin.
Bordering towns draw 25% of Colby’s workers
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Colby workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Colby | – | D | A− | 20 min | $50,114 |
| Hull | 4% | — | — | 15 min | — |
| Abbotsford | 21% | C | B− | 19 min | $68,580 |
Same-state neighbors only. Hull: the same community as the town of that name, graded once. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Abbotsford. Darker towns draw more of Colby’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 Colby: questions
What is the median household income in Colby?
$50,114 (±$13,210) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,485 across Wisconsin and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Colby?
19.1%, against 10.6% across Wisconsin and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Colby?
20 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Wisconsin and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Colby work?
11% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Abbotsford (21%, 2 mi), Medford (8%, 16 mi), Marshfield (4%, 18 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Colby walkable?
Colby is more walkable than 82% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 7.8 out of 20, and 7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Colby without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 11% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Colby, from the people who make the trip.
More of Colby
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.