Colfax Municipal Building · Photo: Jeff the quiet · CC0Household incomes in Colfax are lower than in 71% of U.S. towns
12.3% of residents are in poverty, where Wisconsin as a whole has 10.6%. The two grades for Colfax are C for jobs and income and A− for walkability. 4% of workers work from home, where Wisconsin as a whole has 13%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Colfax in brief
Colfax’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
On income, poverty and job access, Colfax is better than 31% of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Colfax’s grade.
Unemployment (9.4%) is left out: Colfax’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, Colfax could be anywhere from C− to B−.
Jobs in Colfax: what the 514 are
514 jobs are based in Colfax.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Colfax, 2013 → 2023: 458 → 514. 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 Colfax’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who works in Colfax, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 508 residents head out to work, 41 work right here, and 473 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (0.94 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.
26% of working residents work in Menomonie
Where Colfax 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.
Commuting from Colfax: about 26 minutes a trip
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Colfax workers work from home, vs 13% across Wisconsin. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 698 commuters (the 5% 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 Colfax
About 22% 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 Colfax, walking beats the bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Colfax is more walkable than 78% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Colfax near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 731 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). 4.8% of Colfax households have no vehicle (Wisconsin 6.4%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Colfax’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Colfax is 2,359th among 4,312 U.S. towns of 800 to 1,600
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 21 | Nashotah WI | 1,298 | $148K | 1.1% | 0.6% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 37 | Maple Bluff WI | 1,305 | $199K | 3.0% | 1.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 51 | Big Bend WI | 1,498 | $135K | 3.2% | 0.6% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,357 | Ackley IA | 1,530 | $63K | 7.5% | 2.0% | 16% | C |
| 2,358 | Tiltonsville OH | 1,215 | $57K | 8.2% | 3.5% | 5% | C |
| 2,359 | Colfax WI | 1,193 | $62K | 12.3% | 9.4% | 7% | C |
| 2,360 | Elmore Township IN | 1,086 | $76K | 10.7% | 1.2% | 4% | C |
| 2,361 | Brookside AL | 1,433 | $59K | 26.5% | 3.9% | <1% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 4,312 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 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 Colfax, the top three, the last and three more from Wisconsin.
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 Colfax: questions
What is the median household income in Colfax?
$61,762 (±$9,307) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,485 across Wisconsin and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Colfax?
12.3%, against 10.6% across Wisconsin and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Colfax?
26 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Wisconsin and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Colfax work?
7% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Menomonie (26%, 12 mi), Eau Claire (14%, 17 mi), Union (4%, 14 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Colfax walkable?
Colfax is more walkable than 78% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 8.5 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Colfax without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 5% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Colfax, from the people who make the trip.
More of Colfax
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.