Cornell Pulpwood Stacker · Photo: Jeff the quiet · CC0Cornell’s household incomes are lower than in 81% of U.S. towns
About one in seven stay in Cornell for work; outside it, Eau Claire is the main destination (14%, 29 miles). Below the poverty line: 13.4% of residents, next to 10.6% across Wisconsin. Cornell grades D for jobs and income and B for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jobs and commuting in Cornell: the gist
Cornell’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Cornell is Eau Claire, 29 miles away as the crow flies. 14% of working residents (88) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Cornell makes and builds things
42% of the jobs based in Cornell are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Cornell residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 34%. The jobs ↓
Cornell workers spend longer getting to work
The average trip takes 27 minutes each way, against 22 across Wisconsin. Over a year that’s about 207 hours of commuting, 38 more than the state’s typical worker. Time on the road ↓
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 648 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
How the Jobs & income grade adds up in Cornell
On income, poverty and job access, Cornell is better than 13% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Cornell’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 17% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (0.4%) is left out: Cornell’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, Cornell could be anywhere from D− to C+.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Cornell
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.
Goods, not services: 42% of the jobs in Cornell
535 jobs are based in Cornell.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Cornell, 2013 → 2023: 520 → 535. 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 Cornell’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 27 minutes each way, longer than most of Wisconsin
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Cornell workers work from home, vs 13% across Wisconsin. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 616 commuters (the 6% 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.
Who commutes out of Cornell, and who commutes in
On a workday 559 residents head out to work, 89 work right here, and 446 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 (0.83 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 Cornell work
Where Cornell clocks in
12% 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.
For most of Cornell, work means a drive
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Cornell is more walkable than 64% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 4.2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 4.8% across Wisconsin, on an EPA index of 6.9.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 657 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). 4.2% of Cornell households have no vehicle (Wisconsin 6.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Cornell’s commuters take a bus or train.
Cornell is 4,553rd of 5,877 U.S. towns of 1,000 to 1,900 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 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 26 | Nashotah WI | 1,298 | $148K | 1.1% | 0.6% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 46 | Maple Bluff WI | 1,305 | $199K | 3.0% | 1.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 50 | Wind Point WI | 1,620 | $143K | 0.4% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,551 | East Griffin GA | 1,174 | $46K | 32.4% | 9.1% | 1% | D |
| 4,552 | Yates Center KS | 1,308 | $43K | 8.8% | 2.6% | 21% | D |
| 4,553 | Cornell WI | 1,443 | $55K | 13.4% | 0.4% | 14% | D |
| 4,554 | Bingham Township MI | 1,597 | $61K | 13.6% | 5.6% | 5% | D |
| 4,555 | Sand Beach Township MI | 1,119 | $60K | 11.7% | 9.2% | 5% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,877 | 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 Cornell, the top three, the last and three more from Wisconsin.
Around Cornell: the bordering towns
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Cornell workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cornell | – | D | B | 27 min | $55,192 |
| Estella | under 2% | — | — | 26 min | — |
| Cleveland | under 2% | — | — | 32 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Estella: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Cleveland: 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 Cornell’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 Cornell: questions
What is the median household income in Cornell?
$55,192 (±$13,358) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,485 across Wisconsin and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Cornell?
13.4%, against 10.6% across Wisconsin and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Cornell?
27 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Wisconsin and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Cornell work?
14% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Eau Claire (14%, 29 mi), Chippewa Falls (12%, 20 mi), Cadott (4%, 15 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Cornell walkable?
Cornell is more walkable than 64% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 6.9 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Cornell without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Cornell, from the people who make the trip.
More of Cornell
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.