Households in Elroy have lower incomes than those in 76% of U.S. towns
10.1% of residents live below the poverty line, against 10.6% across Wisconsin. Jobs and income earn Elroy C−; getting around on foot earns it B−. At home: 6% of workers have no commute at all (Wisconsin 13%).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Elroy
Where Elroy’s Jobs & income grade comes from
On income, poverty and job access, Elroy is better than 23% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Elroy’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 21% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (0.7%) is left out: Elroy’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, Elroy could be anywhere from D to C+.
A place that makes things: 43% of Elroy’s jobs are in goods
799 jobs are based in Elroy.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Elroy, 2013 → 2023: 720 → 799. 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 Elroy’s own residents hold wherever they work.
In and out of Elroy on a workday
On a workday 499 residents head out to work, 57 work right here, and 742 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,500 people are in Elroy on a workday afternoon, 19% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.44 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.
13% of working residents work in Mauston
Where Elroy clocks in
13% of workers
10% of workers
6% 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.
The daily trip from Elroy: about 20 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Elroy workers work from home, vs 13% across Wisconsin. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 667 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.
How far Elroy goes to work
About 28% 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 Elroy, most people drive to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Elroy is more walkable than 55% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 5.5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 4.8% across Wisconsin, on an EPA index of 5.5.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 706 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). 6.8% of Elroy households have no vehicle (Wisconsin 6.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Elroy’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Elroy ranks: 3,166th of 4,866 U.S. towns of 900 to 1,700
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 22 | Nashotah WI | 1,298 | $148K | 1.1% | 0.6% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 42 | Maple Bluff WI | 1,305 | $199K | 3.0% | 1.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 46 | Wind Point WI | 1,620 | $143K | 0.4% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,164 | Deshler OH | 1,576 | $64K | 14.0% | 5.7% | 7% | C− |
| 3,165 | Hideout UT | 1,587 | $99K | 19.9% | 0.8% | <1% | C− |
| 3,166 | Elroy WI | 1,255 | $58K | 10.1% | 0.7% | 10% | C− |
| 3,167 | Washington WI | 1,028 | $81K | 17.0% | 1.1% | <1% | C− |
| 3,168 | Big Pine CA | 1,615 | $68K | 9.1% | 3.2% | 7% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,866 | 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 Elroy, the top three, the last and three more from Wisconsin.
Next door to Elroy
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Elroy workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elroy | – | C− | B− | 20 min | $58,385 |
| Wonewoc | under 2% | — | — | 20 min | — |
| Plymouth | under 2% | — | — | 33 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Wonewoc: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Plymouth: the same community as the city of that name, graded once. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Elroy’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 Elroy: questions
What is the median household income in Elroy?
$58,385 (±$6,287) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,485 across Wisconsin and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Elroy?
10.1%, against 10.6% across Wisconsin and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Elroy?
20 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Wisconsin and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Elroy work?
10% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Mauston (13%, 10 mi), Reedsburg (10%, 20 mi), Hillsboro (6%, 7 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Elroy walkable?
Elroy is more walkable than 55% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 5.5 out of 20, and 6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Elroy without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 7% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Elroy, from the people who make the trip.
More of Elroy
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.