Fairfield has 0.1 jobs for every working resident, so most commute out
Employers in Fairfield report 61 jobs; 556 of its residents have a job. Fairfield grades C+ for jobs and income and B for walkability. Working from home is the commute for 5% of workers, where Wisconsin as a whole has 13%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Fairfield, in brief
Fairfield is a place people come home to
There are 61 jobs based in Fairfield, about one for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Fairfield has about 550 people in it, 47% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
Fairfield and Baraboo trade workers both ways
Baraboo is the top workplace for Fairfield residents (20%) and also where the most people who work in Fairfield come from (28% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
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 556 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Inside Fairfield’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Fairfield is better than 42% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Fairfield’s grade up ($84,828, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 30% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (0.2%) is left out: Fairfield’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, Fairfield could be anywhere from C to B+.
Who leaves Fairfield for work, and who comes in
On a workday 540 residents head out to work, 16 work right here, and 45 people come in from elsewhere.
About 550 people are in Fairfield on a workday afternoon, 47% fewer than live here.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
20% of working residents work in Baraboo
Where Fairfield clocks in
15% 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.
Jobs in Fairfield: what the 61 are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Fairfield, 2013 → 2023: 132 → 61. 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 Fairfield’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Getting to work from Fairfield takes about 26 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Fairfield workers work from home, vs 13% across Wisconsin. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 463 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.
Where in the region Fairfield works
About 20% 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.
The commute in Fairfield is mostly behind the wheel
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Fairfield is more walkable than 61% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 10.3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 4.8% across Wisconsin, on an EPA index of 5.2.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 488 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). 2.5% of Fairfield households have no vehicle (Wisconsin 6.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Fairfield’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 3,133 U.S. towns of 700 to 1,400, Fairfield comes 1,265th 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 17 | Nashotah WI | 1,298 | $148K | 1.1% | 0.6% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 28 | Maple Bluff WI | 1,305 | $199K | 3.0% | 1.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 67 | Kaukauna WI | 1,295 | $122K | 2.0% | 1.6% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,263 | New London MN | 1,322 | $68K | 7.3% | 0.2% | 13% | C+ |
| 1,264 | Onekama Township MI | 1,328 | $70K | 4.0% | 1.8% | 6% | C+ |
| 1,265 | Fairfield WI | 1,046 | $85K | 11.5% | 0.2% | 3% | C+ |
| 1,266 | Bracey VA | 1,242 | $65K | 3.1% | 3.6% | 5% | C+ |
| 1,267 | Oxford KS | 1,038 | $59K | 7.1% | 1.2% | 4% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,133 | 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 Fairfield, the top three, the last and three more from Wisconsin.
Work in the towns next to Fairfield
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Fairfield workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fairfield | – | C+ | B | 26 min | $84,828 |
| Lewiston | under 2% | B | D | 28 min | $90,852 |
| Newport | under 2% | — | — | 26 min | — |
| Delton | under 2% | B+ | C+ | 22 min | $87,299 |
| Baraboo | under 2% | B+ | B− | 18 min | $100,909 |
| Caledonia | under 2% | B− | C | 26 min | $98,182 |
| Greenfield | under 2% | — | — | 25 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Newport: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Greenfield: 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 Fairfield’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 Fairfield: questions
What is the median household income in Fairfield?
$84,828 (±$9,859) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,485 across Wisconsin and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Fairfield?
11.5%, against 10.6% across Wisconsin and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Fairfield?
26 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Wisconsin and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Fairfield work?
3% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Baraboo (20%, 7 mi), Madison (15%, 33 mi), Lake Delton (7%, 8 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Fairfield walkable?
Fairfield is more walkable than 61% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 5.2 out of 20, and 10% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Fairfield without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Fairfield, from the people who make the trip.
More of Fairfield
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.