Photo: Royalbroil · CC BY-SA 3.0At 2.0%, unemployment in Fennimore is lower than in 85% of U.S. towns
About one in five stay in Fennimore for work; outside it, Lancaster is the main destination (9%, 10 miles). The two grades for Fennimore are C+ for jobs and income and B for walkability. Home is the office for 7% 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
Fennimore at work: what stands out
Where Fennimore’s Jobs & income grade comes from
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Fennimore is better than 37% of U.S. towns, #324 of 362 in Wisconsin. Unemployment holds Fennimore’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 22% of U.S. towns).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Fennimore could be anywhere from C− to B−.
How far Fennimore’s workers travel
About 30% 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.
Who commutes out of Fennimore, and who commutes in
On a workday 901 residents head out to work, 263 work right here, and 1,169 people come in from elsewhere.
About 3,000 people are in Fennimore on a workday afternoon, 10% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.23 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 Fennimore work
Where Fennimore clocks in
9% of workers
7% 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.
Factories, building and farms: 29% of the jobs in Fennimore
1,432 jobs are based in Fennimore.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Fennimore, 2013 → 2023: 1,160 → 1,432. 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 Fennimore’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Each way, about 22 minutes from Fennimore
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Fennimore workers work from home, vs 13% across Wisconsin. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,293 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.
In Fennimore, the car does most of the work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Fennimore is more walkable than 64% of U.S. towns, #125 of 362 in Wisconsin. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 2.4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 4.8% across Wisconsin.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,385 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). 1.3% of Fennimore households have no vehicle (Wisconsin 6.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Fennimore’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Fennimore is 3,019th among 4,969 U.S. towns of 1,900 to 3,700
| # | 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 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 32 | Ottawa WI | 3,642 | $153K | 1.0% | 1.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 38 | North Prairie WI | 2,193 | $153K | 2.8% | 0.9% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 88 | Sun Prairie WI | 2,291 | $127K | 2.0% | 1.8% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,017 | Crooked Lake Park FL | 2,641 | $60K | 34.4% | 0.9% | <1% | C+ |
| 3,018 | Howe TX | 3,686 | $51K | 24.3% | 2.9% | <1% | C+ |
| 3,019 | Fennimore WI | 2,775 | $62K | 15.1% | 2.0% | 23% | C+ |
| 3,020 | Cheshire MA | 3,180 | $70K | 8.6% | 4.6% | 8% | C+ |
| 3,021 | Salisbury Township MO | 2,439 | $72K | 11.6% | 3.0% | 24% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,969 | Cibecue AZ | 2,228 | $26K | 57.2% | 13.3% | 12% | 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 Fennimore, 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 Fennimore: questions
What is the median household income in Fennimore?
$61,875 (±$9,153) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,485 across Wisconsin and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Fennimore?
15.1%, against 10.6% across Wisconsin and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Fennimore?
22 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Wisconsin and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Fennimore work?
23% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Lancaster (9%, 10 mi), Boscobel (7%, 12 mi), Madison (6%, 62 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Fennimore walkable?
Fennimore is more walkable than 64% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 8.1 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Fennimore without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 1% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Fennimore, from the people who make the trip.
More of Fennimore
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.