With 0.2 jobs for every working resident, most of Franklin works elsewhere
Employers in Franklin report 67 jobs; 421 of its residents have a job. Franklin grades D for jobs and income and C for walkability. Hardly any work in Franklin itself; outside it, Viroqua draws the most (21%, 6 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Franklin apart on work
The four measures behind Franklin’s grade
On income, poverty and job access, Franklin is better than 12% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Franklin’s grade up ($75,208, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 5% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (3.7%) is left out: Franklin’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Franklin could be anywhere from D− to B−.
The daily commute in and out of Franklin
On a workday 420 residents head out to work, 1 work right here, and 66 people come in from elsewhere.
About 780 people are in Franklin on a workday afternoon, 31% 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 2024, primary jobs.
Commuting out of Franklin: the destinations
Where Franklin clocks in
10% 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.
Franklin makes things: 66% of its jobs are in goods
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Franklin, 2014 → 2024: 60 → 67. 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 2024.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Franklin’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Franklin’s commute takes about 24 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Franklin workers work from home, vs 13% across Wisconsin. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 381 commuters (the 14% 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.
Half of Franklin commutes less than 20 miles
About 25% 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 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Getting around Franklin: mostly by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Franklin is more walkable than 33% 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 3.4.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 441 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). 4.3% of Franklin households have no vehicle (Wisconsin 6.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Franklin’s commuters take a bus or train.
Franklin next to U.S. towns of 800 to 1,500: 2,989th of 3,771 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% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 19 | Nashotah WI | 1,298 | $148K | 1.1% | 0.6% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 33 | Maple Bluff WI | 1,305 | $199K | 3.0% | 1.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 44 | Big Bend WI | 1,498 | $135K | 3.2% | 0.6% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,987 | Amboy NY | 1,305 | $65K | 25.7% | 11.2% | 2% | D |
| 2,988 | Redbank Township PA | 1,301 | $64K | 16.9% | 7.0% | 2% | D |
| 2,989 | Franklin WI | 1,132 | $75K | 23.8% | 3.7% | <1% | D |
| 2,990 | Babson Park FL | 1,093 | $48K | 14.4% | 0.0% | 1% | D |
| 2,991 | Ricardo TX | 1,132 | $70K | 40.1% | 0.0% | 2% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 3,771 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 1% | 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 Franklin, the top three, the last and three more from Wisconsin.
10% of Franklin works in a bordering town
The biggest share goes to Kickapoo (5%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Franklin workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Franklin | – | D | C | 24 min | $75,208 |
| Sterling | 3% | — | — | 31 min | — |
| Viroqua | 2% | B | C− | 23 min | $93,182 |
| Jefferson | under 2% | B+ | C− | 27 min | $92,214 |
| Utica | under 2% | — | — | 27 min | — |
| Kickapoo | 5% | — | — | 26 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Sterling and Kickapoo: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Utica: 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 Franklin’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 2024, 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 Franklin: questions
What is the median household income in Franklin?
$75,208 (±$15,633) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,485 across Wisconsin and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Franklin?
23.8%, against 10.6% across Wisconsin and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Franklin?
24 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Wisconsin and 26 nationally. 14% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Franklin work?
<1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Viroqua (21%, 6 mi), La Crosse (10%, 29 mi), Kickapoo (5%, 9 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Franklin walkable?
Franklin is more walkable than 33% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 3.4 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Franklin 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 Franklin, from the people who make the trip.
More of Franklin
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2024, 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.