Photo: User:Royalbroil · CC BY-SA 2.5Households in Hillsboro earn less than those in 74% of U.S. towns
12.0% of residents are in poverty (Wisconsin 10.6%). Hillsboro grades C− for jobs and income and B+ for walkability. About one in five stay in Hillsboro for work; outside it, Elroy is the main destination (4%, 7 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Hillsboro at work: what stands out
Why Hillsboro gets the Jobs & income grade it does
On income, poverty and job access, Hillsboro is better than 20% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Hillsboro’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 22% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (7.4%) is left out: Hillsboro’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, Hillsboro could be anywhere from D to B−.
The distance from Hillsboro to work
About 31% 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.
A workday in Hillsboro: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 412 residents head out to work, 106 work right here, and 627 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,600 people are in Hillsboro on a workday afternoon, 15% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.42 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2024, primary jobs.
Where Hillsboro goes to work
Where Hillsboro clocks in
4% of workers
3% 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.
What the 733 jobs in Hillsboro are
733 jobs are based in Hillsboro.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Hillsboro, 2014 → 2024: 663 → 733. 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 Hillsboro’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Time on the road from Hillsboro: about 21 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Hillsboro workers work from home, vs 13% across Wisconsin. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 606 commuters (the 8% 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.
Most of Hillsboro commutes by car
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 658 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). 5.1% of Hillsboro households have no vehicle (Wisconsin 6.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Hillsboro’s commuters take a bus or train.
Hillsboro is 4,027th 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% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 26 | Nashotah WI | 1,298 | $148K | 1.1% | 0.6% | 2% | 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% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,025 | Wayland NY | 1,676 | $75K | 17.0% | 1.3% | 5% | C− |
| 4,026 | Albion PA | 1,479 | $56K | 13.1% | 5.4% | 8% | C− |
| 4,027 | Hillsboro WI | 1,401 | $60K | 12.0% | 7.4% | 20% | C− |
| 4,028 | Broad Top Township PA | 1,454 | $62K | 9.2% | 6.9% | 2% | C− |
| 4,029 | Pahala HI | 1,768 | $72K | 11.3% | 12.7% | 2% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,877 | 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 Hillsboro, 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 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 Hillsboro: questions
What is the median household income in Hillsboro?
$60,000 (±$17,091) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,485 across Wisconsin and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Hillsboro?
12.0%, against 10.6% across Wisconsin and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Hillsboro?
21 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Wisconsin and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Hillsboro work?
20% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Elroy (4%, 7 mi), Reedsburg (4%, 19 mi), Mauston (3%, 16 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Hillsboro walkable?
Hillsboro is more walkable than 74% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 8.5 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Hillsboro without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 5% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Hillsboro, from the people who make the trip.
More of Hillsboro
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.