State Bank of Ladysmith · Photo: Jeff the quiet · CC0Ladysmith has lower household incomes than 95% of U.S. towns
For jobs and income Ladysmith is better than 3% of U.S. towns (D−); for walkability it is more walkable than 72% of U.S. towns (B+). Poverty touches 19.0% of residents, where Wisconsin as a whole has 10.6%. 5% 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
Work in Ladysmith: the figures worth knowing
Where Ladysmith’s Jobs & income grade comes from
All four inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Ladysmith’s grade.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Ladysmith could be anywhere from D− to C−.
How many people are in Ladysmith by day
On a workday 875 residents head out to work, 507 work right here, and 1,934 people come in from elsewhere.
About 4,200 people are in Ladysmith on a workday afternoon, 33% more than live here.
1.8 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than out.
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 Ladysmith’s workers come from
Where Ladysmith clocks in
Lines 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.
A place that makes things: 32% of Ladysmith’s jobs are in goods
2,441 jobs are based in Ladysmith.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Ladysmith, 2013 → 2023: 2,851 → 2,441. 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 Ladysmith’s own residents hold wherever they work.
A commute of about 18 minutes in Ladysmith
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Ladysmith workers work from home, vs 13% across Wisconsin. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,214 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.
The distance from Ladysmith to work
About 27% 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.
Ladysmith is a driving town
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,273 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). 12.6% of Ladysmith households have no vehicle (Wisconsin 6.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Ladysmith’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Ladysmith compares with U.S. towns of 2,200 to 4,300
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 38 | Ottawa WI | 3,642 | $153K | 1.0% | 1.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 51 | Jackson WI | 3,950 | $117K | 0.6% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 65 | Center WI | 3,706 | $115K | 1.6% | 0.0% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,548 | Bamberg SC | 2,920 | $50K | 31.8% | 21.8% | 14% | D− |
| 4,549 | Point Pleasant WV | 3,869 | $38K | 24.4% | 8.1% | 21% | D− |
| 4,550 | Ladysmith WI | 3,172 | $42K | 19.0% | 10.2% | 37% | D− |
| 4,551 | Georgetown GA | 2,254 | $40K | 15.7% | 28.6% | 8% | D− |
| 4,552 | Warsaw MO | 2,338 | $41K | 20.1% | 3.7% | 16% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,698 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 18% | 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 Ladysmith, the top three, the last and three more from Wisconsin.
Next door to Ladysmith
The biggest share goes to Grant (2%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Ladysmith workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ladysmith | – | D− | B+ | 18 min | $41,719 |
| Flambeau | under 2% | — | — | 26 min | — |
| Grant | 2% | — | — | 22 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Flambeau: not graded. Grant: 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 Ladysmith’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 Ladysmith: questions
What is the median household income in Ladysmith?
$41,719 (±$12,928) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,485 across Wisconsin and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Ladysmith?
19.0%, against 10.6% across Wisconsin and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Ladysmith?
18 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Wisconsin and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Ladysmith work?
37% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Hawkins (5%, 19 mi), Eau Claire (5%, 48 mi), Rice Lake (3%, 31 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Ladysmith walkable?
Ladysmith is more walkable than 72% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 8.3 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Ladysmith without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 13% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Ladysmith, from the people who make the trip.
More of Ladysmith
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.