Photo: Eli Wedel · CC BY-SA 4.0Fewer people are out of work in Lake Mills (2.4%) than in 79% of U.S. towns
About one in seven work in Lake Mills itself; outside it, Madison draws the most (10%, 26 miles). Lake Mills grades A for jobs and income and B− for walkability. The trip to work takes 23 minutes on average, next to 22 for Wisconsin and 26 for the U.S.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Lake Mills and work: the main findings
Lake Mills’ biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Lake Mills is Madison, 26 miles away as the crow flies. 10% of working residents (273) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Lake Mills makes and builds things
38% of the jobs based in Lake Mills are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Lake Mills residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 27%. The jobs ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2024, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey.
Jobs & income in Lake Mills: the grade in detail
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Lake Mills is better than 86% of U.S. towns, #144 of 362 in Wisconsin. All four inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Lake Mills’ grade. It also does well on household income and unemployment and job access by car.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Lake Mills could be anywhere from B to A+.
How far Lake Mills goes to work
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.
38% of the jobs in Lake Mills make or build things
2,252 jobs are based in Lake Mills.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Lake Mills, 2014 → 2024: 2,170 → 2,252. 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 Lake Mills’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who commutes out of Lake Mills, and who commutes in
On a workday 2,296 residents head out to work, 464 work right here, and 1,788 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (0.82 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 the trip to work from Lake Mills ends
Where Lake Mills clocks in
10% of workers
4% of workers
4% 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.
About 23 minutes to work from Lake Mills
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Lake Mills workers work from home, vs 13% across Wisconsin. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,067 commuters (the 15% 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.
For most of Lake Mills, work means a drive
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Lake Mills is more walkable than 53% of U.S. towns, #168 of 362 in Wisconsin. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.1% 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 3,591 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). 3.0% of Lake Mills households have no vehicle (Wisconsin 6.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Lake Mills’ commuters take a bus or train.
Lake Mills places 560th of 3,201 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 4,700 to 9,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Norwood NJ | 5,817 | $178K | 2.8% | 0.9% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 17 | Fox Point WI | 6,583 | $141K | 2.5% | 0.4% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 27 | Elm Grove WI | 6,354 | $158K | 4.4% | 0.7% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 45 | Waukesha WI | 8,507 | $131K | 3.0% | 1.2% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 558 | Hockinson WA | 6,150 | $113K | 3.2% | 3.5% | 2% | A |
| 559 | Larchmont NY | 6,750 | $168K | 1.5% | 10.5% | 6% | A |
| 560 | Lake Mills WI | 6,655 | $91K | 5.1% | 2.4% | 17% | A |
| 561 | Dighton MA | 8,348 | $137K | 2.9% | 5.3% | 7% | A |
| 562 | Crockery Township MI | 4,784 | $90K | 2.4% | 3.4% | 5% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 3,201 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 6% | 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 Lake Mills, the top three, the last and three more from Wisconsin.
Lake Mills and the towns next door
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Lake Mills workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lake Mills | – | A | B− | 23 min | $91,027 |
| Aztalan | under 2% | A | C− | 24 min | $105,000 |
| Milford | under 2% | A− | C+ | 27 min | $88,355 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Lake Mills’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 Lake Mills: questions
What is the median household income in Lake Mills?
$91,027 (±$16,785) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,485 across Wisconsin and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Lake Mills?
5.1%, against 10.6% across Wisconsin and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Lake Mills?
23 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Wisconsin and 26 nationally. 15% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Lake Mills work?
17% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Madison (10%, 26 mi), Watertown (4%, 12 mi), Jefferson (4%, 7 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Lake Mills walkable?
Lake Mills is more walkable than 53% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 8.5 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Lake Mills without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Lake Mills, from the people who make the trip.
More of Lake Mills
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.