Little Falls has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.1 for each
Little Falls has 95 jobs; 687 of its residents have a job. The two grades for Little Falls are B− for jobs and income and C+ for walkability. Only 2% work in Little Falls itself; outside it, Sparta draws the most (23%, 12 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Little Falls in brief
Little Falls is a place people come home to
There are 95 jobs based in Little Falls, about one for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Little Falls has about 950 people in it, 38% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
Little Falls and Sparta trade workers both ways
Sparta is the top workplace for Little Falls residents (23%) and also where the most people who work in Little Falls come from (16% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
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; with 687 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Breaking down the Jobs & income grade for Little Falls
On income, poverty and job access, Little Falls is better than 55% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Little Falls’ grade up (6.6%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down. It also does well on household income.
Unemployment (3.1%) is left out: Little Falls’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Little Falls could be anywhere from C+ to B+.
A workday in Little Falls: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 675 residents head out to work, 12 work right here, and 83 people come in from elsewhere.
About 950 people are in Little Falls on a workday afternoon, 38% 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.
Where people from Little Falls work
Where Little Falls clocks in
23% of workers
11% of workers
9% 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 Little Falls’ employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Little Falls, 2014 → 2024: 107 → 95. 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 Little Falls’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How long Little Falls spends getting to work: about 25 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Little Falls workers work from home, vs 13% across Wisconsin. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 715 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.
Short hops and long hauls from Little Falls
About 29% 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.
Driving is how Little Falls gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Little Falls is more walkable than 41% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 2.8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 4.8% across Wisconsin, on an EPA index of 5.6.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 833 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). 2.7% of Little Falls households have no vehicle (Wisconsin 6.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Little Falls’ commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, Little Falls is 1,841st of 5,794 U.S. towns of 1,100 to 2,100
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | 1% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 24 | Nashotah WI | 1,298 | $148K | 1.1% | 0.6% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 42 | Maple Bluff WI | 1,305 | $199K | 3.0% | 1.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 47 | Wind Point WI | 1,620 | $143K | 0.4% | 0.9% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,839 | Donegal Township PA | 1,775 | $80K | 6.3% | 5.8% | 2% | B− |
| 1,840 | Union Township PA | 1,244 | $85K | 7.9% | 4.2% | 1% | B− |
| 1,841 | Little Falls WI | 1,545 | $89K | 6.6% | 3.1% | 2% | B− |
| 1,842 | Granville IL | 1,325 | $71K | 5.3% | 4.7% | 5% | B− |
| 1,843 | Royalton PA | 1,133 | $68K | 11.9% | 0.0% | 1% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,794 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 7% | 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 Little Falls, the top three, the last and three more from Wisconsin.
How Little Falls compares with the towns next door
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Little Falls workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Little Falls | – | B− | C+ | 25 min | $89,038 |
| Melrose | under 2% | — | — | 30 min | — |
| New Lyme | under 2% | — | — | 35 min | — |
| Sparta | under 2% | A− | D | 18 min | $94,226 |
| Burns | under 2% | — | — | 29 min | — |
| Irving | under 2% | — | — | 31 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Melrose, New Lyme, Burns and Irving: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Little Falls’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 Little Falls: questions
What is the median household income in Little Falls?
$89,038 (±$9,915) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,485 across Wisconsin and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Little Falls?
6.6%, against 10.6% across Wisconsin and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Little Falls?
25 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Wisconsin and 26 nationally. 14% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Little Falls work?
2% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Sparta (23%, 12 mi), La Crosse (11%, 26 mi), Tomah (9%, 20 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Little Falls walkable?
Little Falls is more walkable than 41% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 5.6 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Little Falls 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 Little Falls, from the people who make the trip.
More of Little Falls
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.