Households in Luck earn less than those in 60% of U.S. towns
The two grades for Luck are C for jobs and income and B for walkability. Poverty touches 9.9% of residents (Wisconsin 10.6%). About one in ten stay in Luck for work; outside it, St. Croix Falls is the main destination (7%, 14 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The short version on getting to work from Luck
Luck makes and builds things
50% of the jobs based in Luck are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Luck residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 29%. The jobs ↓
A big share show a job far from home
31% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. How far ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; with 539 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
How Luck earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Luck is better than 30% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Luck’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 19% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (2.8%) is left out: Luck’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, Luck could be anywhere from C− to B−.
50% of the jobs in Luck make or build things
611 jobs are based in Luck.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Luck, 2013 → 2023: 607 → 611. 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 Luck’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How far Luck goes 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 2023.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
In and out of Luck on a workday
On a workday 481 residents head out to work, 58 work right here, and 553 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 (1.13 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
The places Luck commutes to
Where Luck clocks in
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.
From Luck, about 26 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Luck workers work from home, vs 13% across Wisconsin. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 496 commuters (the 7% 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.
Getting around Luck: mostly by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Luck is more walkable than 65% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 2.2% 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 534 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). 3.4% of Luck households have no vehicle (Wisconsin 6.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Luck’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 3,133 U.S. towns of 700 to 1,400, Luck comes 1,745th 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% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 17 | Nashotah WI | 1,298 | $148K | 1.1% | 0.6% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 28 | Maple Bluff WI | 1,305 | $199K | 3.0% | 1.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 67 | Kaukauna WI | 1,295 | $122K | 2.0% | 1.6% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,743 | New Vienna OH | 1,106 | $61K | 8.8% | 2.1% | 1% | C |
| 1,744 | Athena OR | 1,187 | $72K | 9.0% | 1.0% | 6% | C |
| 1,745 | Luck WI | 1,063 | $69K | 9.9% | 2.8% | 11% | C |
| 1,746 | Five Points FL | 1,097 | $63K | 11.1% | 10.3% | 1% | C |
| 1,747 | Lake View IA | 1,122 | $69K | 8.8% | 0.6% | 15% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 3,133 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 0% | 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 Luck, the top three, the last and three more from Wisconsin.
Work in the towns next to Luck
Jobs & commute next door
Darker towns draw more of Luck’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 Luck: questions
What is the median household income in Luck?
$68,606 (±$8,112) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,485 across Wisconsin and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Luck?
9.9%, against 10.6% across Wisconsin and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Luck?
26 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Wisconsin and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Luck work?
11% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are St. Croix Falls (7%, 14 mi), Osceola (4%, 21 mi), Minneapolis (4%, 58 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Luck walkable?
Luck is more walkable than 65% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 8.4 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Luck without a car?
1% 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 Luck, from the people who make the trip.
More of Luck
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.