Household incomes in Marion trail those of 73% of U.S. towns
19.6% of residents live below the poverty line, against 10.6% across Wisconsin. The two grades for Marion are D for jobs and income and C for walkability. Working from home is the commute for 3% of workers, where Wisconsin as a whole has 13%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Marion, in brief
Marion makes and builds things
60% of the jobs based in Marion are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Marion residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 44%. The jobs ↓
Marion and Clintonville trade workers both ways
Clintonville is the top workplace for Marion residents (19%) and also where the most people who work in Marion come from (10% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Few Marion workers work from home
Only 3% of workers work from home, against 13% across Wisconsin. Almost everyone here travels to a job. Time on the road ↓
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 624 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Breaking down the Jobs & income grade for Marion
On income, poverty and job access, Marion is better than 10% of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Marion’s grade.
Unemployment (2.2%) is left out: Marion’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, Marion could be anywhere from D− to C−.
Goods, not services: 60% of the jobs in Marion
811 jobs are based in Marion.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Marion, 2013 → 2023: 732 → 811. 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 Marion’s own residents hold wherever they work.
19% of working residents work in Clintonville
Where Marion clocks in
19% of workers
5% 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 24 minutes to work from Marion
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Marion workers work from home, vs 13% across Wisconsin. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 687 commuters (the 3% 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.
Marion by day and by night
On a workday 564 residents head out to work, 60 work right here, and 751 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,500 people are in Marion on a workday afternoon, 15% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.30 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.
How far Marion goes to work
About 21% 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.
The commute in Marion is mostly behind the wheel
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Marion is more walkable than 30% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Marion near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 707 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). 3.6% of Marion households have no vehicle (Wisconsin 6.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Marion’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Marion is 4,019th among 4,866 U.S. towns of 900 to 1,700
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 22 | Nashotah WI | 1,298 | $148K | 1.1% | 0.6% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 42 | Maple Bluff WI | 1,305 | $199K | 3.0% | 1.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 46 | Wind Point WI | 1,620 | $143K | 0.4% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,017 | Elbow Lake MN | 1,276 | $60K | 19.3% | 4.9% | 18% | D |
| 4,018 | Linton ND | 1,041 | $48K | 10.4% | 5.9% | 20% | D |
| 4,019 | Marion WI | 1,273 | $61K | 19.6% | 2.2% | 10% | D |
| 4,020 | Niagara WI | 1,577 | $61K | 14.6% | 6.0% | 9% | D |
| 4,021 | Eden Township OH | 1,001 | $57K | 21.8% | 1.0% | <1% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 4,866 | 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 Marion, the top three, the last and three more from Wisconsin.
Marion and the towns next door
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Marion workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marion | – | D | C | 24 min | $60,521 |
| Grant | under 3% | — | — | 23 min | — |
| Dupont | under 3% | — | — | 24 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Grant: the same community as the town of that name, graded once. Dupont: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Marion’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 Marion: questions
What is the median household income in Marion?
$60,521 (±$15,599) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,485 across Wisconsin and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Marion?
19.6%, against 10.6% across Wisconsin and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Marion?
24 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Wisconsin and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Marion work?
10% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Clintonville (19%, 8 mi), Shawano (5%, 17 mi), Appleton (4%, 37 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Marion walkable?
Marion is more walkable than 30% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 5.7 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Marion without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Marion, from the people who make the trip.
More of Marion
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.