Photo: User Royalbroil on en.wikipedia · CC BY-SA 2.5Markesan has lower household incomes than 70% of U.S. towns
About one in seven stay in Markesan for work; outside it, Ripon is the main destination (6%, 12 miles). The poverty rate is 21.1% (Wisconsin 10.6%). For jobs and income Markesan is better than 17% of U.S. towns (C−); for walkability it is more walkable than 64% of U.S. towns (B).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
How Markesan earns its Jobs & income grade
Job access by car holds Markesan’s grade up (ahead of 37% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down.
Unemployment (2.9%) is left out: Markesan’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, Markesan could be anywhere from D to C.
Who works in Markesan, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 483 residents head out to work, 98 work right here, and 617 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,500 people are in Markesan on a workday afternoon, 10% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.23 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 Markesan commutes to
Where Markesan clocks in
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.
Goods jobs make up 30% of work in Markesan
715 jobs are based in Markesan.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Markesan, 2013 → 2023: 772 → 715. 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 Markesan’s own residents hold wherever they work.
From Markesan, about 26 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Markesan workers work from home, vs 13% across Wisconsin. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 526 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.
The commute from Markesan, by distance
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.
Most of Markesan commutes by car
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 568 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 Markesan households have no vehicle (Wisconsin 6.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Markesan’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 5,877 U.S. towns of 1,000 to 1,900, Markesan comes 4,259th 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 26 | Nashotah WI | 1,298 | $148K | 1.1% | 0.6% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 46 | Maple Bluff WI | 1,305 | $199K | 3.0% | 1.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 50 | Wind Point WI | 1,620 | $143K | 0.4% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,257 | Platte SD | 1,230 | $73K | 14.7% | 1.0% | 37% | C− |
| 4,258 | Rutherford TN | 1,147 | $51K | 12.0% | 3.3% | 3% | C− |
| 4,259 | Markesan WI | 1,380 | $62K | 21.1% | 2.9% | 17% | C− |
| 4,260 | Eagle NY | 1,089 | $73K | 14.8% | 2.6% | 4% | C− |
| 4,261 | Burlington NY | 1,037 | $66K | 13.0% | 7.6% | 1% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,877 | 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 Markesan, the top three, the last and three more from Wisconsin.
Around Markesan: the bordering towns
The biggest share goes to Mackford (3%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Markesan workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Markesan | – | C− | B | 26 min | $62,165 |
| Mackford | 3% | — | — | 25 min | — |
| Green Lake | under 2% | — | — | 27 min | — |
| Manchester | 3% | C− | C | 31 min | $78,438 |
Same-state neighbors only. Mackford: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Green Lake: the same community as the city of that name, graded once. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Markesan’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 Markesan: questions
What is the median household income in Markesan?
$62,165 (±$8,739) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,485 across Wisconsin and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Markesan?
21.1%, against 10.6% across Wisconsin and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Markesan?
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 Markesan work?
17% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Ripon (6%, 12 mi), Fond du Lac (5%, 28 mi), Oshkosh (4%, 30 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Markesan walkable?
Markesan is more walkable than 64% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 8.0 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Markesan 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 Markesan, from the people who make the trip.
More of Markesan
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.