Photo: Arnmhs · CC BY-SA 4.0Household incomes in Menasha are lower than in 66% of U.S. towns
For jobs and income Menasha is better than 58% of U.S. towns (B); for walkability it is more walkable than 64% of U.S. towns (B). The poverty rate is 12.0%, against 10.6% across Wisconsin. Only 7% work in Menasha; the top destination outside it is Appleton (17%, 5 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Menasha, in a few figures
A lot of Menasha works one town over
34% of working residents work in a town that borders Menasha: Appleton (17%), Neenah (9%) and Fox Crossing (8%). Next door ↓
Most Menasha residents work close to home
63% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home. 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.
How Menasha earns its Jobs & income grade
Job access by car holds Menasha’s grade up (ahead of 82% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($64,698, U.S. $80,734). It also does well on unemployment.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Menasha could be anywhere from C+ to A−.
How many miles Menasha commutes
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 Menasha on a workday
On a workday 8,469 residents head out to work, 685 work right here, and 7,049 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 (0.84 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.
Where Menasha goes to work
Where Menasha clocks in
17% of workers
9% 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 work there is in Menasha: 7,734 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Menasha, 2013 → 2023: 7,429 → 7,734. 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 Menasha’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The daily trip from Menasha: about 22 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Menasha workers work from home, vs 13% across Wisconsin. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 8,476 commuters (the 13% 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.
Most trips from Menasha start in a car
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 9,711 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 6.4% of Menasha households have no vehicle (Wisconsin 6.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Menasha’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Menasha is 1,084th among 1,915 U.S. towns of 13,000 to 25,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Plain Township OH | 13,257 | $219K | 2.1% | 0.8% | 10% | A+ |
| 2 | Rogers MN | 15,606 | $159K | 1.9% | 1.2% | 10% | A+ |
| 3 | Trophy Club TX | 13,695 | $201K | 2.1% | 2.0% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 30 | Greenville WI | 13,388 | $118K | 1.7% | 0.8% | 10% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 45 | Whitefish Bay WI | 14,489 | $157K | 3.7% | 2.6% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 50 | Verona WI | 16,821 | $120K | 1.4% | 1.6% | 21% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,082 | Meadowbrook VA | 20,749 | $86K | 12.4% | 5.3% | 2% | B |
| 1,083 | Hialeah Gardens FL | 22,777 | $65K | 13.5% | 3.7% | 4% | B |
| 1,084 | Menasha WI | 18,385 | $65K | 12.0% | 3.2% | 7% | B |
| 1,085 | Dennis MA | 14,906 | $88K | 6.7% | 4.6% | 16% | B |
| 1,086 | Fraser MI | 14,496 | $64K | 10.4% | 4.3% | 5% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 1,915 | Douglas AZ | 16,038 | $42K | 27.8% | 12.3% | 29% | 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 Menasha, the top three, the last and three more from Wisconsin.
34% of Menasha works in a bordering town
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Menasha workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Menasha | – | B | B | 22 min | $64,698 |
| Fox Crossing | 8% | A− | C+ | 18 min | $79,187 |
| Harrison | under 2% | A+ | C | 20 min | $121,504 |
| Appleton | 17% | B+ | A− | 19 min | $80,483 |
| Neenah | 9% | A− | A− | 18 min | $75,374 |
| Harrison | under 2% | — | — | — | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Harrison: the same community as the village of that name, graded once. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Appleton. Darker towns draw more of Menasha’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 Menasha: questions
What is the median household income in Menasha?
$64,698 (±$7,209) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,485 across Wisconsin and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Menasha?
12.0%, against 10.6% across Wisconsin and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Menasha?
22 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Wisconsin and 26 nationally. 13% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Menasha work?
7% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Appleton (17%, 5 mi), Neenah (9%, 4 mi), Grand Chute (9%, 6 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Menasha walkable?
Menasha is more walkable than 64% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 7.7 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Menasha without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Menasha, from the people who make the trip.
More of Menasha
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.