Vaughn's Hall and Blacksmith Shop · Photo: Royalbroil · CC BY-SA 3.0Montello has lower household incomes than 80% of U.S. towns
Working from home is the commute for 5% of workers, where Wisconsin as a whole has 13%. Below the poverty line: 20.0% of residents (Wisconsin 10.6%). Jobs and income earn Montello D; getting around on foot earns it B.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Montello
What’s behind Montello’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Montello is better than 9% of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Montello’s grade.
Unemployment (3.7%) is left out: Montello’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, Montello could be anywhere from D to C−.
The daily flow of workers through Montello
On a workday 434 residents head out to work, 94 work right here, and 785 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,800 people are in Montello on a workday afternoon, 24% more than live here.
1.7 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than out.
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 the people who work in Montello live
Where Montello clocks in
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.
The 879 jobs based in Montello
879 jobs are based in Montello.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Montello, 2013 → 2023: 842 → 879. 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 Montello’s own residents hold wherever they work.
A commute of about 23 minutes in Montello
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Montello workers work from home, vs 13% across Wisconsin. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 477 commuters (the 5% 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.
How far it is to work from Montello
About 28% 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 Montello commutes by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Montello is more walkable than 60% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Montello 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 503 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). 11.2% of Montello households have no vehicle (Wisconsin 6.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Montello’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 6,308 U.S. towns of 1,000 to 2,000, Montello comes 5,341st 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 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 29 | Nashotah WI | 1,298 | $148K | 1.1% | 0.6% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 50 | Maple Bluff WI | 1,305 | $199K | 3.0% | 1.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 55 | Wind Point WI | 1,620 | $143K | 0.4% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,339 | Sardinia OH | 1,101 | $58K | 25.9% | 3.8% | 1% | D |
| 5,340 | Meeker OK | 1,031 | $41K | 25.2% | 4.1% | 5% | D |
| 5,341 | Montello WI | 1,447 | $56K | 20.0% | 3.7% | 18% | D |
| 5,342 | Taft Heights CA | 1,291 | $54K | 16.2% | 12.8% | 1% | D |
| 5,343 | Maxwell CA | 1,245 | $68K | 20.5% | 10.2% | 5% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 6,308 | 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 Montello, the top three, the last and three more from Wisconsin.
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 Montello: questions
What is the median household income in Montello?
$55,758 (±$5,139) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,485 across Wisconsin and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Montello?
20.0%, against 10.6% across Wisconsin and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Montello?
23 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Wisconsin and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Montello work?
18% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Portage (12%, 18 mi), Madison (4%, 49 mi), Westfield (4%, 11 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Montello walkable?
Montello is more walkable than 60% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 7.6 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Montello without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 11% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Montello, from the people who make the trip.
More of Montello
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.