Photo: Royalbroil · CC BY-SA 3.0Households in Nashville earn less than those in 79% of U.S. towns
The poverty rate is 20.2% (Wisconsin 10.6%). For jobs and income Nashville is better than 4% of U.S. towns (D−); for walkability it is more walkable than 60% of U.S. towns (B). Home is the office for 7% of workers, against 13% across Wisconsin.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Income, poverty and work: Nashville’s grade explained
Household income holds Nashville’s grade up ($56,389, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 2% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (4.1%) is left out: Nashville’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, Nashville could be anywhere from D− to D.
Nashville on a workday afternoon
On a workday 415 residents head out to work, 105 work right here, and 261 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,200 people are in Nashville on a workday afternoon, 11% fewer than live here.
0.70 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute 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.
14% of working residents work in Lincoln
Where Nashville clocks in
5% 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.
Most jobs in Nashville are in services
366 jobs are based in Nashville.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Nashville, 2013 → 2023: 323 → 366. 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 Nashville’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How long Nashville spends getting to work: about 19 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Nashville workers work from home, vs 13% across Wisconsin. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 448 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.
Nashville’s commute, mile by mile
About 27% 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 Nashville is mostly behind the wheel
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 9.3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 4.8% across Wisconsin, on an EPA index of 5.2.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 481 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). 10.7% of Nashville households have no vehicle (Wisconsin 6.4%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Nashville’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Nashville compares with U.S. towns of 1,000 to 1,800
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 25 | Nashotah WI | 1,298 | $148K | 1.1% | 0.6% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 45 | Maple Bluff WI | 1,305 | $199K | 3.0% | 1.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 49 | Wind Point WI | 1,620 | $143K | 0.4% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,935 | Lynch Township MO | 1,381 | $38K | 13.6% | 0.3% | 1% | D− |
| 4,936 | Fallsbury Township OH | 1,031 | $47K | 45.9% | 13.3% | 1% | D− |
| 4,937 | Nashville WI | 1,359 | $56K | 20.2% | 4.1% | 20% | D− |
| 4,938 | Astor FL | 1,391 | $57K | 19.7% | 3.2% | 2% | D− |
| 4,939 | Parachute CO | 1,366 | $59K | 27.5% | 18.7% | 8% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,400 | 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 Nashville, the top three, the last and three more from Wisconsin.
14% of Nashville works in a bordering town
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Nashville workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nashville | – | D− | B | 19 min | $56,389 |
| Ainsworth | under 2% | — | — | 38 min | — |
| Lincoln | 14% | C | C− | 21 min | $79,091 |
| Langlade | under 2% | — | — | 34 min | — |
| Crandon | under 2% | — | — | 28 min | — |
| Freedom | under 2% | — | — | 42 min | — |
| Schoepke | under 2% | — | — | 41 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Ainsworth, Langlade and Schoepke: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Crandon and Freedom: the same communities as the places of those names, graded once. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Lincoln. Darker towns draw more of Nashville’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 Nashville: questions
What is the median household income in Nashville?
$56,389 (±$10,856) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,485 across Wisconsin and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Nashville?
20.2%, against 10.6% across Wisconsin and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Nashville?
19 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Wisconsin and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Nashville work?
20% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Lincoln (14%, 7 mi), Crandon (11%, 6 mi), Rhinelander (5%, 23 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Nashville walkable?
Nashville is more walkable than 60% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 5.2 out of 20, and 9% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Nashville without a car?
<1% 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 Nashville, from the people who make the trip.
More of Nashville
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.