Frank Eugene Nichols House · Photo: Royalbroil · CC BY-SA 3.0Work means La Crosse for about half of Onalaska’s working residents
About one in five work in Onalaska; the top destination outside it is La Crosse (45%, 5 miles). Onalaska grades B+ for jobs and income and B for walkability. Working residents average 17 minutes each way, against 22 across Wisconsin and 26 nationally.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Onalaska, in brief
Most Onalaska residents work close to home
74% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home, about three in four. How far ↓
Commutes from Onalaska are quick
The average trip to work takes 17 minutes, against 22 across Wisconsin. That’s about 38 hours a year less on the road than the typical Wisconsin worker. Time on the road ↓
Young people hold many of the jobs here
34% of the jobs based in Onalaska are held by workers 29 or younger, against 26% of Onalaska’s own working residents. The jobs ↓
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.
Onalaska’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Onalaska is better than 74% of U.S. towns, #201 of 362 in Wisconsin. All four inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Onalaska’s grade. It also does well on household income and unemployment and job access by car.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Onalaska could be anywhere from B− to A.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Onalaska
About 18% 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.
From Onalaska, about 17 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Onalaska workers work from home, vs 13% across Wisconsin. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 9,151 commuters (the 11% 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.
What work there is in Onalaska: 11,744 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Onalaska, 2013 → 2023: 10,746 → 11,744. 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 Onalaska’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The daily commute in and out of Onalaska
On a workday 7,068 residents head out to work, 1,558 work right here, and 10,186 people come in from elsewhere.
About 23,000 people are in Onalaska on a workday afternoon, 15% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.36 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.
Commuting out of Onalaska: the destinations
Where Onalaska clocks in
45% of workers
3% 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.
In Onalaska, most people drive to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Onalaska is more walkable than 59% of U.S. towns, #146 of 362 in Wisconsin. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 4.8% across Wisconsin.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 10,269 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 47% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 9% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 1.0 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 57% 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). 7.9% of Onalaska households have no vehicle (Wisconsin 6.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Onalaska’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 14,000 to 27,000, Onalaska ranks 780th of 1,860 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rogers MN | 15,606 | $159K | 1.9% | 1.2% | 10% | A+ |
| 2 | West Springfield VA | 22,532 | $163K | 1.9% | 1.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Ada Township MI | 14,769 | $168K | 2.0% | 0.7% | 10% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 43 | Whitefish Bay WI | 14,489 | $157K | 3.7% | 2.6% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 47 | Verona WI | 16,821 | $120K | 1.4% | 1.6% | 21% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 52 | Muskego WI | 25,602 | $112K | 3.0% | 2.0% | 9% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 778 | Glendale WI | 14,795 | $78K | 10.0% | 3.1% | 8% | B+ |
| 779 | Makakilo HI | 20,735 | $119K | 9.2% | 4.3% | 2% | B+ |
| 780 | Onalaska WI | 20,297 | $86K | 6.0% | 3.4% | 18% | B+ |
| 781 | Ferndale MD | 17,529 | $95K | 8.2% | 5.1% | 3% | B+ |
| 782 | Brooklyn Park MD | 16,067 | $88K | 8.3% | 4.6% | 3% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,860 | 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 Onalaska, the top three, the last and three more from Wisconsin.
48% of Onalaska works in a town next door
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
The biggest share goes to La Crosse. Darker towns draw more of Onalaska’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 Onalaska: questions
What is the median household income in Onalaska?
$85,867 (±$4,820) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,485 across Wisconsin and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Onalaska?
6.0%, against 10.6% across Wisconsin and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Onalaska?
17 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Wisconsin and 26 nationally. 11% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Onalaska work?
18% work in town.
Is Onalaska walkable?
Onalaska is more walkable than 59% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 11.2 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Onalaska without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. 9% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Onalaska, from the people who make the trip.
More of Onalaska
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.