Photo: I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby publish it under the following license: · CC BY-SA 3.0Palmyra has higher household incomes than 64% of U.S. towns
Below the poverty line: 3.7% of residents, next to 10.6% for Wisconsin as a whole. Palmyra grades A− for jobs and income and B− for walkability. Only 2% work in Palmyra itself; outside it, Whitewater draws the most (13%, 8 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Palmyra
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Palmyra
On income, poverty and job access, Palmyra is better than 85% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate is its strongest input; household income ranks lowest, though still above most U.S. towns ($86,250, U.S. $80,734). It also does well on household income and job access by car.
Unemployment (2.9%) is left out: Palmyra’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, Palmyra could be anywhere from B to A+.
Time on the road from Palmyra: about 28 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Palmyra workers work from home, vs 13% across Wisconsin. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 499 commuters (the 12% 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 workday shuffle in and out of Palmyra
On a workday 472 residents head out to work, 9 work right here, and 280 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,000 people are in Palmyra on a workday afternoon, 16% fewer than live here.
0.60 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 2024, primary jobs.
Out of Palmyra to work: where people go
Where Palmyra clocks in
13% of workers
6% of workers
6% 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.
Factories, building and farms: 80% of the jobs in Palmyra
289 jobs are based in Palmyra.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Palmyra, 2014 → 2024: 229 → 289. 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 2024.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Palmyra’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The commute from Palmyra, by distance
Straight-line distance from each worker’s home block to their main job’s block. LEHD 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Getting around Palmyra: mostly by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Palmyra is more walkable than 49% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 4.4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 4.8% across Wisconsin, on an EPA index of 5.4.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 564 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). 2.1% of Palmyra households have no vehicle (Wisconsin 6.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Palmyra’s commuters take a bus or train.
Palmyra places 339th of 4,866 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 900 to 1,700
| # | 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% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 22 | Nashotah WI | 1,298 | $148K | 1.1% | 0.6% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 42 | Maple Bluff WI | 1,305 | $199K | 3.0% | 1.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 46 | Wind Point WI | 1,620 | $143K | 0.4% | 0.9% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 337 | Fort Calhoun NE | 1,108 | $102K | 6.9% | 2.1% | 11% | A− |
| 338 | Barneveld WI | 1,333 | $114K | 4.6% | 2.8% | 4% | A− |
| 339 | Palmyra WI | 1,230 | $86K | 3.7% | 2.9% | 2% | A− |
| 340 | Northfield KY | 1,015 | $111K | 10.5% | 0.5% | 2% | A− |
| 341 | Blooming Grove WI | 1,488 | $90K | 6.6% | 2.7% | 1% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,866 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 1% | 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 Palmyra, the top three, the last and three more from Wisconsin.
Palmyra and the towns next door
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Palmyra workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Palmyra | – | A− | B− | 28 min | $86,250 |
| Eagle | under 2% | A | C− | 28 min | $125,792 |
| Sullivan | under 2% | B | D | 36 min | $85,833 |
| La Grange | under 2% | A | C− | 30 min | $96,136 |
| Cold Spring | under 2% | — | — | 25 min | — |
| Hebron | under 2% | B+ | D | 27 min | $94,438 |
Same-state neighbors only. Cold Spring: not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Palmyra’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 2024, 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 Palmyra: questions
What is the median household income in Palmyra?
$86,250 (±$32,978) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,485 across Wisconsin and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Palmyra?
3.7%, against 10.6% across Wisconsin and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Palmyra?
28 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Wisconsin and 26 nationally. 12% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Palmyra work?
2% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Whitewater (13%, 8 mi), Fort Atkinson (6%, 13 mi), Madison (6%, 44 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Palmyra walkable?
Palmyra is more walkable than 49% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 5.4 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Palmyra without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Palmyra, from the people who make the trip.
More of Palmyra
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2024, 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.