Photo: Billertl · CC BY-SA 3.0Park Falls has lower household incomes than 82% of U.S. towns
About two in five work in Park Falls itself; outside it, Phillips draws the most (9%, 17 miles). 21.9% of residents are in poverty, next to 10.6% for Wisconsin as a whole. Jobs and income earn Park Falls 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
The short version on getting to work from Park Falls
Park Falls is where the jobs are
Park Falls has 1,653 jobs, 1.6 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
A big share show a job far from home
34% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. 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 Park Falls earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Park Falls is better than 4% of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Park Falls’ grade.
Unemployment (1.1%) is left out: Park Falls’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, Park Falls could be anywhere from D− to D.
How many people are in Park Falls by day
On a workday 629 residents head out to work, 393 work right here, and 1,260 people come in from elsewhere.
About 3,000 people are in Park Falls on a workday afternoon, 27% more than live here.
1.6 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.
The distance from Park Falls to work
About 34% 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.
Where Park Falls’s workers come from
Where Park Falls clocks in
Lines 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: 34% of the jobs in Park Falls
1,653 jobs are based in Park Falls.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Park Falls, 2013 → 2023: 1,747 → 1,653. 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 Park Falls’s own residents hold wherever they work.
From Park Falls, about 22 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Park Falls workers work from home, vs 13% across Wisconsin. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 870 commuters (the 9% 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 Park Falls start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Park Falls is more walkable than 74% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 5.3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 4.8% across Wisconsin, on an EPA index of 7.4.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 959 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). 9.0% of Park Falls households have no vehicle (Wisconsin 6.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Park Falls’ commuters take a bus or train.
Where Park Falls sits among U.S. towns of 1,700 to 3,200
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 33 | North Prairie WI | 2,193 | $153K | 2.8% | 0.9% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 49 | Vandenbroek WI | 1,701 | $129K | 1.6% | 5.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 82 | Sun Prairie WI | 2,291 | $127K | 2.0% | 1.8% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,680 | Baraga MI | 1,746 | $44K | 17.2% | 1.5% | 42% | D− |
| 4,681 | Buffalo TX | 1,906 | $45K | 18.4% | 7.6% | 15% | D− |
| 4,682 | Park Falls WI | 2,359 | $55K | 21.9% | 1.1% | 38% | D− |
| 4,683 | Luverne AL | 2,690 | $43K | 25.1% | 6.3% | 22% | D− |
| 4,684 | Lake Village AR | 1,833 | $41K | 18.8% | 10.5% | 35% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,995 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Park Falls, the top three, the last and three more from Wisconsin.
Next door to Park Falls
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Park Falls workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Park Falls | – | D− | B+ | 22 min | $54,643 |
| Eisenstein | under 2% | — | — | 36 min | — |
| Lake | under 2% | C+ | C− | 18 min | $69,875 |
Same-state neighbors only. Eisenstein: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Park Falls’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 Park Falls: questions
What is the median household income in Park Falls?
$54,643 (±$8,902) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,485 across Wisconsin and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Park Falls?
21.9%, against 10.6% across Wisconsin and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Park Falls?
22 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Wisconsin and 26 nationally. 9% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Park Falls work?
38% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Phillips (9%, 17 mi), Lac du Flambeau (2%, 27 mi), Eau Claire (2%, 93 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Park Falls walkable?
Park Falls is more walkable than 74% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 7.4 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Park Falls without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 9% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Park Falls, from the people who make the trip.
More of Park Falls
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.