Photo: User:Royalbroil · CC BY-SA 2.5Jobs, income and commuting in Plain, WI
Working residents average 27 minutes each way; Wisconsin averages 22, the U.S. 26. Only 7% stay in Plain for work; outside it, Madison is the main destination (14%, 34 miles). 524 jobs are based in Plain, and 339 of its residents work somewhere.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Plain in brief
Plain makes and builds things
75% of the jobs based in Plain are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Plain residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 36%. The jobs ↓
Plain’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Plain is Madison, 34 miles away as the crow flies. 14% of working residents (47) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Plain is where the jobs are
Plain has 524 jobs, 1.6 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
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; with 339 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Plain makes things: 75% of its jobs are in goods
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Plain, 2013 → 2023: 432 → 524. 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 Plain’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The distance from Plain to work
About 22% 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.
Plain by day and by night
On a workday 315 residents head out to work, 24 work right here, and 500 people come in from elsewhere.
About 900 people are in Plain on a workday afternoon, 26% more than live here.
1.5 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 daily trip into Plain
Where Plain clocks in
14% of workers
10% of workers
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.
Each way, about 27 minutes from Plain
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Plain workers work from home, vs 13% across Wisconsin. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 424 commuters (the 10% 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 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 Plain: questions
What is the median household income in Plain?
$96,000 (±$16,388) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,485 across Wisconsin and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Plain?
6.5%, against 10.6% across Wisconsin and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Plain?
27 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Wisconsin and 26 nationally. 10% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Plain work?
7% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Madison (14%, 34 mi), Reedsburg (10%, 18 mi), Sauk City (5%, 16 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Can you get around Plain without a car?
<1% 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 Plain, from the people who make the trip.
More of Plain
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.