With 0.1 jobs for every working resident, most of Polar works elsewhere
Jobs and income earn Polar C+; getting around on foot earns it C. There are 49 jobs in Polar for 493 working residents. Hardly any stay in Polar for work; outside it, Antigo is the main destination (34%, 8 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Polar at work: what stands out
Polar and Antigo trade workers both ways
Antigo is the top workplace for Polar residents (34%) and also where the most people who work in Polar come from (27% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Polar is a place people come home to
There are 49 jobs based in Polar, about one for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Polar has about 570 people in it, 44% fewer than live here. 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 493 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Jobs & income in Polar: the grade in detail
On income, poverty and job access, Polar is better than 41% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Polar’s grade up (5.5%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 2% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income.
Unemployment (2.4%) is left out: Polar’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, Polar could be anywhere from C− to B.
The places Polar commutes to
Where Polar clocks in
34% 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.
Who commutes out of Polar, and who commutes in
On a workday 489 residents head out to work, 4 work right here, and 45 people come in from elsewhere.
About 570 people are in Polar on a workday afternoon, 44% fewer than live here.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Factories, building and farms: 59% of the jobs in Polar
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Polar, 2013 → 2023: 86 → 49. 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 Polar’s own residents hold wherever they work.
From Polar, about 24 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Polar workers work from home, vs 13% across Wisconsin. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 436 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.
How many miles Polar commutes
About 29% 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.
In Polar, most people drive to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Polar is more walkable than 28% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 3.4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 4.8% across Wisconsin, on an EPA index of 3.3.
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). 0.5% of Polar households have no vehicle (Wisconsin 6.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Polar’s commuters take a bus or train.
Polar places 1,328th of 3,133 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 700 to 1,400
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 17 | Nashotah WI | 1,298 | $148K | 1.1% | 0.6% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 28 | Maple Bluff WI | 1,305 | $199K | 3.0% | 1.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 67 | Kaukauna WI | 1,295 | $122K | 2.0% | 1.6% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,326 | Onarga IL | 1,305 | $78K | 8.6% | 3.8% | 6% | C+ |
| 1,327 | Bethel Township PA | 1,068 | $59K | 6.8% | 10.7% | 2% | C+ |
| 1,328 | Polar WI | 1,012 | $76K | 5.5% | 2.4% | 1% | C+ |
| 1,329 | St. Croix Falls WI | 1,171 | $82K | 12.6% | 3.1% | 1% | C+ |
| 1,330 | French Settlement LA | 1,166 | $72K | 17.8% | 5.8% | 1% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,133 | 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 Polar, the top three, the last and three more from Wisconsin.
Next door to Polar
The biggest share goes to Antigo (3%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Polar workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Polar | – | C+ | C | 24 min | $76,458 |
| Antigo | 3% | B | B+ | 16 min | $95,571 |
| Evergreen | under 2% | — | — | 35 min | — |
| Menominee | under 2% | D | C | 22 min | $62,108 |
| Price | under 2% | — | — | 25 min | — |
| Norwood | 2% | — | — | 27 min | — |
| Neva | under 2% | — | — | 21 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Evergreen: the same community as the town of that name, graded once. Price, Norwood and Neva: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Polar’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 Polar: questions
What is the median household income in Polar?
$76,458 (±$14,418) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,485 across Wisconsin and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Polar?
5.5%, against 10.6% across Wisconsin and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Polar?
24 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Wisconsin and 26 nationally. 9% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Polar work?
1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Antigo (34%, 8 mi), Wausau (6%, 34 mi), Rolling (6%, 9 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Polar walkable?
Polar is more walkable than 28% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 3.3 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Polar without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 0% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Polar, from the people who make the trip.
More of Polar
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.