Poynette has some of the lowest unemployment in the country, with hardly anyone out of work
About one in ten work in Poynette; the top destination outside it is Madison (30%, 21 miles). The two grades for Poynette are A for jobs and income and C+ for walkability. Measured by household income, Poynette is ahead of 72% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Poynette and work: the main findings
Poynette makes and builds things
43% of the jobs based in Poynette are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Poynette residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 26%. The jobs ↓
Poynette workers spend longer getting to work
The average trip takes 28 minutes each way, against 22 across Wisconsin. Over a year that’s about 215 hours of commuting, 46 more than the state’s typical worker. Time on the road ↓
30% of Poynette works in Madison
398 working residents, 30%, have their main job in Madison, 21 miles away. That’s 3 times as many as work in Poynette itself. The commute map ↓
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.
What’s behind Poynette’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Poynette is better than 87% of U.S. towns, #128 of 362 in Wisconsin. Unemployment is its strongest input (hardly any, U.S. 5.2%); job access by car ranks lowest, though still above most U.S. towns (ahead of 62% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income and the poverty rate and job access by car.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Poynette could be anywhere from B+ to A+.
Making and building: 43% of jobs based in Poynette
783 jobs are based in Poynette.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Poynette, 2013 → 2023: 584 → 783. 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 Poynette’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Each way, about 28 minutes from Poynette
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Poynette workers work from home, vs 13% across Wisconsin. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,371 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.
The places Poynette commutes to
Where Poynette clocks in
30% 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 Poynette, and who commutes in
On a workday 1,213 residents head out to work, 113 work right here, and 670 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,400 people are in Poynette on a workday afternoon, 19% fewer than live here.
0.59 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 2023, primary jobs.
How far Poynette goes to work
About 16% 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.
For most of Poynette, work means a drive
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Poynette is more walkable than 45% of U.S. towns, #199 of 362 in Wisconsin. Both inputs place Poynette near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,546 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). 2.0% of Poynette households have no vehicle (Wisconsin 6.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Poynette’s commuters take a bus or train.
518th of 4,882: where Poynette ranks among U.S. towns of 2,000 to 3,900
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 38 | Ottawa WI | 3,642 | $153K | 1.0% | 1.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 43 | North Prairie WI | 2,193 | $153K | 2.8% | 0.9% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 68 | Center WI | 3,706 | $115K | 1.6% | 0.0% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 516 | Overisel Township MI | 3,169 | $101K | 2.6% | 3.3% | 6% | A |
| 517 | Montgomery Township OH | 2,806 | $100K | 4.1% | 1.7% | 1% | A |
| 518 | Poynette WI | 2,924 | $94K | 6.6% | 0.0% | 9% | A |
| 519 | Friendship WI | 2,774 | $70K | 1.4% | 0.0% | 2% | A |
| 520 | Santa Rosa Valley CA | 2,780 | $214K | 2.9% | 4.8% | 3% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 4,882 | Cibecue AZ | 2,228 | $26K | 57.2% | 13.3% | 12% | 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 Poynette, the top three, the last and three more from Wisconsin.
Poynette and the towns next door
The biggest share goes to Dekorra (2%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
Darker towns draw more of Poynette’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 Poynette: questions
What is the median household income in Poynette?
$93,500 (±$14,904) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,485 across Wisconsin and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Poynette?
6.6%, against 10.6% across Wisconsin and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Poynette?
28 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Wisconsin and 26 nationally. 11% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Poynette work?
9% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Madison (30%, 21 mi), DeForest (4%, 12 mi), Portage (4%, 11 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Poynette walkable?
Poynette is more walkable than 45% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 7.0 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Poynette 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 Poynette, from the people who make the trip.
More of Poynette
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.