Princeton Downtown Historic District · Photo: Royalbroil · CC BY-SA 3.0Princeton has 0.6 jobs for every working resident, so most commute out
Measured by household income, Princeton is behind 82% of U.S. towns. There are 331 jobs in Princeton, and 585 of its residents work somewhere. For jobs and income Princeton is better than 12% of U.S. towns (D); for walkability it is more walkable than 55% of U.S. towns (B).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Princeton stands out on work
What’s behind Princeton’s Jobs & income grade
All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Princeton’s grade.
Unemployment (5.5%) is left out: Princeton’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, Princeton could be anywhere from D to C.
Jobs in Princeton: what the 331 are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Princeton, 2013 → 2023: 313 → 331. 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 Princeton’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How a workday changes Princeton
On a workday 555 residents head out to work, 30 work right here, and 301 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,000 people are in Princeton on a workday afternoon, 20% 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.
Where the trip to work from Princeton ends
Where Princeton clocks in
7% 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 24 minutes from Princeton
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Princeton workers work from home, vs 13% across Wisconsin. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 519 commuters (the 15% 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.
Near or far: the trip to work from Princeton
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.
The commute in Princeton is mostly behind the wheel
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 4.6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 4.8% across Wisconsin, on an EPA index of 5.9.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 609 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). 3.7% of Princeton households have no vehicle (Wisconsin 6.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Princeton’s commuters take a bus or train.
Princeton is 3,829th of 4,866 U.S. towns of 900 to 1,700 on jobs and income
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 22 | Nashotah WI | 1,298 | $148K | 1.1% | 0.6% | 1% | 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% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,827 | Discovery Harbour HI | 1,079 | $61K | 12.0% | 10.6% | 0% | D |
| 3,828 | Nellieburg MS | 1,197 | $61K | 34.7% | 3.7% | 1% | D |
| 3,829 | Princeton WI | 1,249 | $54K | 16.8% | 5.5% | 5% | D |
| 3,830 | Campbell Township IN | 1,119 | $72K | 22.9% | 2.6% | 1% | D |
| 3,831 | Koylton Township MI | 1,471 | $65K | 15.0% | 8.2% | 6% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 4,866 | 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 Princeton, the top three, the last and three more from Wisconsin.
Next door to Princeton
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Princeton workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Princeton | – | D | B | 24 min | $54,205 |
| St. Marie | under 3% | — | — | 25 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. St. Marie: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Princeton’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 Princeton: questions
What is the median household income in Princeton?
$54,205 (±$10,167) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,485 across Wisconsin and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Princeton?
16.8%, against 10.6% across Wisconsin and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Princeton?
24 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Wisconsin and 26 nationally. 15% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Princeton work?
5% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Ripon (12%, 14 mi), Oshkosh (7%, 30 mi), Green Lake (5%, 8 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Princeton walkable?
Princeton is more walkable than 55% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 5.9 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Princeton without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Princeton, from the people who make the trip.
More of Princeton
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.