Roscius S. and Lydia R. Freeman House · Photo: AlexiusHoratius · CC BY-SA 3.0College students make up 26% of River Falls’ residents
At 22 minutes each way, commutes from River Falls run about the Wisconsin average. River Falls grades B+ for jobs and income and A− for walkability. About one in four stay in River Falls for work; outside it, Hudson is the main destination (12%, 9 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in River Falls, in a few figures
How the Jobs & income grade adds up in River Falls
On family income, poverty and job access, River Falls is better than 73% of U.S. towns, #213 of 362 in Wisconsin. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides River Falls’ grade. It also does well on family income and the poverty rate.
Where students are 15% or more of the people the Census checks for poverty (16% here), the grade uses the rate without them: 8.3%, against 15.1% for all residents. Unemployment (3.3%) is left out here: students looking for part-time work count as unemployed. Income is ranked as median family income ($105,833), since student households pull the household median down ($83,627).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for family income and poverty, River Falls could be anywhere from B− to A.
Who leaves River Falls for work, and who comes in
On a workday 4,876 residents head out to work, 1,557 work right here, and 4,020 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (0.87 per resident).
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 River Falls goes to work
Where River Falls clocks in
12% of workers
3% of workers
2% 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.
What River Falls’ employers do
5,577 jobs are based in River Falls.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in River Falls, 2013 → 2023: 4,974 → 5,577. 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 River Falls’s own residents hold wherever they work.
From River Falls, about 22 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of River Falls workers work from home, vs 13% across Wisconsin. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 8,482 commuters (the 12% 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.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from River Falls
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.
River Falls is easy on foot, hard by bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, River Falls is more walkable than 80% of U.S. towns, #47 of 362 in Wisconsin. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 8.2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 4.8% across Wisconsin, on an EPA index of 7.5.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 9,587 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). 5.0% of River Falls households have no vehicle (Wisconsin 6.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of River Falls’ commuters take a bus or train.
How River Falls ranks: 760th of 1,822 U.S. towns of 13,000 to 24,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Plain Township OH | 13,257 | $219K | 2.1% | 0.8% | 10% | A+ |
| 2 | Rogers MN | 15,606 | $159K | 1.9% | 1.2% | 10% | A+ |
| 3 | Trophy Club TX | 13,695 | $201K | 2.1% | 2.0% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 30 | Greenville WI | 13,388 | $118K | 1.7% | 0.8% | 10% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 44 | Whitefish Bay WI | 14,489 | $157K | 3.7% | 2.6% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 48 | Verona WI | 16,821 | $120K | 1.4% | 1.6% | 21% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 758 | Hartford WI | 16,005 | $82K | 9.0% | 2.8% | 19% | B+ |
| 759 | Grantsville UT | 16,472 | $101K | 5.9% | 2.9% | 10% | B+ |
| 760 | River Falls WI | 17,916 | $84K | 15.1% | 3.3% | 24% | B+ |
| 761 | Old Jamestown MO | 20,651 | $100K | 7.4% | 5.6% | 1% | B+ |
| 762 | Golden CO | 20,390 | $99K | 12.6% | 3.6% | 10% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,822 | Douglas AZ | 16,038 | $42K | 27.8% | 12.3% | 29% | 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 River Falls, the top three, the last and three more from Wisconsin.
River Falls and the towns next door
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | River Falls workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| River Falls | – | B+ | A− | 22 min | $83,627 |
| Troy | under 2% | A | D | 28 min | $161,161 |
| Kinnickinnic | under 2% | A | C− | 26 min | $116,650 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of River 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.
- Students. 26% of residents are college students; the poverty input leaves off-campus students out (above).
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in River Falls: questions
What is the median household income in River Falls?
$83,627 (±$9,536) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,485 across Wisconsin and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in River Falls?
15.1% of residents live below the poverty line; leaving out college students, 8.3%. Wisconsin: 10.6%.
How long is the commute from River Falls?
22 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Wisconsin and 26 nationally. 12% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in River Falls work?
24% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Hudson (12%, 9 mi), St. Paul (3%, 24 mi), Hudson (2%, 9 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is River Falls walkable?
River Falls is more walkable than 80% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 7.5 out of 20, and 8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around River Falls without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 5% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from River Falls, from the people who make the trip.
More of River 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.