Photo: Wineinger at English Wikipedia · Public domainSparta has lower household incomes than 66% of U.S. towns
For jobs and income Sparta is better than 41% of U.S. towns (C+); for walkability it is more walkable than 79% of U.S. towns (A−). Poverty touches 11.3% of residents (Wisconsin 10.6%). About one in three work in Sparta itself; outside it, La Crosse draws the most (12%, 22 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Sparta, in brief
The figures behind Sparta’s Jobs & income grade
Unemployment holds Sparta’s grade up (4.2%, U.S. 5.2%); household income pulls it down ($64,973, U.S. $80,734).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Sparta could be anywhere from C− to B.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Sparta
About 26% 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.
Who leaves Sparta for work, and who comes in
On a workday 2,894 residents head out to work, 1,446 work right here, and 4,664 people come in from elsewhere.
About 12,000 people are in Sparta on a workday afternoon, 18% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.41 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.
Commuting out of Sparta: the destinations
Where Sparta clocks in
12% 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.
Goods jobs make up 30% of work in Sparta
6,110 jobs are based in Sparta.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Sparta, 2013 → 2023: 5,549 → 6,110. 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 Sparta’s own residents hold wherever they work.
From Sparta, about 19 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Sparta workers work from home, vs 13% across Wisconsin. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 4,596 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.
Walkable streets, thin transit: Sparta
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 5,116 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). 10.8% of Sparta households have no vehicle (Wisconsin 6.4%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Sparta’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 7,000 to 13,500, Sparta ranks 1,847th of 2,744 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| 2 | Beverly Hills MI | 10,449 | $177K | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Ladue MO | 8,934 | $250K | 1.1% | 1.7% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 29 | Waukesha WI | 8,507 | $131K | 3.0% | 1.2% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 46 | Genesee WI | 7,235 | $119K | 3.3% | 0.5% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 55 | Greenville WI | 13,388 | $118K | 1.7% | 0.8% | 10% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,845 | Sturgeon Bay WI | 9,917 | $60K | 9.2% | 3.2% | 52% | C+ |
| 1,846 | Gulf Hills MS | 8,451 | $73K | 10.9% | 6.2% | 2% | C+ |
| 1,847 | Sparta WI | 9,974 | $65K | 11.3% | 4.2% | 33% | C+ |
| 1,848 | Wayne Township IN | 11,013 | $60K | 14.9% | 3.2% | 23% | C+ |
| 1,849 | Riverside Township NJ | 8,231 | $76K | 18.9% | 7.8% | 3% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,744 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 14% | 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 Sparta, the top three, the last and three more from Wisconsin.
Around Sparta: the bordering towns
Jobs & commute next door
Darker towns draw more of Sparta’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 Sparta: questions
What is the median household income in Sparta?
$64,973 (±$6,351) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,485 across Wisconsin and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Sparta?
11.3%, against 10.6% across Wisconsin and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Sparta?
19 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Wisconsin and 26 nationally. 10% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Sparta work?
33% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are La Crosse (12%, 22 mi), Tomah (5%, 16 mi), Onalaska (5%, 20 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Sparta walkable?
Sparta is more walkable than 79% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 8.2 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Sparta without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 11% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Sparta, from the people who make the trip.
More of Sparta
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.