L.I. Roe House · Photo: Jeff the quiet · CC0Households in Stanley have lower incomes than those in 90% of U.S. towns
About one in ten work in Stanley itself; outside it, Eau Claire draws the most (13%, 28 miles). Poverty touches 20.0% of residents (Wisconsin 10.6%). Stanley grades D for jobs and income and A for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Stanley
Jobs & income in Stanley: the grade in detail
Unemployment holds Stanley’s grade up (5.0%, U.S. 5.2%); household income pulls it down ($48,052, U.S. $80,734).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Stanley could be anywhere from D− to C+.
The distance from Stanley to work
About 25% 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.
How many people are in Stanley by day
On a workday 1,108 residents head out to work, 119 work right here, and 823 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 (0.77 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.
The towns that employ Stanley’s residents
Where Stanley clocks in
10% 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 Stanley’s employers do
942 jobs are based in Stanley.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Stanley, 2013 → 2023: 1,091 → 942. 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 Stanley’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 26 minutes each way for Stanley’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Stanley workers work from home, vs 13% across Wisconsin. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 960 commuters (the 7% 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.
Stanley is more walkable than most U.S. towns, with limited transit
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Stanley is more walkable than 87% of U.S. towns, #24 of 362 in Wisconsin. Both inputs place Stanley 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 1,028 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 Stanley households have no vehicle (Wisconsin 6.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Stanley’s commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, Stanley is 3,785th of 4,264 U.S. towns of 2,700 to 5,200
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Mission Hills KS | 3,522 | $250K | 1.2% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Ho-Ho-Kus NJ | 4,313 | $250K | 0.0% | 1.7% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 42 | Ottawa WI | 3,642 | $153K | 1.0% | 1.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 52 | Jackson WI | 3,950 | $117K | 0.6% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 57 | Bristol WI | 4,347 | $141K | 1.2% | 0.8% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,783 | Sebring OH | 4,065 | $50K | 20.3% | 12.2% | 15% | D |
| 3,784 | Dewey OK | 3,450 | $43K | 23.0% | 4.7% | 8% | D |
| 3,785 | Stanley WI | 3,876 | $48K | 20.0% | 5.0% | 10% | D |
| 3,786 | Summerville GA | 4,440 | $33K | 25.5% | 3.9% | 11% | D |
| 3,787 | McCall ID | 4,133 | $60K | 16.0% | 5.4% | 51% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 4,264 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 18% | 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 Stanley, the top three, the last and three more from Wisconsin.
Next door to Stanley
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
Darker towns draw more of Stanley’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 Stanley: questions
What is the median household income in Stanley?
$48,052 (±$4,219) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,485 across Wisconsin and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Stanley?
20.0%, against 10.6% across Wisconsin and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Stanley?
26 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Wisconsin and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Stanley work?
10% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Eau Claire (13%, 28 mi), Chippewa Falls (10%, 22 mi), Thorp (5%, 7 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Stanley walkable?
Stanley is more walkable than 87% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 8.7 out of 20, and 7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Stanley without a car?
0% 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 Stanley, from the people who make the trip.
More of Stanley
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.