Stratford’s household incomes are lower than in 63% of U.S. towns
The two grades for Stratford are C for jobs and income and B for walkability. Poverty touches 13.7% of residents, where Wisconsin as a whole has 10.6%. About one in ten work in Stratford itself; outside it, Marshfield draws the most (32%, 10 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Stratford
One in three of Stratford works in Marshfield
235 working residents, 32%, have their main job in Marshfield, 11 miles away. That’s 3 times as many as work in Stratford itself. The commute map ↓
Stratford makes and builds things
36% of the jobs based in Stratford are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Stratford residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 35%. The jobs ↓
Most jobs in Stratford pay over $40,000 a year
72% of the jobs based in Stratford pay over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year), the top earnings band in the Census data. The jobs ↓
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; with 744 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Stratford’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
On income, poverty and job access, Stratford is better than 31% of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Stratford’s grade.
Unemployment (1.3%) is left out: Stratford’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, Stratford could be anywhere from C− to B−.
Where Stratford goes to work
Where Stratford clocks in
8% of workers
3% 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.
Making and building: 36% of jobs based in Stratford
880 jobs are based in Stratford.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Stratford, 2013 → 2023: 877 → 880. 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 Stratford’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who leaves, who stays, who comes in
On a workday 665 residents head out to work, 79 work right here, and 801 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 (1.18 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.
From Stratford, about 20 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Stratford workers work from home, vs 13% across Wisconsin. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 762 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.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Stratford
About 19% 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 Stratford, work means a drive
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Stratford is more walkable than 64% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 4.0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 4.8% across Wisconsin, on an EPA index of 7.0.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 853 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). 11.5% of Stratford households have no vehicle (Wisconsin 6.4%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Stratford’s commuters take a bus or train.
Stratford is 3,539th of 6,161 U.S. towns of 1,100 to 2,200 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 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 25 | Nashotah WI | 1,298 | $148K | 1.1% | 0.6% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 43 | Maple Bluff WI | 1,305 | $199K | 3.0% | 1.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 48 | Wind Point WI | 1,620 | $143K | 0.4% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,537 | Brookside AL | 1,433 | $59K | 26.5% | 3.9% | <1% | C |
| 3,538 | Kittitas WA | 1,440 | $80K | 11.5% | 6.3% | 4% | C |
| 3,539 | Stratford WI | 1,619 | $67K | 13.7% | 1.3% | 11% | C |
| 3,540 | Center Township IN | 1,265 | $64K | 12.8% | 1.0% | 0% | C |
| 3,541 | Wolcott VT | 1,672 | $70K | 9.3% | 3.7% | 2% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 6,161 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 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 Stratford, the top three, the last and three more from Wisconsin.
How Stratford compares with the towns next door
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Stratford workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stratford | – | C | B | 20 min | $66,739 |
| Eau Pleine | under 2% | — | — | 22 min | — |
| Cleveland | under 2% | A− | C | 25 min | $100,705 |
Same-state neighbors only. Eau Pleine: the same community as the town of that name, graded once. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Stratford’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 Stratford: questions
What is the median household income in Stratford?
$66,739 (±$8,493) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,485 across Wisconsin and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Stratford?
13.7%, against 10.6% across Wisconsin and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Stratford?
20 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Wisconsin and 26 nationally. 11% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Stratford work?
11% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Marshfield (32%, 10 mi), Wausau (8%, 24 mi), Marathon City (3%, 15 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Stratford walkable?
Stratford is more walkable than 64% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 7.0 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Stratford without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 12% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Stratford, from the people who make the trip.
More of Stratford
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.