With 0.4 jobs for every working resident, most of Townsend works elsewhere
24% of workers work from home, where Wisconsin as a whole has 13%. Employers in Townsend report 138 jobs, and 385 of its residents work somewhere. Townsend grades C+ for jobs and income and C− for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Townsend, in a few figures
A big share show a job far from home
45% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. How far ↓
A lot of Townsend works from home
24% of Townsend workers work from home, against 13% across Wisconsin. Time on the road ↓
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 385 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What’s behind Townsend’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Townsend is better than 43% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Townsend’s grade up (6.8%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (near the bottom of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income.
Unemployment (0.0%) is left out: Townsend’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, Townsend could be anywhere from C to B−.
Townsend’s commute, mile by mile
About 45% 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.
About 23 minutes to work from Townsend
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Townsend workers work from home, vs 13% across Wisconsin. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 281 commuters (the 24% 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.
The daily commute in and out of Townsend
On a workday 355 residents head out to work, 30 work right here, and 108 people come in from elsewhere.
About 840 people are in Townsend on a workday afternoon, 23% 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.
10% of working residents work in Lakewood
Where Townsend clocks in
7% 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.
Jobs in Townsend: what the 138 are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Townsend, 2013 → 2023: 154 → 138. 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 Townsend’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Getting around Townsend: mostly by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Townsend is more walkable than 16% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: hardly any commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 4.8% across Wisconsin.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 370 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). 1.7% of Townsend households have no vehicle (Wisconsin 6.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Townsend’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 800 to 1,500, Townsend ranks 1,500th of 3,771 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 19 | Nashotah WI | 1,298 | $148K | 1.1% | 0.6% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 33 | Maple Bluff WI | 1,305 | $199K | 3.0% | 1.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 44 | Big Bend WI | 1,498 | $135K | 3.2% | 0.6% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,498 | Morse Township MN | 1,178 | $81K | 5.7% | 0.0% | 7% | C+ |
| 1,499 | Bergen WI | 1,363 | $77K | 9.9% | 1.5% | 1% | C+ |
| 1,500 | Townsend WI | 1,084 | $88K | 6.8% | 0.0% | 8% | C+ |
| 1,501 | Royal Palm Estates FL | 1,369 | $61K | 16.9% | 7.1% | <1% | C+ |
| 1,502 | Cushing ME | 1,482 | $84K | 7.7% | 3.6% | 4% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,771 | 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 Townsend, the top three, the last and three more from Wisconsin.
Work next door: 22% of Townsend’s workers
The biggest share goes to Lakewood (10%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Townsend workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Townsend | – | C+ | C− | 23 min | $87,857 |
| Doty | under 2% | — | — | 37 min | — |
| Lakewood | 10% | — | — | 18 min | — |
| Wabeno | 7% | D | B− | 22 min | $61,477 |
| Wolf River | under 2% | — | — | 40 min | — |
| Freedom | under 2% | — | — | 42 min | — |
| Riverview | 5% | — | — | 34 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Doty, Lakewood and Riverview: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Wolf River and Freedom: the same communities as the places of those names, graded once. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Townsend’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 Townsend: questions
What is the median household income in Townsend?
$87,857 (±$11,956) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,485 across Wisconsin and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Townsend?
6.8%, against 10.6% across Wisconsin and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Townsend?
23 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Wisconsin and 26 nationally. 24% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Townsend work?
8% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Lakewood (10%, 10 mi), Wabeno (7%, 9 mi), Riverview (5%, 11 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Townsend walkable?
Townsend is more walkable than 16% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 6.2 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Townsend without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Townsend, from the people who make the trip.
More of Townsend
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.