Turtle Lake draws 1,564 commuters a day, with 3.3 jobs for every working resident
For jobs and income Turtle Lake is better than 42% of U.S. towns (C+); for walkability it is more walkable than 78% of U.S. towns (A−). There are 1,636 jobs in Turtle Lake; 499 of its residents have a job. About one in seven stay in Turtle Lake for work; outside it, Cumberland is the main destination (6%, 12 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The work figures that set Turtle Lake apart
Turtle Lake fills up on a workday
Turtle Lake has 1,636 jobs, 3.3 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 2,200 people are in town, more than double the 1,000 who live here. Day and night ↓
Turtle Lake has added jobs fast
Jobs based in Turtle Lake went from 866 in 2013 to 1,636 in 2023, +89%. 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 499 working residents, small shifts move the shares; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
The figures behind Turtle Lake’s Jobs & income grade
The poverty rate holds Turtle Lake’s grade up (5.3%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 25% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (2.0%) is left out: Turtle Lake’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, Turtle Lake could be anywhere from C to B−.
The workday shuffle in and out of Turtle Lake
On a workday 427 residents head out to work and 72 work right here.
About 2,200 people are in Turtle Lake on a workday afternoon, 111% more 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.
The kinds of work in Turtle Lake
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Turtle Lake, 2013 → 2023: 866 → 1,636. 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 Turtle Lake’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Where the people who work in Turtle Lake live
Where Turtle Lake clocks in
6% 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.
The daily trip from Turtle Lake: about 22 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Turtle Lake workers work from home, vs 13% across Wisconsin. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 467 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.
Where in the region Turtle Lake works
About 28% 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.
Good to walk, short on transit: Turtle Lake
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 6.4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 4.8% across Wisconsin, on an EPA index of 7.6.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 532 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). 5.1% of Turtle Lake households have no vehicle (Wisconsin 6.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Turtle Lake’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 3,133 U.S. towns of 700 to 1,400, Turtle Lake comes 1,305th 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 17 | Nashotah WI | 1,298 | $148K | 1.1% | 0.6% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 28 | Maple Bluff WI | 1,305 | $199K | 3.0% | 1.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 67 | Kaukauna WI | 1,295 | $122K | 2.0% | 1.6% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,303 | Dickson OK | 1,363 | $81K | 11.1% | 1.2% | 2% | C+ |
| 1,304 | Terre Hill PA | 1,282 | $64K | 17.1% | 2.5% | <1% | C+ |
| 1,305 | Turtle Lake WI | 1,023 | $61K | 5.3% | 2.0% | 14% | C+ |
| 1,306 | East Finley Township PA | 1,286 | $78K | 9.4% | 1.5% | 2% | C+ |
| 1,307 | Geronimo OK | 1,188 | $74K | 10.6% | 7.5% | 0% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,133 | 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 Turtle Lake, the top three, the last and three more from Wisconsin.
Turtle Lake and the towns next door
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Turtle Lake workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Turtle Lake | – | C+ | A− | 22 min | $61,250 |
| Almena | under 3% | — | — | 25 min | — |
| Beaver | under 3% | — | — | 24 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Almena and Beaver: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Turtle Lake’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 Turtle Lake: questions
What is the median household income in Turtle Lake?
$61,250 (±$3,183) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,485 across Wisconsin and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Turtle Lake?
5.3%, against 10.6% across Wisconsin and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Turtle Lake?
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 Turtle Lake work?
14% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Cumberland (6%, 12 mi), Rice Lake (6%, 21 mi), Barron (5%, 15 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Turtle Lake walkable?
Turtle Lake is more walkable than 78% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 7.6 out of 20, and 6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Turtle Lake 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 Turtle Lake, from the people who make the trip.
More of Turtle Lake
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.