Photo: Royalbroil · CC BY-SA 3.0Wabeno has lower household incomes than 72% of U.S. towns
About one in seven work in Wabeno; the top destination outside it is Lincoln (16%, 17 miles). The poverty rate is 15.2%, where Wisconsin as a whole has 10.6%. Jobs and income earn Wabeno D; getting around on foot earns it B−.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Wabeno, in a few figures
A big share show a job far from home
34% 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 ↓
Wabeno has added jobs fast
Jobs based in Wabeno went from 363 in 2013 to 493 in 2023, +36%. 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 413 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 Wabeno’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Wabeno is better than 10% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Wabeno’s grade up ($61,477, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 2% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (7.2%) is left out: Wabeno’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, Wabeno could be anywhere from D− to C−.
Near or far: the trip to work from Wabeno
About 34% 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.
What Wabeno’s employers do
493 jobs are based in Wabeno.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Wabeno, 2013 → 2023: 363 → 493. 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 Wabeno’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Wabeno by day and by night
On a workday 347 residents head out to work, 66 work right here, and 427 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 (1.19 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.
Where Wabeno’s working residents head each day
Where Wabeno clocks in
Lines 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.
Getting to work from Wabeno takes about 22 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Wabeno workers work from home, vs 13% across Wisconsin. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 308 commuters (the 6% 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.
Wabeno is a driving town
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Wabeno is more walkable than 52% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 3.3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 4.8% across Wisconsin, on an EPA index of 6.3.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 327 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). 4.8% of Wabeno households have no vehicle (Wisconsin 6.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Wabeno’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 800 to 1,500, Wabeno ranks 3,116th 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,114 | Sister Bay WI | 1,177 | $71K | 24.7% | 0.7% | 18% | D |
| 3,115 | Rushford NY | 1,075 | $59K | 16.2% | 3.8% | 1% | D |
| 3,116 | Wabeno WI | 1,100 | $61K | 15.2% | 7.2% | 16% | D |
| 3,117 | Fremont NC | 1,237 | $52K | 28.2% | 6.7% | 2% | D |
| 3,118 | Kingston OK | 1,480 | $46K | 13.6% | 2.2% | 14% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 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 Wabeno, the top three, the last and three more from Wisconsin.
How Wabeno compares with the towns next door
The biggest share goes to Laona (7%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Wabeno workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wabeno | – | D | B− | 22 min | $61,477 |
| Blackwell | under 2% | — | — | 30 min | — |
| Silver Cliff | under 2% | — | — | 31 min | — |
| Freedom | under 2% | — | — | 42 min | — |
| Laona | 7% | D | C− | 23 min | $63,281 |
| Townsend | under 2% | C+ | C− | 23 min | $87,857 |
| Lakewood | 2% | — | — | 18 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Blackwell, Silver Cliff and Lakewood: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Freedom: 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 Wabeno’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 Wabeno: questions
What is the median household income in Wabeno?
$61,477 (±$11,123) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,485 across Wisconsin and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Wabeno?
15.2%, against 10.6% across Wisconsin and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Wabeno?
22 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Wisconsin and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Wabeno work?
16% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Lincoln (16%, 17 mi), Laona (7%, 11 mi), Crandon (5%, 19 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Wabeno walkable?
Wabeno is more walkable than 52% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 6.3 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Wabeno 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 Wabeno, from the people who make the trip.
More of Wabeno
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.