Photo: Travellers & Tinkers · CC BY-SA 4.0Washburn has lower household incomes than 70% of U.S. towns
Poverty touches 6.7% of residents; Wisconsin has 10.6%. For jobs and income Washburn is better than 29% of U.S. towns (C); for walkability it is more walkable than 94% of U.S. towns (A). About one in four stay in Washburn for work; outside it, Ashland is the main destination (25%, 7 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Washburn at work: what stands out
Washburn and Ashland trade workers both ways
Ashland is the top workplace for Washburn residents (25%) and also where the most people who work in Washburn come from (17% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Most Washburn residents work close to home
62% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home. How far ↓
Commutes from Washburn are quick
The average trip to work takes 14 minutes, against 22 across Wisconsin. That’s about 61 hours a year less on the road than the typical Wisconsin worker. Time on the road ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2024, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; with 826 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
The four measures behind Washburn’s grade
The poverty rate holds Washburn’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 8% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (2.6%) is left out: Washburn’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, Washburn could be anywhere from C− to B−.
Where the trip to work from Washburn ends
Where Washburn clocks in
25% of workers
5% 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.
How far it is to work from Washburn
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 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
About 14 minutes each way, quicker than most of Wisconsin
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 4.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Washburn workers work from home, vs 13% across Wisconsin. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 759 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.
Washburn on a workday afternoon
On a workday 599 residents head out to work, 227 work right here, and 697 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 (1.12 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2024, primary jobs.
Services make up most of the work in Washburn
924 jobs are based in Washburn.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Washburn, 2014 → 2024: 825 → 924. 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 2024.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Washburn’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Walkable streets, thin transit: Washburn
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 16.5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 4.8% across Wisconsin, on an EPA index of 9.4.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 862 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). 10.7% of Washburn households have no vehicle (Wisconsin 6.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 2% of Washburn’s commuters take a bus or train.
Washburn is 3,659th of 5,793 U.S. towns of 1,400 to 2,800 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 40 | Wind Point WI | 1,620 | $143K | 0.4% | 0.9% | 3% | A+ |
| 41 | North Prairie WI | 2,193 | $153K | 2.8% | 0.9% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 58 | Vandenbroek WI | 1,701 | $129K | 1.6% | 5.0% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,657 | Buffalo WI | 1,446 | $78K | 13.6% | 4.0% | 1% | C |
| 3,658 | Penn Valley CA | 1,678 | $65K | 9.3% | 0.0% | 4% | C |
| 3,659 | Washburn WI | 2,045 | $62K | 6.7% | 2.6% | 27% | C |
| 3,660 | Field Township IL | 1,489 | $70K | 10.6% | 3.0% | 1% | C |
| 3,661 | Wayne Township IN | 1,645 | $64K | 12.1% | 4.6% | 1% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 5,793 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 61% | 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 Washburn, the top three, the last and three more from Wisconsin.
Work in the towns next to Washburn
The biggest share goes to Bayview (1%).
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Washburn workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Washburn | – | C | A | 14 min | $62,128 |
| Bayview | 1% | — | — | 29 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Bayview: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Washburn’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 2024, 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 Washburn: questions
What is the median household income in Washburn?
$62,128 (±$7,414) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,485 across Wisconsin and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Washburn?
6.7%, against 10.6% across Wisconsin and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Washburn?
14 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Wisconsin and 26 nationally. 12% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Washburn work?
27% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Ashland (25%, 7 mi), Bayfield (5%, 10 mi), Superior (3%, 56 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Washburn walkable?
Washburn is more walkable than 94% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 9.4 out of 20, and 16% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Washburn without a car?
2% 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 Washburn, from the people who make the trip.
More of Washburn
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2024, 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.