Photo: User:Royalbroil · CC BY-SA 2.5Households in Waunakee earn more than those in 90% of U.S. towns
Home is the office for 24% of workers, next to 13% for Wisconsin as a whole. The poverty rate is 2.8%; Wisconsin has 10.6%. Jobs and income earn Waunakee A+; getting around on foot earns it B.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Waunakee at work: what stands out
43% of Waunakee works in Madison
3,222 working residents, 43%, have their main job in Madison, 6.4 miles away. That’s 3 times as many as work in Waunakee itself. The commute map ↓
Home offices are common in Waunakee
24% of Waunakee workers work from home, against 13% across Wisconsin. Time on the road ↓
Waunakee has added jobs fast
Jobs based in Waunakee went from 4,158 in 2013 to 6,376 in 2023, +53%. The jobs ↓
Most Waunakee residents work close to home
64% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home, about two in three. How far ↓
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; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
How Waunakee earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Waunakee is better than 98% of U.S. towns, #26 of 362 in Wisconsin. The poverty rate is its strongest input; job access by car ranks lowest, though still above most U.S. towns (ahead of 75% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income and unemployment and job access by car.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Waunakee could be anywhere from A to A+.
43% of working residents work in Madison
Where Waunakee clocks in
43% of workers
6% of workers
2% 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.
A commute of about 22 minutes in Waunakee
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Waunakee workers work from home, vs 13% across Wisconsin. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 6,258 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.
Goods, not services: 34% of the jobs in Waunakee
6,376 jobs are based in Waunakee.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Waunakee, 2013 → 2023: 4,158 → 6,376. 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 Waunakee’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How far it is to work from Waunakee
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.
Waunakee on a workday afternoon
On a workday 6,509 residents head out to work, 1,057 work right here, and 5,319 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 (0.84 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.
Driving is how Waunakee gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Waunakee is more walkable than 63% of U.S. towns, #130 of 362 in Wisconsin. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 2.4% of 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 8,255 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 3.4% of Waunakee households have no vehicle (Wisconsin 6.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Waunakee’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Waunakee is 68th among 2,220 U.S. towns of 11,000 to 22,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New Albany OH | 11,803 | $238K | 1.4% | 0.9% | 11% | A+ |
| 2 | Plain Township OH | 13,257 | $219K | 2.1% | 0.8% | 10% | A+ |
| 3 | Rogers MN | 15,606 | $159K | 1.9% | 1.2% | 10% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 44 | Greenville WI | 13,388 | $118K | 1.7% | 0.8% | 10% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 57 | Whitefish Bay WI | 14,489 | $157K | 3.7% | 2.6% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 62 | Verona WI | 16,821 | $120K | 1.4% | 1.6% | 21% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 66 | Symmes Township OH | 15,736 | $157K | 3.8% | 2.3% | 4% | A+ |
| 67 | Orinda CA | 19,507 | $250K | 2.2% | 3.4% | 5% | A+ |
| 68 | Waunakee WI | 16,411 | $125K | 2.8% | 1.4% | 14% | A+ |
| 69 | Richfield WI | 11,785 | $144K | 4.8% | 1.3% | 6% | A+ |
| 70 | Berlin CT | 20,698 | $114K | 3.4% | 2.0% | 11% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,220 | Douglas AZ | 16,038 | $42K | 27.8% | 12.3% | 29% | 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 Waunakee, the top three, the last and three more from Wisconsin.
How Waunakee compares with the towns next door
The biggest share goes to Westport (1%).
Jobs & commute next door
Darker towns draw more of Waunakee’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 Waunakee: questions
What is the median household income in Waunakee?
$125,220 (±$10,720) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,485 across Wisconsin and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Waunakee?
2.8%, against 10.6% across Wisconsin and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Waunakee?
22 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Wisconsin and 26 nationally. 24% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Waunakee work?
14% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Madison (43%, 6 mi), Middleton (6%, 6 mi), Fitchburg (2%, 13 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Waunakee walkable?
Waunakee is more walkable than 63% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 8.0 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Waunakee without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Waunakee, from the people who make the trip.
More of Waunakee
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.