With 0.4 jobs for every working resident, most of Wheaton works elsewhere
Wheaton has 523 jobs, against 1,241 working residents. Jobs and income earn Wheaton A−; getting around on foot earns it B−. Measured by household income, Wheaton is ahead of 79% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Wheaton: the figures worth knowing
Much of Wheaton works one town over
56% of working residents work in a town that borders Wheaton: Eau Claire (31%), Chippewa Falls (17%) and Union (5%). Next door ↓
Wheaton makes and builds things
43% of the jobs based in Wheaton are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Wheaton residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 23%. 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.
How Wheaton earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Wheaton is better than 80% of U.S. towns, #169 of 362 in Wisconsin. Household income is its strongest input ($103,053, U.S. $80,734); job access by car ranks lowest, though still above most U.S. towns (ahead of 56% of U.S. towns). It also does well on the poverty rate and unemployment and job access by car.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Wheaton could be anywhere from B to A.
Goods jobs make up 43% of work in Wheaton
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Wheaton, 2013 → 2023: 398 → 523. 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 Wheaton’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Wheaton by day and by night
On a workday 1,207 residents head out to work, 34 work right here, and 489 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,100 people are in Wheaton on a workday afternoon, 26% 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.
31% of working residents work in Eau Claire
Where Wheaton clocks in
17% 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.
From Wheaton, about 19 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Wheaton workers work from home, vs 13% across Wisconsin. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,229 commuters (the 19% 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.
Half of Wheaton commutes less than 10 miles
About 17% 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.
Few in Wheaton walk, bike or ride to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Wheaton is more walkable than 53% of U.S. towns, #166 of 362 in Wisconsin. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 5.6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 4.8% across Wisconsin, on an EPA index of 5.3.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,522 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). 0.4% of Wheaton households have no vehicle (Wisconsin 6.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Wheaton’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 5,131 U.S. towns of 1,900 to 3,800, Wheaton comes 824th 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 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 37 | Ottawa WI | 3,642 | $153K | 1.0% | 1.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 43 | North Prairie WI | 2,193 | $153K | 2.8% | 0.9% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 68 | Center WI | 3,706 | $115K | 1.6% | 0.0% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 822 | Kure Beach NC | 2,145 | $104K | 3.9% | 2.3% | 7% | A− |
| 823 | Salem Township OH | 2,112 | $88K | 4.7% | 1.5% | <1% | A− |
| 824 | Wheaton WI | 2,785 | $103K | 7.1% | 2.4% | 3% | A− |
| 825 | Fisher IL | 2,087 | $98K | 2.1% | 2.0% | 7% | A− |
| 826 | Riley Township MI | 2,028 | $95K | 4.9% | 3.6% | 1% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,131 | Cibecue AZ | 2,228 | $26K | 57.2% | 13.3% | 12% | 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 Wheaton, the top three, the last and three more from Wisconsin.
Wheaton and its neighbors: 56% work next door
The biggest share goes to Eau Claire (31%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Wheaton workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wheaton | – | A− | B− | 19 min | $103,053 |
| Chippewa Falls | 17% | C+ | B+ | 19 min | $57,873 |
| Lake Hallie | 3% | B+ | B− | 19 min | $86,740 |
| Eau Claire | 31% | B− | A− | 17 min | $67,395 |
| Elk Mound | under 2% | B+ | D | 24 min | $89,327 |
| Tilden | under 2% | A− | C | 19 min | $106,985 |
| Howard | under 2% | — | — | 20 min | — |
| Union | 5% | A | C | 17 min | $95,217 |
Same-state neighbors only. Howard: the same community as the village of that name, graded once. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Wheaton’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 Wheaton: questions
What is the median household income in Wheaton?
$103,053 (±$4,275) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,485 across Wisconsin and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Wheaton?
7.1%, against 10.6% across Wisconsin and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Wheaton?
19 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Wisconsin and 26 nationally. 19% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Wheaton work?
3% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Eau Claire (31%, 7 mi), Chippewa Falls (17%, 8 mi), Menomonie (5%, 17 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Wheaton walkable?
Wheaton is more walkable than 53% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 5.3 out of 20, and 6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Wheaton without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and <1% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Wheaton, from the people who make the trip.
More of Wheaton
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.