Photo: I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby publish it under the following license: · CC BY-SA 3.042% of Whitewater’s residents are college students
Whitewater grades B− for jobs and income and A− for walkability. About one in five work in Whitewater itself; outside it, Fort Atkinson draws the most (6%, 8 miles). The trip to work takes 17 minutes on average, against 22 across Wisconsin and 26 nationally.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Whitewater
Whitewater trades workers with the towns around it
Whitewater has about as many jobs (5,861) as working residents (5,871), but they are mostly different people: 4,603 residents leave for work each day while 4,593 people come in. Only 22% of the jobs in Whitewater are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
Commutes from Whitewater are quick
The average trip to work takes 17 minutes, against 22 across Wisconsin. That’s about 38 hours a year less on the road than the typical Wisconsin worker. Time on the road ↓
A young workforce
30% of Whitewater’s working residents are 29 or younger. 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 Whitewater earns its Jobs & income grade
On family income, poverty and job access, Whitewater is better than 52% of U.S. towns, #281 of 362 in Wisconsin. Job access by car holds Whitewater’s grade up (ahead of 65% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (13.4%, U.S. 11.9%). It also does well on family income.
Where students are 15% or more of the people the Census checks for poverty (25% here), the grade uses the rate without them: 13.4%, against 26.8% for all residents. Unemployment (5.3%) is left out here: students looking for part-time work count as unemployed. Income is ranked as median family income ($96,438), since student households pull the household median down ($54,969).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for family income and poverty, Whitewater could be anywhere from C+ to A−.
Who leaves, who stays, who comes in
On a workday 4,603 residents head out to work, 1,268 work right here, and 4,593 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 (1.00 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.
The trip to work from Whitewater: about 17 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Whitewater workers work from home, vs 13% across Wisconsin. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 8,248 commuters (the 9% 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.
Whitewater makes things: 33% of its jobs are in goods
5,861 jobs are based in Whitewater.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Whitewater, 2013 → 2023: 6,538 → 5,861. 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 Whitewater’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The towns that employ Whitewater’s residents
Where Whitewater clocks in
6% of workers
6% of workers
4% 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 distance from Whitewater to work
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.
Whitewater is easy on foot, hard by bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Whitewater is more walkable than 82% of U.S. towns, #42 of 362 in Wisconsin. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 15.3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 4.8% across Wisconsin, on an EPA index of 7.2.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 9,077 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). 4.7% of Whitewater households have no vehicle (Wisconsin 6.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Whitewater’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Whitewater ranks: 1,381st of 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,379 | Ladson SC | 16,140 | $79K | 12.3% | 5.3% | 2% | B− |
| 1,380 | Two Rivers WI | 11,222 | $57K | 11.8% | 1.7% | 20% | B− |
| 1,381 | Whitewater WI | 16,038 | $55K | 26.8% | 5.3% | 22% | B− |
| 1,382 | Canyon TX | 16,518 | $70K | 13.1% | 3.1% | 25% | B− |
| 1,383 | Van Buren Township IN | 12,634 | $74K | 8.7% | 4.8% | 8% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 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 Whitewater, the top three, the last and three more from Wisconsin.
Whitewater and the towns next door
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Whitewater workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Whitewater | – | B− | A− | 17 min | $54,969 |
| Cold Spring | under 2% | — | — | 25 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Cold Spring: not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Whitewater’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.
- Students. 42% of residents are college students; the poverty input leaves off-campus students out (above).
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Whitewater: questions
What is the median household income in Whitewater?
$54,969 (±$9,908) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,485 across Wisconsin and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Whitewater?
26.8% of residents live below the poverty line; leaving out college students, 13.4%. Wisconsin: 10.6%.
How long is the commute from Whitewater?
17 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Wisconsin and 26 nationally. 9% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Whitewater work?
22% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Fort Atkinson (6%, 8 mi), Madison (6%, 39 mi), Janesville (4%, 18 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Whitewater walkable?
Whitewater is more walkable than 82% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 7.2 out of 20, and 15% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Whitewater without a car?
1% 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 Whitewater, from the people who make the trip.
More of Whitewater
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.