Onalaska is a medium-sized city located in the state of Wisconsin. With a population of 19,018 people and five associated neighborhoods, Onalaska is the 45th largest community in Wisconsin.Unlike some cities where white-collar or blue-collar occupations dominate the local economy, Onalaska is neither predominantly one nor the other. Instead, it has a mixed workforce of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, Onalaska is a city of professionals, sales and office workers, and managers. There are especially a lot of people living in Onalaska who work in healthcare (12.08%), office and administrative support (10.85%), and sales jobs (9.82%). Also of interest is that Onalaska has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US. One interesting thing about the economy is that relatively large numbers of people worked from their home: 8.11% of the workforce. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce this is high compared to the rest of the county. These workers are often telecommuters who work in knowledge-based, white-collar professions. For example, Silicon Valley has large numbers of people who telecommute. Other at-home workers may be self-employed people who operate small businesses out of their homes. One of the benefits of Onalaska is that there is very little traffic. The average commute to work is 19.24 minutes, which is substantially less than the national average. Not only does this mean that the drive to work is less aggravating, but noise and pollution levels are lower as a result. Onalaska is a small city, and as such doesn't have a public transit system that people use to get to and from their jobs every day.The citizens of Onalaska are among the most well-educated in the nation: 41.40% of adults in Onalaska have a bachelor's degree or even advanced degree, whereas the average US city has 21.84% holding at least a bachelor's degree. The per capita income in Onalaska in 2022 was $50,428, which is wealthy relative to Wisconsin and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $201,712 for a family of four. However, Onalaska contains both very wealthy and poor people as well. Onalaska is a somewhat ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Onalaska home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Onalaska residents report their race to be White, followed by Asian. Important ancestries of people in Onalaska include German, Norwegian, Irish, English, and Polish. The most common language spoken in Onalaska is English. Other important languages spoken here include Miao/Hmong and Polish.
