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Globe/United States/Wisconsin/Walworth County

Walworth County

Southeast Wisconsin / Geneva Lakes / Chicago Metro Commuter Belt, Wisconsin · 106K people · $5.5B GDP

ReportCompareBoard BriefMeridian
Timeline
2026Present
NOW
EVENT HORIZON
2020202620302035204020452050
Southeast Wisconsin / Geneva Lakes / Chicago Metro Commuter Belt

Future Path

Pick a future path. Every number on this page updates with the impacts and the ranked actions for that path.

Disruption Profile

Baseline + Probable

High — Active disruption underway in key sectors

Moderate — Median household income $75K (+3.2% vs state median) -- near the state median.

Moderate — Building pressure in key sectors

Moderate — Moderate exposure across select industries

Moderate — AI Exposure Index: 31/100 -- lower vulnerability to AI-driven workforce disruption.

Moderate — Moderate exposure across select industries

Moderate — Moderate exposure across select industries

Low — Moderate exposure across select industries

Minimal — Limited disruption signal

Walworth County vs Wisconsin Average

Walworth County exceeds Wisconsin average on 6/9 dimensions. Highest divergence: Social Trust (-24)

Click a dimension label to explore

Walworth Wisconsin US Avg

Projected impact · 2026

Stakes for Walworth County

Probable cone · 1.00x

With 54K jobs in Walworth County and AI exposure at 31/100, here is what the model projects through 2031 under the probable cone (default 5-year horizon — scrub the timeline to extend).

Model: at-risk = workforce × (AI exposure ÷ 100) × ((year − 2020) ÷ 10, capped 0-1) × cone multiplier. Each STEEPE-point improvement preserves ~1% of at-risk jobs. The same formula runs backwards (retrodiction) and forwards (projection), so scrubbing pre-2026 shows what the model says was already exposed by that year.

See per-dimension breakdown

How 8 actions distribute across 4 dimensions, plus near-term vs medium-term lists.

If Walworth County implements all 8 recommended actions, the model projects these dimensional improvements.

Education Value
56+20 pts
Close the Skills Gap with AI-Ready Credentials /Pre-emptive Reskilling Pipeline: Hotel and resort front-desk / housekeeping operations /Sector-Aligned K-12 + Community College Pipeline /Registered Apprenticeship Expansion: Trade, Transportation & Utilities
AI > AGI > ASI
40+6 pts
Anchor Employer AI Co-Investment Compact /Universal Broadband for AI Economy Participation
Economic Disruption
52+5 pts
Reduce Leisure & Hospitality (Lake Geneva tourism) Concentration Risk
Social Trust
61+4 pts
Pre-Positioned Displaced Worker Rapid Response
Near-term (1-3 yr)+34 pts

7 actions within local control

  • - Close the Skills Gap with AI-Ready Credentials
  • - Reduce Leisure & Hospitality (Lake Geneva tourism) Concentration Risk
  • - Pre-emptive Reskilling Pipeline: Hotel and resort front-desk / housekeeping operations
  • - Sector-Aligned K-12 + Community College Pipeline
  • - Anchor Employer AI Co-Investment Compact
  • - Registered Apprenticeship Expansion: Trade, Transportation & Utilities
  • - Pre-Positioned Displaced Worker Rapid Response
Medium-term (3-7 yr)+1 pts

1 action requiring partnerships or advocacy

  • - Universal Broadband for AI Economy Participation

Action Plan

Probable path

Top recommendations for Walworth County, ranked by estimated impact. 8 total · +35 pts combined.

Who Can Act

Of 8 recommended actions for Walworth County, 7 are within direct control. Tap a sphere to see the actions and what each one does.

Acting on the 7 local levers alone (+34 STEEPE pts) is the fastest path to shifting the probable→preferred future cone for this county.

Top Employers — Walworth County

The 10 largest employers shaping the local labor market. Tap any row for the public-data profile and AI-exposure assessment.

Economic Development Authority

Walworth County Economic Development Alliance

Walworth County Tourism, Workforce & Diversification Strategy

Website

Target Sectors

Tourism & Hospitality (Lake Geneva resort area, Geneva Lakes)Dairy & Agribusiness (Wisconsin dairy-belt operations and processing)Health Services (Mercyhealth, Aurora Lakeland regional anchors)Light Manufacturing & Supplier Base (I-43 corridor)

Active Programs

  • +Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) rural-and-tourism partnership
  • +Gateway Technical College Elkhorn workforce-training pipelines
  • +Wisconsin Broadband Office expansion grants (BEAD-funded)
  • +Visit Lake Geneva regional tourism marketing programs

Recent Wins

Grand Geneva Resort & Spa multi-phase resort and conference modernization
$50M+2024
Mercyhealth Walworth regional healthcare facility investments
$30M+2024

Supporting detail

Open any section to dig into the underlying data.

Layoff history (WARN)

Federal layoff filings on the timeline

WARN Act Notices (2020-2026)

Notices

0

Workers

0

Layoff Rate

0%

of total employment

2025

0

Workers Affected by Year

0
2020
0
2021
0
2022
0
2023
0
2024
0
2025
0
2026

Recent Notices

Source: Wisconsin DWD WARN. Federal WARN Act: 60-day notice for mass layoffs (50+ workers) at employers with 100+ employees.

Disruption scenarios

Exponential impact paths driven by the timeline

Exponential Impact Scenarios

Cross-signal alerts

When multiple risk signals converge on this county

Full economic profile

Demographics, employment, sectors, incentives

EVI: stableBASELINENon-Metro (RUCC 4)

Housing & Infrastructure

Median Home Value

$268K

Homeownership

74.6%

Median Rent

$1,080

Broadband Access

86.6%

Avg Commute

25.4 min

Labor Force Part.

64.8%

Home values lifted meaningfully above the Wisconsin median by Geneva Lakes second-home demand and Chicago commuter inflows. Short-term-rental conversion has tightened year-round rental supply in Lake Geneva and Fontana. Elkhorn and Delavan housing tracks the county-seat and service-economy employment base. Affordable housing pressure is a recurring local policy theme.

Employment by Sector

Leisure & Hospitality (Lake Geneva tourism)18.8%
Trade, Transportation & Utilities17.2%
Education & Health Services16.4%
Manufacturing (light industrial)12.6%
Agriculture (corn, soy, dairy)5.6%

Population & Talent

Population

106K

Change Since 2020

+1.4%

Median Age

41.6

Modest net gaining: Chicago metro commuter inflows along I-43 and US-12 plus retiree and second-home conversions around the Geneva Lakes outweigh younger outmigration toward Madison and Milwaukee. Remote-and-hybrid work has expanded the viable commute radius from northern Illinois.

Tourism-and-commuter-belt economy with four legs: Lake Geneva resort hospitality (a century-old Chicago-weekender destination anchoring hotels, restaurants, marinas, and second-home demand), Chicago metro commuter inflows along the I-43 and US-12 corridors, Wisconsin dairy-belt agriculture, and higher-education adjacency to UW-Whitewater + Gateway Technical College's Elkhorn campus. Service-sector employment around the Geneva Lakes is the dominant base, supplemented by light manufacturing along the I-43 corridor and a meaningful healthcare cluster anchored by Mercyhealth and Aurora Lakeland Medical Center. Tourism revenue is seasonally and weather-exposed but structurally durable on Chicago-metro demand.

Sources

Census QuickFacts: Walworth County, WIBLS Wisconsin Employment SummaryWalworth County, Wisconsin (government)Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC)

Grant matches

Federal funding aligned to county levers

Target industries

Sectors prioritized by the county strategy

Sectors aligned with the county’s diversification strategy and AI impact assessment.

1.Tourism & Hospitality (Lake Geneva resort area)

AI mixed

Lake Geneva and the Geneva Lakes (Lake Geneva, Delavan Lake, Lake Como) are one of the upper Midwest's most established resort destinations, drawing weekenders and second-home owners from the Chicago metro for over a century. Grand Geneva Resort & Spa, The Abbey Resort, downtown Lake Geneva hotels, conference venues, marinas, and a dense restaurant and retail base anchor a tourism-dependent service economy. AI revenue-management, dynamic pricing, and demand forecasting are productivity-positive; front-desk and food-service automation compress entry-level headcount.

2.Chicago Metro Commuter Belt

AI mixed

Walworth County sits within commuter range of the northern Chicago suburbs along I-43 and US-12. A meaningful share of working-age residents commute into Lake County (IL) and northern Cook County professional services, financial services, and corporate offices, while a parallel cohort works remotely with Chicago-based employers from second-home or primary-home addresses in the county. Remote-and-hybrid work has expanded the viable commute radius. AI knowledge-worker displacement risk is imported from the Chicago metro labor market.

Back to Wisconsin

County data: Census ACS, BLS, BEA. Disruption Profile scores 0-100 (higher = more disruption). Timeline adjusts projections.

3.Dairy & Agriculture

AI mixed

Walworth County remains part of the Wisconsin dairy belt -- the #1 US dairy state -- with significant corn, soy, and dairy operations across its working farmland. Robotic-dairy parlors, precision-feeding, and automated milking systems are being adopted unevenly; larger operations consolidate productivity gains while small family operations face cost-curve pressure. The dairy-tourism nexus (farm tours, cheese trails) provides a small secondary revenue stream.

4.Higher Education (UW-Whitewater adjacent, Gateway Technical College)

AI tailwind

The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater campus sits at the northwest edge of the county, providing a four-year public-university presence and steady student-and-faculty traffic into Walworth County's housing and retail markets. Gateway Technical College operates an Elkhorn campus serving workforce-training needs across hospitality, healthcare, manufacturing, and applied technology. Both institutions face the 2025-2032 enrollment cliff and are leaning into AI-augmented instructional design and online-program growth.

5.Healthcare (Mercyhealth, Aurora Lakeland Medical Center)

AI tailwind

Mercyhealth Walworth Hospital and Aurora Lakeland Medical Center in Elkhorn anchor regional healthcare for both year-round residents and the retiree / second-home cohort around the Geneva Lakes. Seasonal patient-volume swings from tourism complicate staffing. AI triage, telemedicine, and clinical-decision support have outsized impact in a part-rural / part-resort coverage context where weekend and summer demand can spike sharply.

Agricultural economy

Farm-sector dependence and AI exposure

Best-case opportunities

What this county wins in the preferred future

Sources

Government, academic, and live data feeds

Census QuickFacts: Walworth County, WIBLS Wisconsin Employment SummaryWalworth County, Wisconsin (government)University of Wisconsin-WhitewaterGateway Technical CollegeMercyhealthVisit Lake Geneva