Photo: Visitmontrose · CC BY-SA 4.0Montrose has higher unemployment (5.0%) than 61% of U.S. towns
More than half work in Montrose itself; outside it, Grand Junction draws the most (6%, 57 miles). Jobs and income earn Montrose C; getting around on foot earns it A−. Home is the office for 11% of workers, next to 21% for Colorado as a whole.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The short version on getting to work from Montrose
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Montrose
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Montrose is better than 32% of U.S. towns, #133 of 159 in Colorado. All four inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Montrose’s grade.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Montrose could be anywhere from C− to B.
Getting to work from Montrose takes about 20 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Montrose workers work from home, vs 21% across Colorado. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 8,010 commuters (the 11% who work from home are left out). Across Colorado: 82% drive alone, 2% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Who works in Montrose, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 4,110 residents head out to work, 4,373 work right here, and 7,285 people come in from elsewhere.
About 25,000 people are in Montrose on a workday afternoon, 15% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.37 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.
Out of Montrose to work: where people go
Where Montrose clocks in
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.
What Montrose’s employers do
11,658 jobs are based in Montrose.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Montrose, 2013 → 2023: 10,295 → 11,658. 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 Montrose’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Montrose
About 27% 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.
Montrose is more walkable than most U.S. towns, with limited transit
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Montrose is more walkable than 78% of U.S. towns, #74 of 159 in Colorado. Both inputs place Montrose near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 9,013 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 5% 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). 5.3% of Montrose households have no vehicle (Colorado 5.2%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Montrose’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Montrose is 1,426th among 1,787 U.S. towns of 15,000 to 29,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rogers MN | 15,606 | $159K | 1.9% | 1.2% | 10% | A+ |
| 2 | West Springfield VA | 22,532 | $163K | 1.9% | 1.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Wolf Trap VA | 15,858 | $250K | 3.1% | 2.0% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 77 | Greenwood Village CO | 15,323 | $149K | 3.1% | 3.3% | 13% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 175 | Lone Tree CO | 15,278 | $124K | 4.9% | 3.0% | 9% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 192 | Castle Pines CO | 15,583 | $191K | 6.9% | 2.6% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,424 | Huntington IN | 17,167 | $57K | 15.0% | 4.6% | 33% | C |
| 1,425 | Kingston NY | 23,942 | $68K | 17.6% | 5.4% | 27% | C |
| 1,426 | Montrose CO | 21,583 | $70K | 11.6% | 5.0% | 52% | C |
| 1,427 | Auburn ME | 25,441 | $67K | 13.8% | 7.0% | 27% | C |
| 1,428 | Oxford AL | 22,199 | $74K | 15.8% | 5.5% | 19% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 1,787 | 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 Montrose, the top three, the last and three more from Colorado.
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 Montrose: questions
What is the median household income in Montrose?
$70,386 (±$5,938) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $95,470 across Colorado and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Montrose?
11.6%, against 9.4% across Colorado and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Montrose?
20 minutes each way on average, against 25 across Colorado and 26 nationally. 11% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Montrose work?
52% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Grand Junction (6%, 57 mi), Delta (3%, 24 mi), Denver (2%, 183 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Montrose walkable?
Montrose is more walkable than 78% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 7.9 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Montrose without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 5% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Montrose, from the people who make the trip.
More of Montrose
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.