Photo: sporst · CC BY 2.0Unemployment in Blackfoot (7.8%) is higher than in 87% of U.S. towns
Working from home is the commute for 4% of workers, against 13% across Idaho. For jobs and income Blackfoot is better than 25% of U.S. towns (C); for walkability it is more walkable than 80% of U.S. towns (A−). About one in three stay in Blackfoot for work; outside it, Idaho Falls is the main destination (17%, 26 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jobs and commuting in Blackfoot: the gist
Blackfoot trades workers with the towns around it
Blackfoot has about as many jobs (5,585) as working residents (5,430), but they are mostly different people: 3,794 residents leave for work each day while 3,949 people come in. Only 29% of the jobs in Blackfoot are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
Blackfoot’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Blackfoot is Idaho Falls, 26 miles away as the crow flies. 17% of working residents (936) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
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.
What’s behind Blackfoot’s Jobs & income grade
The poverty rate holds Blackfoot’s grade up (10.6%, U.S. 12.5%); unemployment pulls it down.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Blackfoot could be anywhere from D to B−.
Blackfoot by day and by night
On a workday 3,794 residents head out to work, 1,636 work right here, and 3,949 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 (1.03 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.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Blackfoot
About 16% 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.
Where people from Blackfoot work
Where Blackfoot clocks in
17% of workers
3% 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 Blackfoot’s employers do
5,585 jobs are based in Blackfoot.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Blackfoot, 2013 → 2023: 4,190 → 5,585. 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 Blackfoot’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Commuting from Blackfoot: about 22 minutes a trip
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Blackfoot workers work from home, vs 13% across Idaho. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 5,169 commuters (the 4% who work from home are left out). Across Idaho: 84% 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.
Blackfoot is more walkable than most U.S. towns, with limited transit
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 5,412 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). 9.3% of Blackfoot households have no vehicle (Idaho 3.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Blackfoot’s commuters take a bus or train.
2,085th of 2,526: where Blackfoot ranks among U.S. towns of 9,000 to 18,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| 2 | Beverly Hills MI | 10,449 | $177K | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | New Albany OH | 11,803 | $238K | 1.4% | 0.9% | 11% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,141 | Hayden ID | 17,363 | $83K | 7.8% | 3.1% | 15% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,150 | Middleton ID | 12,600 | $89K | 7.9% | 4.1% | 7% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,273 | Rathdrum ID | 13,227 | $87K | 12.4% | 1.6% | 9% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 2,083 | Shasta Lake CA | 10,208 | $67K | 13.3% | 7.2% | 9% | C |
| 2,084 | LaSalle IL | 9,388 | $58K | 18.8% | 5.0% | 11% | C |
| 2,085 | Blackfoot ID | 13,361 | $64K | 10.6% | 7.8% | 30% | C |
| 2,086 | Hillsboro TX | 9,036 | $56K | 20.0% | 4.2% | 20% | C |
| 2,087 | Rainbow City AL | 10,406 | $56K | 10.0% | 10.3% | 9% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 2,526 | 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 Blackfoot, the top three, the last and three more from Idaho.
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 Blackfoot: questions
What is the median household income in Blackfoot?
$64,032 (±$7,059) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,800 across Idaho and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Blackfoot?
10.6%, against 10.6% across Idaho and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Blackfoot?
22 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Idaho and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Blackfoot work?
30% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Idaho Falls (17%, 26 mi), Pocatello (9%, 23 mi), Boise City (3%, 197 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Blackfoot walkable?
Blackfoot is more walkable than 80% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 8.3 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Blackfoot without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 9% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Blackfoot, from the people who make the trip.
More of Blackfoot
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.