Photo: Flickr user: Alvin Feng from Seattle · CC BY 2.0There are 1.9 jobs in Sandpoint for every working resident, and 5,323 people commute in
About two in five work in Sandpoint; the top destination outside it is Ponderay (9%, 2 miles). There are 6,883 jobs in Sandpoint for 3,569 working residents. Sandpoint grades C+ for jobs and income and A for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Sandpoint
Sandpoint is where the jobs are
Sandpoint has 6,883 jobs, 1.9 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Commutes from Sandpoint are quick
The average trip to work takes 14 minutes, against 22 across Idaho. That’s about 61 hours a year less on the road than the typical Idaho worker. Time on the road ↓
Sandpoint draws workers from far and wide
The 6,883 jobs in Sandpoint are filled from a wide area. Sandpoint’s own residents hold 23% and the ten next-biggest home towns 15%; the other 62% come from many towns beyond those. The commute map ↓
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.
The figures behind Sandpoint’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Sandpoint is better than 42% of U.S. towns, #30 of 59 in Idaho. Unemployment holds Sandpoint’s grade up (2.5%, U.S. 5.2%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 24% of U.S. towns).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Sandpoint could be anywhere from C− to B.
How many people are in Sandpoint by day
On a workday 2,009 residents head out to work and 1,560 work right here.
About 14,000 people are in Sandpoint on a workday afternoon, 31% more than live here.
1.9 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Sandpoint’s commute takes about 14 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 4.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Sandpoint workers work from home, vs 13% across Idaho. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 4,174 commuters (the 10% 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.
The daily trip into Sandpoint
Where Sandpoint clocks in
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.
The kinds of work in Sandpoint
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Sandpoint, 2013 → 2023: 5,678 → 6,883. 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 Sandpoint’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The commute from Sandpoint, by distance
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.
Good to walk, short on transit: Sandpoint
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Sandpoint is more walkable than 93% of U.S. towns, #4 of 59 in Idaho. Both inputs place Sandpoint 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 4,654 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). 9.4% of Sandpoint households have no vehicle (Idaho 3.7%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Sandpoint’s commuters take a bus or train.
1,936th of 2,878: where Sandpoint ranks among U.S. towns of 7,000 to 14,000
| # | 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 | Ladue MO | 8,934 | $250K | 1.1% | 1.7% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,250 | Middleton ID | 12,600 | $89K | 7.9% | 4.1% | 7% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,381 | Rathdrum ID | 13,227 | $87K | 12.4% | 1.6% | 9% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 1,423 | Hailey ID | 10,053 | $91K | 7.4% | 2.3% | 30% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 1,934 | Pennsville Township NJ | 12,923 | $75K | 12.2% | 11.6% | 11% | C+ |
| 1,935 | Hamlin NY | 8,601 | $84K | 11.5% | 6.8% | 5% | C+ |
| 1,936 | Sandpoint ID | 10,645 | $72K | 14.6% | 2.5% | 44% | C+ |
| 1,937 | Martinsville IN | 12,141 | $60K | 12.9% | 4.4% | 18% | C+ |
| 1,938 | Storm Lake IA | 11,590 | $63K | 7.0% | 4.4% | 70% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,878 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 14% | 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 Sandpoint, the top three, the last and three more from Idaho.
Sandpoint and its neighbors
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
The biggest share goes to Ponderay. Darker towns draw more of Sandpoint’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.
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Sandpoint: questions
What is the median household income in Sandpoint?
$72,289 (±$9,243) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,800 across Idaho and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Sandpoint?
14.6%, against 10.6% across Idaho and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Sandpoint?
14 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Idaho and 26 nationally. 10% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Sandpoint work?
44% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Ponderay (9%, 2 mi), Coeur d'Alene (5%, 42 mi), Boise City (2%, 324 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Sandpoint walkable?
Sandpoint is more walkable than 93% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 9.7 out of 20, and 12% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Sandpoint 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 Sandpoint, from the people who make the trip.
More of Sandpoint
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.