Photo: Greg Gjerdingen · CC BY 2.0Big Sky’s household incomes are higher than in 93% of U.S. towns
Working from home is the commute for 26% of workers (Montana 12%). The poverty rate is 4.7%; Montana has 11.5%. For jobs and income Big Sky is better than 77% of U.S. towns (A−); for walkability it is more walkable than 81% of U.S. towns (A−).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Big Sky and work: the main findings
Jobs in Big Sky have more than doubled in ten years
Jobs based in Big Sky went from 1,522 in 2013 to 5,939 in 2023, +290%. The jobs ↓
Big Sky fills up on a workday
Big Sky has 5,939 jobs, 3.0 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 6,400 people are in town, more than double the 2,400 who live here. Day and night ↓
A lot of Big Sky works from home
26% of Big Sky workers work from home, against 13% across Montana. Time on the road ↓
The biggest group of Big Sky’s workers comes from Bozeman
1,368 of the people who work in Big Sky live in Bozeman, 32 miles away, more than from any other town. The commute map ↓
Young people hold many of the jobs here
38% of the jobs based in Big Sky are held by workers 29 or younger, against 31% of Big Sky’s own working residents. The jobs ↓
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; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
How Big Sky earns its Jobs & income grade
Household income holds Big Sky’s grade up ($138,805, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 5% of U.S. towns). It also does well on the poverty rate and unemployment.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Big Sky could be anywhere from B− to A.
Mostly services: health care, schools and offices
5,939 jobs are based in Big Sky.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Big Sky, 2013 → 2023: 1,522 → 5,939. 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 Big Sky’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who commutes out of Big Sky, and who commutes in
On a workday 627 residents head out to work, 1,339 work right here, and 4,600 people come in from elsewhere.
About 6,400 people are in Big Sky on a workday afternoon, 162% more than live here.
3.0 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.
Getting to work from Big Sky takes about 19 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Big Sky workers work from home, vs 13% across Montana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,074 commuters (the 26% who work from home are left out). Across Montana: 81% 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 Big Sky
Where Big Sky clocks in
4% of workers
2% 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.
Short hops and long hauls from Big Sky
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.
Walkable streets, thin transit: Big Sky
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 8.5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 6.3% across Montana, on an EPA index of 7.5.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,453 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% 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). 0.0% of Big Sky households have no vehicle (Montana 4.7%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Big Sky’s commuters take a bus or train.
Big Sky next to U.S. towns of 1,700 to 3,300: 924th of 5,207 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 560 | King Arthur Park MT | 1,992 | $109K | 7.4% | 0.0% | 1% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 659 | Manhattan MT | 2,073 | $88K | 2.9% | 0.0% | 9% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 922 | Seacliff CA | 3,299 | $130K | 5.5% | 4.9% | 3% | A− |
| 923 | Meadow Vista CA | 3,162 | $101K | 4.8% | 2.4% | 5% | A− |
| 924 | Big Sky MT | 2,445 | $139K | 4.7% | 1.4% | 68% | A− |
| 925 | Churchville NY | 2,134 | $96K | 5.1% | 4.8% | 2% | A− |
| 926 | Danby NY | 3,268 | $100K | 6.8% | 1.3% | 2% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,123 | Montana City MT | 3,092 | $130K | 1.8% | 3.9% | 7% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,207 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Big Sky, the top three, the last and three more from Montana.
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 Big Sky: questions
What is the median household income in Big Sky?
$138,805 (±$22,893) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,509 across Montana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Big Sky?
4.7%, against 11.5% across Montana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Big Sky?
19 minutes each way on average, against 19 across Montana and 26 nationally. 26% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Big Sky work?
68% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Bozeman (4%, 32 mi), Billings (2%, 140 mi), Missoula (2%, 171 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Big Sky walkable?
Big Sky is more walkable than 81% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 7.5 out of 20, and 9% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Big Sky without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 0% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Big Sky, from the people who make the trip.
More of Big Sky
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.