Photo: Katie Brady from Missoula, Montana, United States · CC BY-SA 2.0Bigfork has lower unemployment (1.8%) than 87% of U.S. towns
About one in three work in Bigfork itself; outside it, Kalispell draws the most (21%, 16 miles). Jobs and income earn Bigfork B; getting around on foot earns it B+. Working residents average 21 minutes each way, against 19 across Montana and 26 nationally.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Bigfork stands out on work
The figures behind Bigfork’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Bigfork is better than 64% of U.S. towns, #7 of 42 in Montana. Unemployment holds Bigfork’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 10% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income and the poverty rate.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Bigfork could be anywhere from C+ to A−.
Jobs in Bigfork: what the 1,815 are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Bigfork, 2013 → 2023: 1,342 → 1,815. 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 Bigfork’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The daily flow of workers through Bigfork
On a workday 1,288 residents head out to work, 577 work right here, and 1,238 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 (0.97 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 Bigfork to work: where people go
Where Bigfork clocks in
6% 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.
A commute of about 21 minutes in Bigfork
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Bigfork workers work from home, vs 13% across Montana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,768 commuters (the 18% 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 commute from Bigfork, by distance
About 21% 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.
Bigfork is a driving town
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Bigfork is more walkable than 71% of U.S. towns, #30 of 42 in Montana. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 8.1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 6.3% across Montana, on an EPA index of 6.5.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 2,149 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). 5.2% of Bigfork households have no vehicle (Montana 4.7%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Bigfork’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 3,900 to 7,500, Bigfork ranks 1,416th of 3,502 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Ho-Ho-Kus NJ | 4,313 | $250K | 0.0% | 1.7% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 724 | Helena Valley Northeast MT | 4,659 | $141K | 5.2% | 1.3% | 2% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 734 | Four Corners MT | 5,791 | $101K | 6.3% | 0.5% | 10% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 846 | Lolo MT | 4,314 | $86K | 5.3% | 0.8% | 7% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,414 | Walled Lake MI | 7,320 | $72K | 10.5% | 4.0% | 3% | B |
| 1,415 | Elbridge NY | 5,403 | $76K | 10.8% | 2.3% | 13% | B |
| 1,416 | Bigfork MT | 5,565 | $85K | 5.7% | 1.8% | 31% | B |
| 1,417 | Burnet TX | 6,939 | $88K | 8.1% | 2.1% | 13% | B |
| 1,418 | Liberty Township IN | 4,742 | $85K | 6.8% | 3.8% | 12% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 3,502 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 18% | 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 Bigfork, 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 Bigfork: questions
What is the median household income in Bigfork?
$85,307 (±$15,218) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,509 across Montana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Bigfork?
5.7%, against 11.5% across Montana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Bigfork?
21 minutes each way on average, against 19 across Montana and 26 nationally. 18% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Bigfork work?
31% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Kalispell (21%, 16 mi), Missoula (6%, 84 mi), Evergreen (5%, 14 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Bigfork walkable?
Bigfork is more walkable than 71% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 6.5 out of 20, and 8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Bigfork without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 5% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Bigfork, from the people who make the trip.
More of Bigfork
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.