Photo: Quintin Soloviev · CC BY 4.0Billings has lower unemployment (3.5%) than 61% of U.S. towns
Commuters spend 17 minutes getting to work on average, next to 19 for Montana and 26 for the U.S. Jobs and income earn Billings B; getting around on foot earns it A−. About three in four work in Billings itself; outside it, Lockwood draws the most (2%, 8 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Billings at work: what stands out
Income, poverty and work: Billings’ grade explained
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Billings is better than 60% of U.S. towns, #11 of 42 in Montana. Job access by car holds Billings’ grade up (ahead of 65% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($73,712, U.S. $80,734). It also does well on unemployment.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Billings could be anywhere from B− to B+.
The daily commute in and out of Billings
On a workday 15,186 residents head out to work, 42,252 work right here, and 27,531 people come in from elsewhere.
About 134,000 people are in Billings on a workday afternoon, 10% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.21 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.
Where Billings goes to work
Where Billings clocks in
2% of workers
2% of workers
1% 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 the 69,783 jobs in Billings are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Billings, 2013 → 2023: 62,661 → 69,783. 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 Billings’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The daily trip from Billings: about 17 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Billings workers work from home, vs 13% across Montana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 55,340 commuters (the 9% 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.
How many miles Billings commutes
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: Billings
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Billings is more walkable than 78% of U.S. towns, #25 of 42 in Montana. Both inputs place Billings 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 60,501 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 2% 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 40% 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). 5.1% of Billings households have no vehicle (Montana 4.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Billings’ commuters take a bus or train.
These are town averages; neighborhoods differ.
Billings is 176th of 344 U.S. towns of 85,000 to 164,000 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | South Jordan UT | 87,614 | $134K | 3.7% | 2.4% | 10% | A+ |
| 2 | Carmel IN | 105,634 | $142K | 3.9% | 2.7% | 23% | A+ |
| 3 | Clay Township IN | 104,932 | $142K | 3.9% | 2.7% | 23% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 174 | Citrus Heights CA | 86,348 | $82K | 8.6% | 6.7% | 6% | B |
| 175 | College Station TX | 127,472 | $51K | 29.2% | 5.1% | 35% | B |
| 176 | Billings MT | 121,239 | $74K | 9.8% | 3.5% | 74% | B |
| 177 | Greece NY | 94,484 | $80K | 10.6% | 5.1% | 16% | B |
| 178 | Vista CA | 98,274 | $95K | 10.5% | 6.6% | 13% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 344 | Macon-Bibb County GA | 157,556 | $51K | 24.7% | 8.1% | 53% | 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 Billings, the top three, the last and three more from Montana.
The towns around Billings
Jobs & commute next door
The biggest share goes to Lockwood. Darker towns draw more of Billings’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 Billings: questions
What is the median household income in Billings?
$73,712 (±$3,113) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,509 across Montana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Billings?
9.8%, against 11.5% across Montana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Billings?
17 minutes each way on average, against 19 across Montana and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Billings work?
74% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Lockwood (2%, 8 mi), Missoula (2%, 272 mi), Bozeman (1%, 121 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Billings walkable?
Billings is more walkable than 78% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 8.4 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Billings 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 Billings, from the people who make the trip.
More of Billings
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.