Photo: Chris06 · CC BY-SA 3.0Family incomes in Bozeman top those of 76% of U.S. towns
The two grades for Bozeman are A− for jobs and income and A+ for walkability. Leaving out college students, 6.7% of residents live below the poverty line, against 10.8% across Montana. Transit is limited for a town this walkable: about 5.3 trips an hour stop near the typical resident at the evening peak, against 0.0 in Billings.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work and commuting in Bozeman, in brief
A young workforce
35% of Bozeman’s working residents are 29 or younger, about one in three. The jobs ↓
Bozeman has added jobs fast
Jobs based in Bozeman went from 27,646 in 2013 to 37,540 in 2023, +36%. 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 Bozeman earns its Jobs & income grade
On family income, poverty and job access, Bozeman is better than 77% of U.S. towns, #4 of 42 in Montana. Family income is its strongest input ($117,132, U.S. $99,999); job access by car ranks lowest, though still above most U.S. towns (ahead of 58% of U.S. towns). It also does well on the poverty rate and job access by car.
24% of Bozeman’s residents are college students, and off-campus students count in the Census poverty figures. Where students are 15% or more of the people the Census checks for poverty (19% here), the grade uses the rate without them: 6.7%, against 13.7% for all residents. Unemployment (3.0%) is left out here: students looking for part-time work count as unemployed. Income is ranked as median family income ($117,132), since student households pull the household median down ($85,747).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for family income and poverty, Bozeman could be anywhere from B+ to A.
Inside Bozeman’s 37,540 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Bozeman, 2013 → 2023: 27,646 → 37,540. 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 Bozeman’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The workday shuffle in and out of Bozeman
On a workday 11,940 residents head out to work, 15,494 work right here, and 22,046 people come in from elsewhere.
About 69,000 people are in Bozeman on a workday afternoon, 17% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.37 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.
5% of working residents work in Big Sky
Where Bozeman clocks in
5% 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.
How long Bozeman spends getting to work: about 16 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Bozeman workers work from home, vs 13% across Montana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 28,267 commuters (the 16% 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 distance from Bozeman to work
About 17% 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.
In Bozeman, walking beats the bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Bozeman is among the most walkable U.S. towns, #1 of 42 in Montana. Both inputs place Bozeman 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 33,706 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 92% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 37% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 5.3 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 85% 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). 3.9% of Bozeman households have no vehicle (Montana 4.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Bozeman’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Bozeman is 281st among 749 U.S. towns of 41,000 to 79,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | McLean VA | 49,627 | $250K | 2.9% | 2.3% | 6% | A+ |
| 2 | Fulshear TX | 64,630 | $187K | 1.6% | 2.8% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Keller TX | 46,078 | $175K | 3.4% | 2.7% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 279 | Lincoln CA | 57,367 | $112K | 6.9% | 4.2% | 9% | A− |
| 280 | Altadena CA | 41,705 | $129K | 7.9% | 6.4% | 5% | A− |
| 281 | Bozeman MT | 58,814 | $86K | 13.7% | 3.0% | 56% | A− |
| 282 | Aloha OR | 52,389 | $102K | 7.8% | 4.2% | 4% | A− |
| 283 | Bloomfield Township NJ | 56,375 | $104K | 8.6% | 5.3% | 6% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 522 | Missoula MT | 78,903 | $70K | 11.8% | 3.8% | 72% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 586 | Great Falls MT | 60,208 | $63K | 14.5% | 3.7% | 69% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 749 | Bullhead City AZ | 43,987 | $51K | 18.7% | 11.5% | 26% | 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 Bozeman, 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.
- Students. 24% of residents are college students; the poverty input leaves off-campus students out (above).
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Bozeman: questions
What is the median household income in Bozeman?
$85,747 (±$4,604) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,509 across Montana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Bozeman?
13.7% of residents live below the poverty line; leaving out college students, 6.7%. Montana: 11.5%.
How long is the commute from Bozeman?
16 minutes each way on average, against 19 across Montana and 26 nationally. 16% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Bozeman work?
56% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Big Sky (5%, 32 mi), Four Corners (4%, 6 mi), Billings (3%, 121 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Bozeman walkable?
Bozeman is among the most walkable U.S. towns (Walkability A+): an EPA walkability index of 14.9 out of 20, and 15% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Bozeman without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. 37% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Bozeman, from the people who make the trip.
More of Bozeman
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.