Photo: Sam Beebe · CC BY 2.0Households in Choteau earn less than those in 86% of U.S. towns
Jobs and income earn Choteau C−; getting around on foot earns it A. 5.7% of residents are in poverty; Montana has 11.5%. About one in three work in Choteau itself; outside it, Great Falls draws the most (7%, 46 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Choteau in brief
Fewer jobs are based in Choteau than ten years ago
Jobs counted in Choteau fell from 699 in 2013 to 497 in 2023, −29%. That can be real closings or a large employer now reporting its workers at another address; the data can’t tell the two apart. The jobs ↓
Fewer than half of Choteau workers earn over $40,000 a year
44% of Choteau’s working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 24% earn $1,250 a month or less. The jobs ↓
Many jobs in Choteau pay little
27% of the jobs based in Choteau pay $1,250 a month or less, under $15,000 a year. 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; with 526 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Income, poverty and work: Choteau’s grade explained
On income, poverty and job access, Choteau is better than 22% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Choteau’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 2% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (0.7%) is left out: Choteau’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Choteau could be anywhere from D to B−.
The kinds of work in Choteau
497 jobs are based in Choteau.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Choteau, 2013 → 2023: 699 → 497. 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 Choteau’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who commutes out of Choteau, and who commutes in
On a workday 337 residents head out to work, 189 work right here, and 308 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 (0.94 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 Choteau to work: where people go
Where Choteau clocks in
7% of workers
3% 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.
About 17 minutes each way, about the MT average
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Choteau workers work from home, vs 13% across Montana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 616 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.
Short hops and long hauls from Choteau
About 27% 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.
Choteau is more walkable than most U.S. towns, with limited transit
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 12.1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 6.3% across Montana, on an EPA index of 7.9.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 674 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). 11.6% of Choteau households have no vehicle (Montana 4.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 2% of Choteau’s commuters take a bus or train.
Choteau places 3,901st of 5,656 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 1,300 to 2,500
| # | 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 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 518 | King Arthur Park MT | 1,992 | $109K | 7.4% | 0.0% | 1% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 609 | Manhattan MT | 2,073 | $88K | 2.9% | 0.0% | 9% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 843 | Big Sky MT | 2,445 | $139K | 4.7% | 1.4% | 68% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,899 | Dassel MN | 1,524 | $60K | 13.3% | 0.8% | 12% | C− |
| 3,900 | Silver Bay MN | 1,767 | $69K | 9.9% | 2.8% | 30% | C− |
| 3,901 | Choteau MT | 1,825 | $52K | 5.7% | 0.7% | 36% | C− |
| 3,902 | Buckheart Township IL | 1,675 | $61K | 13.7% | 2.7% | 3% | C− |
| 3,903 | Damariscotta ME | 2,296 | $59K | 11.9% | 8.3% | 23% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,656 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 0% | 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 Choteau, 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 Choteau: questions
What is the median household income in Choteau?
$51,632 (±$18,985) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,509 across Montana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Choteau?
5.7%, against 11.5% across Montana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Choteau?
17 minutes each way on average, against 19 across Montana and 26 nationally. 9% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Choteau work?
36% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Great Falls (7%, 46 mi), Billings (3%, 221 mi), Missoula (3%, 108 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Choteau walkable?
Choteau is more walkable than 86% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 7.9 out of 20, and 12% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Choteau without a car?
2% of commuters take transit and 12% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Choteau, from the people who make the trip.
More of Choteau
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.