More than half of Clinton’s working residents commute to Missoula
Jobs & income A−: better than 76% of U.S. towns on income, poverty and job access.
Walkability C−: more walkable than 15% of U.S. towns.
Household incomes here are higher than in 80% of U.S. towns. Working residents average 23 minutes each way (Montana 19, U.S. 26). Only 3% work in Clinton; the top destination outside it is Missoula (54%, 16 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Clinton
More than half of Clinton works in Missoula
228 working residents, 54%, have their main job in Missoula, 16 miles away. That’s 18 times as many as work in Clinton itself. The commute map ↓
Clinton is a place people come home to
There are 127 jobs based in Clinton, about three for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Clinton has about 750 people in it, 28% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
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 420 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What’s behind Clinton’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Clinton is better than 76% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Clinton’s grade up (3.8%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 33% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income.
Unemployment (4.1%) is left out: Clinton’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, Clinton could be anywhere from C+ to A.
54% of working residents work in Missoula
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
Where Clinton clocks in
54% of workers
3% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
Clinton quiets down on a workday
On a workday 408 residents head out to work, 12 work right here, and 115 people come in from elsewhere.
About 750 people are in Clinton on a workday afternoon, 28% fewer than live here.
0.30 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute 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.
What the 127 jobs in Clinton are
127 jobs are based in Clinton. Here is what they are, next to the jobs Clinton’s own residents hold wherever they work.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Clinton, 2013 → 2023: 74 → 127. 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.
About 23 minutes each way, longer than most of Montana
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Clinton workers work from home, vs 13% across Montana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 524 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.
Half of Clinton commutes less than 16 miles
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
About 19% 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.
Most trips from Clinton start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Clinton is more walkable than 15% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 1.1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 6.3% across Montana, on an EPA index of 4.5.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 574 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 1.4 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 63% 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 Clinton households have no vehicle (Montana 4.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Clinton’s commuters take a bus or train.
Clinton is 361st of 3,133 U.S. towns of 700 to 1,400 on jobs and income
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Clinton, the top three, the last and three more from Montana.
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 301 | Wye MT | 1,055 | $110K | 2.7% | 1.3% | 5% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 359 | Central City IA | 1,253 | $85K | 3.9% | 4.1% | 3% | A− |
| 360 | Prospect PA | 1,086 | $88K | 5.8% | 5.1% | 1% | A− |
| 361 | Clinton MT | 1,040 | $104K | 3.8% | 4.1% | 3% | A− |
| 362 | Sebewa Township MI | 1,147 | $96K | 4.8% | 4.7% | <1% | A− |
| 363 | Belmont Estates VA | 1,162 | $87K | 6.2% | 0.0% | <1% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 719 | Churchill MT | 1,167 | $108K | 6.3% | 1.3% | 4% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 1,064 | Boulder MT | 1,305 | $73K | 3.8% | 6.9% | 3% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,133 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 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.
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 Clinton: questions
What is the median household income in Clinton?
$103,750 (±$42,332) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,509 across Montana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Clinton?
3.8%, against 11.5% across Montana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Clinton?
23 minutes each way on average, against 19 across Montana and 26 nationally. 9% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Clinton work?
3% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Missoula (54%, 16 mi), Bonner-West Riverside (4%, 11 mi), Helena (3%, 82 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Clinton walkable?
Clinton is more walkable than 15% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 4.5 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Clinton without a car?
0% 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 Clinton, from the people who make the trip.
More of Clinton
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.