Photo: Royalbroil · CC BY-SA 3.0Eureka has lower household incomes than 97% of U.S. towns
Home is the office for 22% of workers; Montana has 12%. Below the poverty line: 31.3% of residents, where Montana as a whole has 11.5%. Eureka grades D− for jobs and income and A for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Eureka
Eureka is where the jobs are
Eureka has 681 jobs, 1.8 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
A big share show a job far from home
33% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. How far ↓
A lot of Eureka works from home
22% of Eureka workers work from home, against 13% across Montana. Time on the road ↓
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 383 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Jobs & income in Eureka: the grade in detail
On income, poverty and job access, Eureka is near the bottom of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Eureka’s grade.
Unemployment (4.2%) is left out: Eureka’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Eureka could be anywhere from D− to D.
The daily flow of workers through Eureka
On a workday 284 residents head out to work, 99 work right here, and 582 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,900 people are in Eureka on a workday afternoon, 19% more than live here.
1.8 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than 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.
Near or far: the trip to work from Eureka
About 33% 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.
The trip to work from Eureka: about 14 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 4.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Eureka workers work from home, vs 13% across Montana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 582 commuters (the 22% 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.
Commuting in to Eureka: where workers come from
Where Eureka clocks in
4% of workers
2% 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.
The 681 jobs based in Eureka
681 jobs are based in Eureka.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Eureka, 2013 → 2023: 611 → 681. 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 Eureka’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Eureka is more walkable than most U.S. towns, with limited transit
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Eureka is more walkable than 92% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Eureka 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 749 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). 2.0% of Eureka households have no vehicle (Montana 4.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Eureka’s commuters take a bus or train.
Eureka and other U.S. towns of 1,100 to 2,100
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 473 | King Arthur Park MT | 1,992 | $109K | 7.4% | 0.0% | 1% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 549 | Manhattan MT | 2,073 | $88K | 2.9% | 0.0% | 9% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,254 | Three Forks MT | 1,920 | $80K | 6.2% | 0.0% | 11% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,755 | Edison GA | 1,145 | $29K | 40.6% | 13.6% | 7% | D− |
| 5,756 | Colquitt GA | 1,937 | $26K | 46.0% | 3.6% | 27% | D− |
| 5,757 | Eureka MT | 1,562 | $39K | 31.3% | 4.2% | 26% | D− |
| 5,758 | Bayard NM | 2,048 | $34K | 34.6% | 12.8% | 11% | D− |
| 5,759 | Richwood WV | 1,598 | $31K | 25.9% | 13.5% | 9% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,794 | 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 Eureka, 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 Eureka: questions
What is the median household income in Eureka?
$38,750 (±$20,418) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,509 across Montana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Eureka?
31.3%, against 11.5% across Montana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Eureka?
14 minutes each way on average, against 19 across Montana and 26 nationally. 22% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Eureka work?
26% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Kalispell (6%, 56 mi), Whitefish (4%, 44 mi), Helena (2%, 211 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Eureka walkable?
Eureka is more walkable than 92% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 10.2 out of 20, and 9% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Eureka without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Eureka, from the people who make the trip.
More of Eureka
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.