Photo: J.B. Chandler · CC BY-SA 3.0Households in Fort Benton have lower incomes than those in 63% of U.S. towns
About two in five work in Fort Benton itself; outside it, Great Falls draws the most (12%, 38 miles). Below the poverty line: 3.0% of residents, next to 11.5% across Montana. The two grades for Fort Benton are C+ 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
Jobs and commuting in Fort Benton: the gist
Fort Benton’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Fort Benton is Great Falls, 38 miles away as the crow flies. 12% of working residents (57) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Commutes from Fort Benton are quick
The average trip to work takes 14 minutes, against 19 across Montana. That’s about 38 hours a year less on the road than the typical Montana worker. 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 457 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Inside Fort Benton’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Fort Benton is better than 41% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Fort Benton’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (near the bottom of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (0.0%) is left out: Fort Benton’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, Fort Benton could be anywhere from C− to B.
How many miles Fort Benton commutes
About 28% 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 daily trip from Fort Benton: about 14 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 4.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Fort Benton workers work from home, vs 13% across Montana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 476 commuters (the 6% 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.
Who works in Fort Benton, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 256 residents head out to work, 201 work right here, and 339 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 (1.18 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 Fort Benton to work: where people go
Where Fort Benton clocks in
12% of workers
3% 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.
What Fort Benton’s employers do
540 jobs are based in Fort Benton.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Fort Benton, 2013 → 2023: 554 → 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 Fort Benton’s own residents hold wherever they work.
In Fort Benton, walking beats the bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Fort Benton is more walkable than 87% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 11.6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 6.3% across Montana, on an EPA index of 8.1.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 509 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). 0.5% of Fort Benton households have no vehicle (Montana 4.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Fort Benton’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 1,000 to 1,900, Fort Benton ranks 2,594th of 5,877 on jobs and income
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 653 | Wye MT | 1,055 | $110K | 2.7% | 1.3% | 5% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 775 | Clinton MT | 1,040 | $104K | 3.8% | 4.1% | 3% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,212 | Clancy MT | 1,874 | $125K | 4.8% | 3.2% | 3% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,592 | Panaca NV | 1,015 | $64K | 1.4% | 0.0% | 5% | C+ |
| 2,593 | Onarga IL | 1,305 | $78K | 8.6% | 3.8% | 6% | C+ |
| 2,594 | Fort Benton MT | 1,416 | $67K | 3.0% | 0.0% | 44% | C+ |
| 2,595 | Lowe Township IL | 1,754 | $85K | 12.6% | 3.7% | 11% | C+ |
| 2,596 | Victory NY | 1,688 | $71K | 6.3% | 9.2% | 3% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,877 | 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.
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Fort Benton, 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 Fort Benton: questions
What is the median household income in Fort Benton?
$67,188 (±$19,600) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,509 across Montana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Fort Benton?
3.0%, against 11.5% across Montana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Fort Benton?
14 minutes each way on average, against 19 across Montana and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Fort Benton work?
44% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Great Falls (12%, 38 mi), Billings (3%, 172 mi), Bozeman (2%, 150 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Fort Benton walkable?
Fort Benton is more walkable than 87% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 8.1 out of 20, and 12% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Fort Benton without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 0% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Fort Benton, from the people who make the trip.
More of Fort Benton
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.