Photo: Montanabw · CC BY-SA 3.0Households in Great Falls have lower incomes than those in 68% of U.S. towns
About two in three work in Great Falls itself; outside it, Helena draws the most (4%, 71 miles). 14.5% of residents are in poverty, next to 11.5% for Montana as a whole. Great Falls grades 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
The commute and the jobs: Great Falls in brief
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Great Falls
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Great Falls is better than 40% of U.S. towns, #23 of 42 in Montana. Unemployment holds Great Falls’ grade up (3.7%, U.S. 5.2%); the poverty rate pulls it down. It also does well on job access by car.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Great Falls could be anywhere from C to B−.
Who leaves Great Falls for work, and who comes in
On a workday 7,768 residents head out to work, 17,699 work right here, and 10,972 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 (1.13 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.
Where Great Falls goes to work
Where Great Falls clocks in
4% of workers
2% 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 Great Falls’ employers do
28,671 jobs are based in Great Falls.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Great Falls, 2013 → 2023: 28,743 → 28,671. 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 Great Falls’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Getting to work from Great Falls takes about 15 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 4.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Great Falls workers work from home, vs 13% across Montana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 26,742 commuters (the 7% 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.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Great Falls
About 22% 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 Great Falls, walking beats the bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Great Falls is more walkable than 78% of U.S. towns, #24 of 42 in Montana. Both inputs place Great Falls 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 28,699 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). 7.1% of Great Falls households have no vehicle (Montana 4.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Great Falls’ commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 737 U.S. towns of 42,000 to 81,000, Great Falls comes 576th on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | McLean VA | 49,627 | $250K | 2.9% | 2.3% | 6% | A+ |
| 2 | Lakeville MN | 79,270 | $139K | 2.9% | 2.0% | 11% | A+ |
| 3 | Fulshear TX | 64,630 | $187K | 1.6% | 2.8% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 274 | Bozeman MT | 58,814 | $86K | 13.7% | 3.0% | 56% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 512 | Missoula MT | 78,903 | $70K | 11.8% | 3.8% | 72% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 574 | Lynwood CA | 63,512 | $75K | 18.0% | 9.8% | 5% | C+ |
| 575 | Albany OR | 56,894 | $78K | 13.5% | 5.8% | 28% | C+ |
| 576 | Great Falls MT | 60,208 | $63K | 14.5% | 3.7% | 69% | C+ |
| 577 | Fairfield Township IN | 53,541 | $54K | 16.7% | 3.6% | 38% | C+ |
| 578 | Apache Junction AZ | 45,672 | $61K | 10.6% | 6.5% | 6% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 737 | 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 Great Falls, the top three, the last and three more from Montana.
How Great Falls compares with the towns next door
The biggest share goes to Black Eagle (1%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Great Falls workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Great Falls | – | C+ | A− | 15 min | $63,373 |
| Black Eagle | 1% | — | — | 15 min | — |
| Malmstrom AFB | under 1% | B− | C+ | 14 min | $64,833 |
| Gibson Flats | under 1% | — | — | — | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Black Eagle and Gibson Flats: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Great Falls’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
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 Great Falls: questions
What is the median household income in Great Falls?
$63,373 (±$4,204) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,509 across Montana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Great Falls?
14.5%, against 11.5% across Montana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Great Falls?
15 minutes each way on average, against 19 across Montana and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Great Falls work?
69% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Helena (4%, 71 mi), Billings (2%, 176 mi), Missoula (2%, 135 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Great Falls walkable?
Great Falls is more walkable than 78% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 8.8 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Great Falls without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 7% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Great Falls, from the people who make the trip.
More of Great Falls
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.