Charles A. Broadwater House · Photo: Jon Roanhaus · CC BY-SA 4.0Work means Helena for more than half of Helena West Side’s working residents
5% of workers work from home; Montana has 12%. For jobs and income Helena West Side is better than 50% of U.S. towns (B−); for walkability it is more walkable than 65% of U.S. towns (B+). Only 8% work in Helena West Side; the top destination outside it is Helena (57%, 5 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Helena West Side and work: the main findings
Helena West Side fills up on a workday
Helena West Side has 2,246 jobs, 3.6 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 3,000 people are in town, more than double the 1,400 who live here. Day and night ↓
Jobs in Helena West Side have more than doubled in ten years
Jobs based in Helena West Side went from 732 in 2013 to 2,246 in 2023, +207%. 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 628 working residents, small shifts move the shares; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
Jobs & income in Helena West Side: the grade in detail
The poverty rate holds Helena West Side’s grade up (5.9%, U.S. 12.5%); household income pulls it down ($66,921, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (0.3%) is left out: Helena West Side’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, Helena West Side could be anywhere from C− to B+.
The workday shuffle in and out of Helena West Side
On a workday 580 residents head out to work, 48 work right here, and 2,198 people come in from elsewhere.
About 3,000 people are in Helena West Side on a workday afternoon, 114% more than live here.
3.6 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.
Health, schools and offices: most of the jobs in Helena West Side
2,246 jobs are based in Helena West Side.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Helena West Side, 2013 → 2023: 732 → 2,246. 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 Helena West Side’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Where Helena West Side’s workers come from
Where Helena West Side clocks in
57% of workers
4% of workers
4% 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.
Getting to work from Helena West Side takes about 25 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Helena West Side workers work from home, vs 13% across Montana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 753 commuters (the 5% 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.
Half of Helena West Side commutes less than 4 miles
About 20% 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.
Most of Helena West Side commutes by car
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 17.2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 6.3% across Montana, on an EPA index of 5.3.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 792 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). 6.4% of Helena West Side households have no vehicle (Montana 4.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Helena West Side’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Helena West Side is 2,022nd among 5,877 U.S. towns of 1,000 to 1,900
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,020 | Troy VT | 1,703 | $88K | 8.6% | 2.7% | 5% | B− |
| 2,021 | Scandinavia WI | 1,015 | $90K | 8.3% | 4.1% | 1% | B− |
| 2,022 | Helena West Side MT | 1,417 | $67K | 5.9% | 0.3% | 8% | B− |
| 2,023 | Parchment MI | 1,887 | $73K | 6.6% | 8.1% | 4% | B− |
| 2,024 | Salem SD | 1,357 | $75K | 5.6% | 0.8% | 17% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 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 Helena West Side, the top three, the last and three more from Montana.
Next door is work for 61% of Helena West Side
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Helena West Side workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Helena West Side | – | B− | B+ | 25 min | $66,921 |
| Helena | 57% | B | A | 14 min | $71,036 |
| Helena Valley West Central | 4% | B | C | 20 min | $90,082 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Helena. Darker towns draw more of Helena West Side’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 Helena West Side: questions
What is the median household income in Helena West Side?
$66,921 (±$14,117) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,509 across Montana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Helena West Side?
5.9%, against 11.5% across Montana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Helena West Side?
25 minutes each way on average, against 19 across Montana and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Helena West Side work?
8% work in town.
Is Helena West Side walkable?
Helena West Side is more walkable than 65% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 5.3 out of 20, and 17% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Helena West Side without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Helena West Side, from the people who make the trip.
More of Helena West Side
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.