Household incomes put Plains near the very bottom of U.S. towns
Below the poverty line: 31.2% of residents, next to 11.5% for Montana as a whole. Measured by household income, Plains is among the lowest-earning towns in the country. The two grades for Plains are 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
The commute and the jobs: Plains in brief
Plains is where the jobs are
Plains has 860 jobs, 2.3 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Plains has added jobs fast
Jobs based in Plains went from 564 in 2013 to 860 in 2023, +52%. 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 372 working residents, small shifts move the shares; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
How the Jobs & income grade adds up in Plains
On income, poverty and job access, Plains is near the bottom of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Plains’ grade.
Unemployment (19.2%) is left out: Plains’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A firm grade. At either end of the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Plains stays D−.
Who commutes out of Plains, and who commutes in
On a workday 221 residents head out to work, 151 work right here, and 709 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,700 people are in Plains on a workday afternoon, 39% more than live here.
2.3 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.
Inside Plains’ 860 jobs
860 jobs are based in Plains.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Plains, 2013 → 2023: 564 → 860. 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 Plains’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Where the people who work in Plains live
Where Plains clocks in
6% 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.
How long Plains spends getting to work: 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 Plains workers work from home, vs 13% across Montana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 424 commuters (the 16% 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.
Short hops and long hauls from Plains
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.
Plains is easy on foot, hard by bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Plains is more walkable than 79% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 19.6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 6.3% across Montana, on an EPA index of 6.7.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 504 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). 14.1% of Plains households have no vehicle (Montana 4.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 2% of Plains’ commuters take a bus or train.
Plains and other U.S. towns of 900 to 1,700
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 518 | Wye MT | 1,055 | $110K | 2.7% | 1.3% | 5% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 614 | Clinton MT | 1,040 | $104K | 3.8% | 4.1% | 3% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,178 | Churchill MT | 1,167 | $108K | 6.3% | 1.3% | 4% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 4,844 | Vanceburg KY | 1,386 | $30K | 39.6% | 8.4% | 27% | D− |
| 4,845 | Simmesport LA | 1,400 | $30K | 37.6% | 13.6% | 17% | D− |
| 4,846 | Plains MT | 1,261 | $25K | 31.2% | 19.2% | 41% | D− |
| 4,847 | Belhaven NC | 1,414 | $33K | 40.3% | 12.5% | 14% | D− |
| 4,848 | Oceana WV | 1,382 | $33K | 43.1% | 5.1% | 9% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,866 | 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 Plains, 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 Plains: questions
What is the median household income in Plains?
$25,491 (±$8,554) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,509 across Montana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Plains?
31.2%, against 11.5% across Montana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Plains?
15 minutes each way on average, against 19 across Montana and 26 nationally. 16% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Plains work?
41% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Missoula (6%, 57 mi), Thompson Falls (4%, 23 mi), Kalispell (3%, 58 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Plains walkable?
Plains is more walkable than 79% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 6.7 out of 20, and 20% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Plains without a car?
2% of commuters take transit and 14% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Plains, from the people who make the trip.
More of Plains
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.