Photo: I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby publish it under the following license: · CC BY-SA 3.0A job hub: Poplar has 2.5 jobs per working resident, and 343 people come in to work
363 jobs are based in Poplar, and 144 of its residents work somewhere. About one in seven work in Poplar itself; outside it, Brockton draws the most (5%, 14 miles). 4% of workers have no commute at all, against 12% across Montana.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Who leaves Poplar for work, and who comes in
On a workday 124 residents head out to work and 20 work right here.
About 940 people are in Poplar on a workday afternoon, 30% more than live here.
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 Poplar’s workforce comes from
Where Poplar clocks in
5% 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.
Jobs in Poplar: what the 363 are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Poplar, 2013 → 2023: 506 → 363. 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 Poplar’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 12 minutes each way, quicker than most of Montana
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Poplar workers work from home, vs 13% across Montana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 193 commuters (the 4% 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.
How far it is to work from Poplar
About 21% 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.
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 Poplar: questions
What is the median household income in Poplar?
$43,438 (±$22,861) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,509 across Montana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Poplar?
34.5%, against 11.5% across Montana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Poplar?
12 minutes each way on average, against 19 across Montana and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Poplar work?
14% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Brockton (5%, 14 mi), Wolf Point (3%, 20 mi), Scobey (2%, 48 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Can you get around Poplar without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 28% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Poplar, from the people who make the trip.
More of Poplar
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.