Photo: User:Velela · Public domainThere are 1.8 jobs in Red Lodge for every working resident, and 1,031 people commute in
The two grades for Red Lodge are C+ for jobs and income and A for walkability. Red Lodge has 1,451 jobs, against 799 working residents. Measured by household income, Red Lodge is behind 80% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Red Lodge, in a few figures
Red Lodge’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Red Lodge is Billings, 53 miles away as the crow flies. 11% of working residents (89) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
The biggest group of Red Lodge’s workers comes from Billings
86 of the people who work in Red Lodge live in Billings, 53 miles away, more than from any other town. The commute map ↓
Red Lodge is where the jobs are
Red Lodge has 1,451 jobs, 1.8 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
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 799 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Inside Red Lodge’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Red Lodge is better than 37% of U.S. towns, #27 of 42 in Montana. Unemployment holds Red Lodge’s grade up (2.8%, U.S. 5.2%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 3% of U.S. towns). It also does well on the poverty rate.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Red Lodge could be anywhere from D to A−.
Red Lodge’s commute, mile by mile
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.
Where Red Lodge’s workers come from
Where Red Lodge clocks in
11% of workers
2% of workers
1% 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 many people are in Red Lodge by day
On a workday 379 residents head out to work and 420 work right here.
About 3,400 people are in Red Lodge on a workday afternoon, 24% more than live here.
1.8 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.
The kinds of work in Red Lodge
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Red Lodge, 2013 → 2023: 1,066 → 1,451. 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 Red Lodge’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Getting to work from Red Lodge takes about 19 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Red Lodge workers work from home, vs 13% across Montana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,144 commuters (the 8% 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.
Good to walk, short on transit: Red Lodge
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Red Lodge is more walkable than 93% of U.S. towns, #4 of 42 in Montana. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 23.5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 6.3% across Montana, on an EPA index of 8.8.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,239 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). 7.0% of Red Lodge households have no vehicle (Montana 4.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 10% of Red Lodge’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 1,900 to 3,700, Red Lodge ranks 2,982nd of 4,969 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 578 | King Arthur Park MT | 1,992 | $109K | 7.4% | 0.0% | 1% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 679 | Manhattan MT | 2,073 | $88K | 2.9% | 0.0% | 9% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 938 | Big Sky MT | 2,445 | $139K | 4.7% | 1.4% | 68% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 2,980 | Kenedy TX | 3,305 | $61K | 16.3% | 0.5% | 13% | C+ |
| 2,981 | Strafford MO | 2,789 | $65K | 14.4% | 5.2% | 10% | C+ |
| 2,982 | Red Lodge MT | 2,723 | $56K | 6.7% | 2.8% | 53% | C+ |
| 2,983 | South Congaree SC | 2,424 | $60K | 14.6% | 5.6% | 1% | C+ |
| 2,984 | Santa Anna Township IL | 2,249 | $73K | 8.6% | 8.1% | 19% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,969 | Cibecue AZ | 2,228 | $26K | 57.2% | 13.3% | 12% | 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 Red Lodge, 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 Red Lodge: questions
What is the median household income in Red Lodge?
$55,750 (±$42,988) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,509 across Montana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Red Lodge?
6.7%, against 11.5% across Montana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Red Lodge?
19 minutes each way on average, against 19 across Montana and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Red Lodge work?
53% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Billings (11%, 53 mi), Helena (2%, 165 mi), Bozeman (1%, 94 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Red Lodge walkable?
Red Lodge is more walkable than 93% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 8.8 out of 20, and 24% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Red Lodge without a car?
10% 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 Red Lodge, from the people who make the trip.
More of Red Lodge
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.