Photo: Djembayz · CC BY-SA 3.0Households in Seeley Lake have lower incomes than those in 88% of U.S. towns
Home is the office for 24% of workers, against 12% across Montana. 9.8% of residents are in poverty, next to 11.5% for Montana as a whole. Seeley Lake grades D for jobs and income and C for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Seeley Lake
Seeley Lake and Missoula trade workers both ways
Missoula is the top workplace for Seeley Lake residents (28%) and also where the most people who work in Seeley Lake come from (12% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Seeley Lake has added jobs fast
Jobs based in Seeley Lake went from 320 in 2014 to 535 in 2024, +67%. The jobs ↓
Home offices are common in Seeley Lake
24% of Seeley Lake workers work from home, against 13% across Montana. Time on the road ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2024, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; with 583 working residents, small shifts move the shares; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
The four measures behind Seeley Lake’s grade
On income, poverty and job access, Seeley Lake is better than 11% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Seeley Lake’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (near the bottom of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (0.0%) is left out: Seeley Lake’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, Seeley Lake could be anywhere from D− to C.
28% of working residents work in Missoula
Where Seeley Lake clocks in
28% 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.
Making and building: 28% of jobs based in Seeley Lake
535 jobs are based in Seeley Lake.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Seeley Lake, 2014 → 2024: 320 → 535. 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 2024.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Seeley Lake’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 19 minutes to work from Seeley Lake
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Seeley Lake workers work from home, vs 13% across Montana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 364 commuters (the 24% 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.
Seeley Lake by day and by night
On a workday 436 residents head out to work, 147 work right here, and 388 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 (0.92 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2024, primary jobs.
Near or far: the trip to work from Seeley Lake
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 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Most of Seeley Lake commutes by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Seeley Lake is more walkable than 26% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: hardly any commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 6.3% across Montana.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 480 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 0.0% of Seeley Lake households have no vehicle (Montana 4.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Seeley Lake’s commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, Seeley Lake is 5,108th of 6,308 U.S. towns of 1,000 to 2,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | 1% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 471 | King Arthur Park MT | 1,992 | $109K | 7.4% | 0.0% | 1% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 713 | Wye MT | 1,055 | $110K | 2.7% | 1.3% | 5% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 846 | Clinton MT | 1,040 | $104K | 3.8% | 4.1% | 1% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,106 | Cherrytree Township PA | 1,276 | $57K | 15.3% | 7.1% | 3% | D |
| 5,107 | Pearlington MS | 1,278 | $45K | 22.6% | 6.5% | <1% | D |
| 5,108 | Seeley Lake MT | 1,496 | $50K | 9.8% | 0.0% | 25% | D |
| 5,109 | Blountsville AL | 1,816 | $48K | 17.1% | 3.5% | 9% | D |
| 5,110 | Oquawka IL | 1,065 | $54K | 15.9% | 14.3% | 10% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 6,308 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 1% | 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 Seeley Lake, 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 2024, 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 Seeley Lake: questions
What is the median household income in Seeley Lake?
$49,574 (±$9,757) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,509 across Montana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Seeley Lake?
9.8%, against 11.5% across Montana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Seeley Lake?
19 minutes each way on average, against 19 across Montana and 26 nationally. 24% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Seeley Lake work?
25% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Missoula (28%, 34 mi), Billings (2%, 252 mi), Bozeman (2%, 154 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Seeley Lake walkable?
Seeley Lake is more walkable than 26% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 7.3 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Seeley Lake without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 0% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Seeley Lake, from the people who make the trip.
More of Seeley Lake
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2024, 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.