Photo: Royalbroil · CC BY-SA 3.0With 0.1 jobs for every working resident, most of St. Mary works elsewhere
14% of workers work from home, next to 12% for Montana as a whole. Employers in St. Mary report 4 jobs, against 32 working residents. Hardly any stay in St. Mary for work; outside it, Deer Lodge is the main destination (9%, 165 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Who works in St. Mary, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 32 residents head out to work, none work right here, and 4 people come in from elsewhere.
About 170 people are in St. Mary on a workday afternoon, 15% fewer 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.
Commuting out of St. Mary: the destinations
Where St. Mary clocks in
9% of workers
9% of workers
9% 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.
Mostly services: health care, schools and offices
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
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 St. Mary’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Working from home in St. Mary
of St. Mary workers work from home, vs 13% across Montana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 106 commuters (the 14% 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 St. Mary
About 75% 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 St. Mary: questions
What is the poverty rate in St. Mary?
61.8%, against 11.5% across Montana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
Where do people who live in St. Mary work?
0% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Deer Lodge (9%, 165 mi), Shelby (9%, 73 mi), Helena (9%, 162 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Can you get around St. Mary without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 46% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from St. Mary, from the people who make the trip.
More of St. Mary
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.