Photo: BrianHagan · CC BY-SA 4.0Households in Thompson Falls earn less than those in 92% of U.S. towns
6.5% of residents live below the poverty line, against 11.5% across Montana. The two grades for Thompson Falls are C− for jobs and income and A for walkability. Working from home is the commute for 3% of workers (Montana 12%).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Thompson Falls: the figures worth knowing
Thompson Falls is where the jobs are
Thompson Falls has 586 jobs, 1.8 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
A big share show a job far from home
31% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. How far ↓
Few Thompson Falls workers work from home
Only 3% of workers work from home, against 13% across Montana. Almost everyone here travels to a job. Time on the road ↓
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 330 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
The figures behind Thompson Falls’ Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Thompson Falls is better than 18% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Thompson Falls’ grade up; job access by car pulls it down (near the bottom of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (0.0%) is left out: Thompson Falls’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, Thompson Falls could be anywhere from D− to C+.
A workday in Thompson Falls: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 248 residents head out to work, 82 work right here, and 504 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,800 people are in Thompson Falls on a workday afternoon, 17% 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.
How far it is to work from Thompson Falls
About 31% 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.
How long Thompson Falls spends getting to work: about 14 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 4.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Thompson Falls workers work from home, vs 13% across Montana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 513 commuters (the 3% 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.
Where the people who work in Thompson Falls live
Where Thompson Falls clocks in
3% 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 Thompson Falls: what the 586 are
586 jobs are based in Thompson Falls.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Thompson Falls, 2013 → 2023: 447 → 586. 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 Thompson Falls’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Thompson Falls is easy on foot, hard by bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Thompson Falls is more walkable than 91% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Thompson Falls near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 531 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). 6.1% of Thompson Falls households have no vehicle (Montana 4.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 3% of Thompson Falls’ commuters take a bus or train.
Thompson Falls is 4,211th of 5,794 U.S. towns of 1,100 to 2,100 on jobs and income
| # | 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% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 473 | King Arthur Park MT | 1,992 | $109K | 7.4% | 0.0% | 1% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 549 | Manhattan MT | 2,073 | $88K | 2.9% | 0.0% | 9% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,254 | Three Forks MT | 1,920 | $80K | 6.2% | 0.0% | 11% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,209 | Arma KS | 1,398 | $51K | 12.4% | 10.0% | 6% | C− |
| 4,210 | Breckenridge MI | 1,265 | $58K | 18.0% | 7.5% | 8% | C− |
| 4,211 | Thompson Falls MT | 1,543 | $46K | 6.5% | 0.0% | 25% | C− |
| 4,212 | Spring Hope NC | 1,383 | $38K | 11.1% | 2.3% | 4% | C− |
| 4,213 | South Zanesville OH | 1,907 | $39K | 15.8% | 2.6% | 3% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,794 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 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 Thompson Falls, 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 Thompson Falls: questions
What is the median household income in Thompson Falls?
$46,313 (±$12,402) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,509 across Montana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Thompson Falls?
6.5%, against 11.5% across Montana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Thompson Falls?
14 minutes each way on average, against 19 across Montana and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Thompson Falls work?
25% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Plains (7%, 23 mi), Missoula (3%, 80 mi), Belknap (3%, 5 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Thompson Falls walkable?
Thompson Falls is more walkable than 91% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 10.1 out of 20, and 8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Thompson Falls without a car?
3% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Thompson Falls, from the people who make the trip.
More of Thompson Falls
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.