Great Falls draws more than half of Vaughn’s working residents
4% of workers work from home, where Montana as a whole has 12%. The two grades for Vaughn are C− for jobs and income and B for walkability. Household incomes here are lower than in 80% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jobs and commuting in Vaughn: the gist
More than half of Vaughn works in Great Falls
127 working residents, 54%, have their main job in Great Falls, 13 miles away. That’s 27 times as many as work in Vaughn itself. The commute map ↓
Few Vaughn workers work from home
Only 4% 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 234 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What’s behind Vaughn’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Vaughn is better than 24% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Vaughn’s grade up (8.7%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 20% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (1.2%) is left out: Vaughn’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Vaughn could be anywhere from D to B+.
Where people from Vaughn work
Where Vaughn clocks in
54% of workers
3% of workers
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.
Vaughn’s commute takes about 23 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Vaughn workers work from home, vs 13% across Montana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 406 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.
Who commutes out of Vaughn, and who commutes in
On a workday 230 residents head out to work, 4 work right here, and 86 people come in from elsewhere.
About 860 people are in Vaughn on a workday afternoon, 14% fewer than live here.
0.38 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute 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.
Vaughn is a services town
90 jobs are based in Vaughn.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Vaughn, 2013 → 2023: 100 → 90. 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 Vaughn’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Miles to work from Vaughn
About 24% 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.
Vaughn is a driving town
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Vaughn is more walkable than 61% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 9.1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 6.3% across Montana, on an EPA index of 5.3.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 421 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). 3.1% of Vaughn households have no vehicle (Montana 4.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Vaughn’s commuters take a bus or train.
Vaughn is 1,940th of 3,133 U.S. towns of 700 to 1,400 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 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 301 | Wye MT | 1,055 | $110K | 2.7% | 1.3% | 5% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 361 | Clinton MT | 1,040 | $104K | 3.8% | 4.1% | 3% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 719 | Churchill MT | 1,167 | $108K | 6.3% | 1.3% | 4% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 1,938 | Leesville Township MO | 1,065 | $70K | 9.8% | 0.9% | 1% | C− |
| 1,939 | Barry IL | 1,247 | $76K | 15.3% | 5.8% | 12% | C− |
| 1,940 | Vaughn MT | 1,002 | $56K | 8.7% | 1.2% | 2% | C− |
| 1,941 | Washington Township IN | 1,066 | $64K | 17.5% | 5.0% | 1% | C− |
| 1,942 | Steuben NY | 1,107 | $66K | 11.6% | 3.0% | 1% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,133 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 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 Vaughn, the top three, the last and three more from Montana.
Around Vaughn: the bordering towns
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Vaughn workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vaughn | – | C− | B | 23 min | $56,250 |
| Sun Prairie | under 1% | C− | D− | 20 min | $55,688 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Vaughn’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
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 Vaughn: questions
What is the median household income in Vaughn?
$56,250 (±$39,772) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,509 across Montana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Vaughn?
8.7%, against 11.5% across Montana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Vaughn?
23 minutes each way on average, against 19 across Montana and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Vaughn work?
2% work in town.
Is Vaughn walkable?
Vaughn is more walkable than 61% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 5.3 out of 20, and 9% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Vaughn without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Vaughn, from the people who make the trip.
More of Vaughn
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.