Photo: Royalbroil · CC BY-SA 4.0West Glacier has 2.2 jobs for every working resident: 109 people commute in to work
Employers in West Glacier report 111 jobs, and 50 of its residents work somewhere. Only 4% stay in West Glacier for work; outside it, Kalispell is the main destination (22%, 24 miles). Home is the office for 37% of workers, where Montana as a whole has 12%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
West Glacier on a workday afternoon
On a workday 48 residents head out to work and 2 work right here.
About 320 people are in West Glacier on a workday afternoon, 23% more 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.
Where the people who work in West Glacier live
Where West Glacier clocks in
10% of workers
8% 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 health care, schools and offices in West Glacier
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in West Glacier, 2013 → 2023: 93 → 111. 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 West Glacier’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 21 minutes each way for West Glacier’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of West Glacier workers work from home, vs 13% across Montana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 93 commuters (the 37% 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 in the region West Glacier works
About 18% 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 West Glacier: questions
What is the median household income in West Glacier?
$90,000 (±$21,317) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,509 across Montana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in West Glacier?
0.0%, against 11.5% across Montana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from West Glacier?
21 minutes each way on average, against 19 across Montana and 26 nationally. 37% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in West Glacier work?
4% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Kalispell (22%, 24 mi), Columbia Falls (10%, 12 mi), Whitefish (8%, 16 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Can you get around West Glacier without a car?
0% 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 West Glacier, from the people who make the trip.
More of West Glacier
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.