Great Northern Railway Passenger and Freight Depot and Division Office · Photo: Elkman · CC BY-SA 3.0Unemployment in Whitefish (2.4%) is lower than in 79% of U.S. towns
About one in three stay in Whitefish for work; outside it, Kalispell is the main destination (16%, 15 miles). For jobs and income Whitefish is better than 52% of U.S. towns (B−); for walkability it is more walkable than 88% of U.S. towns (A). Home is the office for 24% of workers (Montana 12%).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Whitefish: the figures worth knowing
Whitefish is where the jobs are
Whitefish has 5,453 jobs, 1.6 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
A lot of Whitefish works from home
24% of Whitefish workers work from home, against 13% across Montana. Time on the road ↓
Whitefish and Kalispell trade workers both ways
Kalispell is the top workplace for Whitefish residents (16%) and also where the most people who work in Whitefish come from (12% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Whitefish has added jobs fast
Jobs based in Whitefish went from 4,011 in 2013 to 5,453 in 2023, +36%. The jobs ↓
The biggest group of Whitefish’s workers comes from Kalispell
651 of the people who work in Whitefish live in Kalispell, 15 miles away, more than from any other town. The commute map ↓
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; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
How the Jobs & income grade adds up in Whitefish
Unemployment holds Whitefish’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 26% of U.S. towns). It also does well on the poverty rate.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Whitefish could be anywhere from C to B+.
The workday shuffle in and out of Whitefish
On a workday 2,187 residents head out to work, 1,279 work right here, and 4,174 people come in from elsewhere.
About 11,000 people are in Whitefish on a workday afternoon, 21% more than live here.
1.6 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.
Getting to work from Whitefish takes about 17 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Whitefish workers work from home, vs 13% across Montana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,582 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.
Where the people who work in Whitefish live
Where Whitefish clocks in
4% 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.
The 5,453 jobs based in Whitefish
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Whitefish, 2013 → 2023: 4,011 → 5,453. 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 Whitefish’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How far Whitefish goes to work
About 16% 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.
Whitefish is easy on foot, hard by bus
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 12.0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 6.3% across Montana, on an EPA index of 8.2.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 4,736 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). 9.1% of Whitefish households have no vehicle (Montana 4.7%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Whitefish’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 2,778 U.S. towns of 6,600 to 12,600, Whitefish comes 1,567th on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| 2 | Beverly Hills MI | 10,449 | $177K | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Ladue MO | 8,934 | $250K | 1.1% | 1.7% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,329 | Helena Valley West Central MT | 8,056 | $90K | 7.1% | 3.8% | 4% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 1,474 | Laurel MT | 7,205 | $68K | 10.0% | 2.4% | 18% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 1,565 | Flat Rock MI | 10,218 | $82K | 10.3% | 7.3% | 5% | B− |
| 1,566 | Griswold CT | 11,690 | $79K | 7.6% | 5.4% | 8% | B− |
| 1,567 | Whitefish MT | 9,358 | $74K | 9.4% | 2.4% | 37% | B− |
| 1,568 | Otter Creek Township IN | 9,001 | $72K | 12.2% | 2.5% | 7% | B− |
| 1,569 | Fairfield Glade TN | 9,487 | $72K | 7.2% | 3.0% | 12% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,639 | Evergreen MT | 9,611 | $76K | 12.1% | 3.4% | 15% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 2,778 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 14% | 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 Whitefish, 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 Whitefish: questions
What is the median household income in Whitefish?
$73,811 (±$10,514) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,509 across Montana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Whitefish?
9.4%, against 11.5% across Montana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Whitefish?
17 minutes each way on average, against 19 across Montana and 26 nationally. 24% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Whitefish work?
37% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Kalispell (16%, 15 mi), Missoula (4%, 109 mi), Columbia Falls (3%, 8 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Whitefish walkable?
Whitefish is more walkable than 88% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 8.2 out of 20, and 12% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Whitefish without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 9% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Whitefish, from the people who make the trip.
More of Whitefish
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.