Modern Hotel · Photo: Magicpiano · CC BY-SA 4.0Whitehall’s household incomes are lower than in 93% of U.S. towns
About one in seven stay in Whitehall for work; outside it, Butte-Silver Bow is the main destination (17%, 27 miles). Below the poverty line: 20.6% of residents; Montana has 11.5%. For jobs and income Whitehall is better than 2% of U.S. towns (D−); for walkability it is more walkable than 82% of U.S. towns (A−).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Whitehall
Whitehall’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Whitehall is Butte-Silver Bow, 27 miles away as the crow flies. 17% of working residents (61) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
A big share show a job far from home
34% 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 ↓
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 355 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
How Whitehall earns its Jobs & income grade
All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Whitehall’s grade.
Unemployment (8.9%) is left out: Whitehall’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, Whitehall could be anywhere from D− to D.
Where in the region Whitehall works
About 34% 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.
The workday shuffle in and out of Whitehall
On a workday 310 residents head out to work, 45 work right here, and 301 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (0.97 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Out of Whitehall to work: where people go
Where Whitehall clocks in
17% of workers
8% of workers
6% 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 kinds of work in Whitehall
346 jobs are based in Whitehall.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Whitehall, 2013 → 2023: 268 → 346. 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 Whitehall’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 22 minutes to work from Whitehall
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Whitehall workers work from home, vs 13% across Montana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 403 commuters (the 6% 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.
Good to walk, short on transit: Whitehall
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 430 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). 5.0% of Whitehall households have no vehicle (Montana 4.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Whitehall’s commuters take a bus or train.
Whitehall next to U.S. towns of 800 to 1,500
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 380 | Wye MT | 1,055 | $110K | 2.7% | 1.3% | 5% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 454 | Clinton MT | 1,040 | $104K | 3.8% | 4.1% | 3% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 890 | Churchill MT | 1,167 | $108K | 6.3% | 1.3% | 4% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 3,584 | Ringgold LA | 1,314 | $31K | 33.8% | 14.3% | 10% | D− |
| 3,585 | Bernice LA | 1,305 | $26K | 28.1% | 4.6% | 5% | D− |
| 3,586 | Whitehall MT | 1,131 | $45K | 20.6% | 8.9% | 13% | D− |
| 3,587 | Westville OK | 1,413 | $39K | 34.1% | 12.8% | 23% | D− |
| 3,588 | Kenton TN | 1,248 | $42K | 24.3% | 3.7% | 3% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,771 | 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 Whitehall, 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 Whitehall: questions
What is the median household income in Whitehall?
$44,844 (±$10,935) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,509 across Montana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Whitehall?
20.6%, against 11.5% across Montana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Whitehall?
22 minutes each way on average, against 19 across Montana and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Whitehall work?
13% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Butte-Silver Bow (17%, 27 mi), Bozeman (8%, 52 mi), Helena (6%, 50 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Whitehall walkable?
Whitehall is more walkable than 82% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 8.3 out of 20, and 6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Whitehall without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 5% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Whitehall, from the people who make the trip.
More of Whitehall
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.