Photo: I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby publish it under the following license: · CC BY-SA 3.0Wolf Point has some of the highest unemployment in the country: 17.4%
Working from home is the commute for 1% of workers, next to 12% for Montana as a whole. The two grades for Wolf Point are D− for jobs and income and A for walkability. Measured by household income, Wolf Point is behind 84% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Wolf Point, in a few figures
Commutes from Wolf Point are quick
The average trip to work takes 12 minutes, against 19 across Montana. That’s about 54 hours a year less on the road than the typical Montana worker. Time on the road ↓
Few Wolf Point workers work from home
Only 1% 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 898 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
How Wolf Point earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Wolf Point is better than 2% of U.S. towns, #41 of 42 in Montana. Household income holds Wolf Point’s grade up ($52,868, U.S. $80,734); unemployment pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Wolf Point could be anywhere from D− to D.
The daily trip from Wolf Point: about 12 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 3.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Wolf Point workers work from home, vs 13% across Montana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,008 commuters (the 1% 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.
The workday shuffle in and out of Wolf Point
On a workday 578 residents head out to work, 320 work right here, and 566 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 (0.99 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.
5% of working residents work in Poplar
Where Wolf Point clocks in
5% of workers
2% of workers
1% 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 886 jobs based in Wolf Point
886 jobs are based in Wolf Point.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Wolf Point, 2013 → 2023: 1,168 → 886. 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 Wolf Point’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The distance from Wolf Point to work
About 19% 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.
Good to walk, short on transit: Wolf Point
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Wolf Point is more walkable than 90% of U.S. towns, #8 of 42 in Montana. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 12.8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 6.3% across Montana, on an EPA index of 8.5.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,017 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). 16.3% of Wolf Point households have no vehicle (Montana 4.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Wolf Point’s commuters take a bus or train.
Where Wolf Point sits among U.S. towns of 1,800 to 3,400
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 539 | King Arthur Park MT | 1,992 | $109K | 7.4% | 0.0% | 1% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 633 | Manhattan MT | 2,073 | $88K | 2.9% | 0.0% | 9% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 881 | Big Sky MT | 2,445 | $139K | 4.7% | 1.4% | 68% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,737 | Mount Vernon GA | 1,925 | $33K | 38.8% | 15.1% | 3% | D− |
| 4,738 | Bunkie LA | 3,138 | $22K | 55.0% | 11.6% | 23% | D− |
| 4,739 | Wolf Point MT | 2,531 | $53K | 23.3% | 17.4% | 36% | D− |
| 4,740 | Waurika OK | 1,867 | $46K | 28.1% | 7.4% | 26% | D− |
| 4,741 | Springville Township MI | 1,800 | $47K | 24.8% | 7.9% | 5% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,868 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Wolf Point, 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 Wolf Point: questions
What is the median household income in Wolf Point?
$52,868 (±$18,377) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,509 across Montana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Wolf Point?
23.3%, against 11.5% across Montana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Wolf Point?
12 minutes each way on average, against 19 across Montana and 26 nationally. 1% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Wolf Point work?
36% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Poplar (5%, 20 mi), Glasgow (2%, 46 mi), Billings (1%, 210 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Wolf Point walkable?
Wolf Point is more walkable than 90% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 8.5 out of 20, and 13% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Wolf Point without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 16% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Wolf Point, from the people who make the trip.
More of Wolf Point
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.