Work means Missoula for more than half of Wye’s working residents
Only 5% work in Wye itself; outside it, Missoula draws the most (59%, 7 miles). The two grades for Wye are A− for jobs and income and B for walkability. Measured by household income, Wye is ahead of 83% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Wye
More than half of Wye works in Missoula
225 working residents, 59%, have their main job in Missoula, 7.4 miles away. That’s 12 times as many as work in Wye itself. The commute map ↓
Wye is where the jobs are
Wye has 1,073 jobs, 2.8 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 1,700 people are in town, 65% more than the 1,100 who live here. Day and night ↓
Most Wye residents work close to home
74% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home, about three in four. 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 383 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Wye
On income, poverty and job access, Wye is better than 78% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Wye’s grade up (2.7%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 29% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income.
Unemployment (1.3%) is left out: Wye’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, Wye could be anywhere from C to A.
Where the people who work in Wye live
Where Wye clocks in
59% of workers
5% 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.
A workday in Wye: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 362 residents head out to work, 21 work right here, and 1,052 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,700 people are in Wye on a workday afternoon, 65% more than live here.
2.8 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.
How far Wye goes to work
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.
A place that makes things: 29% of Wye’s jobs are in goods
1,073 jobs are based in Wye.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Wye, 2013 → 2023: 899 → 1,073. 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 Wye’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How long Wye spends getting to work: about 15 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 4.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Wye workers work from home, vs 13% across Montana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 633 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.
Getting around Wye: mostly by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Wye is more walkable than 61% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 6.8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 6.3% across Montana, on an EPA index of 5.8.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 670 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 3.0% of Wye households have no vehicle (Montana 4.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Wye’s commuters take a bus or train.
Wye next to U.S. towns of 700 to 1,400: 301st of 3,133 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 299 | Bellevue Township MN | 1,181 | $114K | 3.6% | 3.2% | 1% | A− |
| 300 | Lessor WI | 1,242 | $97K | 3.9% | 4.0% | 1% | A− |
| 301 | Wye MT | 1,055 | $110K | 2.7% | 1.3% | 5% | A− |
| 302 | Brandywine Bay NC | 1,313 | $105K | 1.2% | 12.1% | 0% | A− |
| 303 | Rosefield Township IL | 1,204 | $85K | 3.2% | 2.9% | 1% | 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 |
| … | |||||||
| 1,064 | Boulder MT | 1,305 | $73K | 3.8% | 6.9% | 3% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 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 Wye, 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 Wye: questions
What is the median household income in Wye?
$109,625 (±$77,292) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,509 across Montana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Wye?
2.7%, against 11.5% across Montana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Wye?
15 minutes each way on average, against 19 across Montana and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Wye work?
5% work in town.
Is Wye walkable?
Wye is more walkable than 61% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 5.8 out of 20, and 7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Wye without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Wye, from the people who make the trip.
More of Wye
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.