Photo: Andrew Filer · CC BY-SA 2.0Making a living in Hillsboro
Jobs and income earn Hillsboro B−; getting around on foot earns it A−. Commuters spend 15 minutes getting to work on average, next to 18 for North Dakota and 26 for the U.S. Measured by household income, Hillsboro is ahead of 58% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jobs and commuting in Hillsboro: the gist
Hillsboro’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Hillsboro is Grand Forks, 36 miles away as the crow flies. 10% of working residents (53) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Hillsboro has added jobs fast
Jobs based in Hillsboro went from 470 in 2013 to 633 in 2023, +35%. The jobs ↓
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 549 working residents, small shifts move the shares; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Hillsboro
On income, poverty and job access, Hillsboro is better than 51% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Hillsboro’s grade up (6.9%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 26% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income.
Unemployment (1.7%) is left out: Hillsboro’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, Hillsboro could be anywhere from C+ to B+.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Hillsboro
About 17% 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.
Inside Hillsboro’s 633 jobs
633 jobs are based in Hillsboro.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Hillsboro, 2013 → 2023: 470 → 633. 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 Hillsboro’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The daily commute in and out of Hillsboro
On a workday 360 residents head out to work, 189 work right here, and 444 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 (1.15 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.
10% of working residents work in Grand Forks
Where Hillsboro clocks in
10% of workers
7% 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 daily trip from Hillsboro: about 15 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 4.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Hillsboro workers work from home, vs 8% across North Dakota. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 848 commuters (the 7% who work from home are left out). Across North Dakota: 85% 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: Hillsboro
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Hillsboro is more walkable than 77% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Hillsboro near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 908 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). 5.4% of Hillsboro households have no vehicle (North Dakota 5.9%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Hillsboro’s commuters take a bus or train.
Hillsboro is 1,949th of 5,381 U.S. towns of 1,200 to 2,200 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Hewlett Harbor NY | 1,332 | $250K | 1.9% | 7.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 503 | Mapleton ND | 1,496 | $119K | 1.9% | 0.8% | 2% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 537 | Surrey ND | 1,450 | $106K | 1.4% | 3.4% | 1% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 645 | Harrison Township ND | 1,734 | $122K | 5.1% | 5.2% | 3% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,947 | Grafton NY | 2,098 | $101K | 8.0% | 0.9% | 3% | B− |
| 1,948 | Pinehurst ID | 1,780 | $69K | 7.5% | 1.3% | 8% | B− |
| 1,949 | Hillsboro ND | 1,648 | $81K | 6.9% | 1.7% | 34% | B− |
| 1,950 | Culver OR | 1,689 | $91K | 6.8% | 3.9% | 6% | B− |
| 1,951 | Bishop Township IL | 1,683 | $84K | 8.6% | 3.3% | 7% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,381 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 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 Hillsboro, the top three, the last and three more from North Dakota.
Work next door: 10% of Hillsboro’s workers
The biggest share goes to Eldorado Township (7%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Hillsboro workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hillsboro | – | B− | A− | 15 min | $81,483 |
| Hillsboro Township | 3% | — | — | 15 min | — |
| Eldorado Township | 7% | — | — | 22 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Hillsboro Township and Eldorado Township: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Hillsboro’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
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 Hillsboro: questions
What is the median household income in Hillsboro?
$81,483 (±$8,075) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $76,657 across North Dakota and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Hillsboro?
6.9%, against 10.8% across North Dakota and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Hillsboro?
15 minutes each way on average, against 18 across North Dakota and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Hillsboro work?
34% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Grand Forks (10%, 36 mi), Eldorado Township (7%, 5 mi), Fargo (7%, 39 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Hillsboro walkable?
Hillsboro is more walkable than 77% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 8.4 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Hillsboro 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 Hillsboro, from the people who make the trip.
More of Hillsboro
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.