Photo: The original uploader was Hephaestos at English Wikipedia. · CC BY-SA 3.0Jobs, income and commuting in New Salem, ND
Jobs & income C+: better than 40% of U.S. towns on income, poverty and job access.
Walkability B: more walkable than 60% of U.S. towns.
Household incomes here are lower than in 59% of U.S. towns. Working residents average 22 minutes each way (North Dakota 18, U.S. 26). About one in seven work in New Salem; the top destination outside it is Bismarck (17%, 31 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work and commuting in New Salem, in brief
What’s behind New Salem’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, New Salem is better than 40% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds New Salem’s grade up (6.9%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 20% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (2.1%) is left out: New Salem’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, New Salem could be anywhere from C− to B.
Half of New Salem commutes less than 30 miles
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
About 28% 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.
Who leaves, who stays, who comes in
On a workday 343 residents head out to work, 61 work right here, and 338 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.
17% of working residents work in Bismarck
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
Where New Salem clocks in
17% of workers
8% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
What the 399 jobs in New Salem are
399 jobs are based in New Salem. Here is what they are, next to the jobs New Salem’s own residents hold wherever they work.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in New Salem, 2013 → 2023: 291 → 399. 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.
About 22 minutes each way, longer than most of North Dakota
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of New Salem workers work from home, vs 8% across North Dakota. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 334 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.
Most trips from New Salem start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, New Salem is more walkable than 60% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 4.2% across North Dakota.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 361 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). 4.6% of New Salem households have no vehicle (North Dakota 5.9%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of New Salem’s commuters take a bus or train.
New Salem is 1,671st of 3,771 U.S. towns of 800 to 1,500 on jobs and income
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of New Salem, the top three, the last and three more from North Dakota.
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 67 | Reed Township ND | 1,151 | $131K | 0.4% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 122 | Williston Township ND | 1,116 | $250K | 0.0% | 0.0% | 8% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 240 | Sundre Township ND | 1,024 | $107K | 1.4% | 0.0% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,669 | Malta IL | 1,140 | $81K | 24.0% | 2.9% | 1% | C+ |
| 1,670 | Velva ND | 1,046 | $83K | 8.2% | 1.6% | 16% | C+ |
| 1,671 | New Salem ND | 1,082 | $70K | 6.9% | 2.1% | 15% | C+ |
| 1,672 | Guthrie Township IN | 1,316 | $60K | 2.6% | 0.0% | 1% | C+ |
| 1,673 | Batavia Township MI | 1,332 | $61K | 5.8% | 2.6% | 1% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 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.
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 New Salem: questions
What is the median household income in New Salem?
$69,519 (±$11,789) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $76,657 across North Dakota and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in New Salem?
6.9%, against 10.8% across North Dakota and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from New Salem?
22 minutes each way on average, against 18 across North Dakota and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in New Salem work?
15% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Bismarck (17%, 31 mi), Hebron (8%, 30 mi), Glen Ullin (7%, 20 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is New Salem walkable?
New Salem is more walkable than 60% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 8.2 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around New Salem 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 New Salem, from the people who make the trip.
More of New Salem
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.