Photo: Jeffrey Beall · CC BY 4.0Work means Rapid City for more than half of Box Elder’s working residents
A typical one-way commute lasts 20 minutes, next to 18 for South Dakota and 26 for the U.S. The two grades for Box Elder are B− for jobs and income and C+ for walkability. Only 7% work in Box Elder itself; outside it, Rapid City draws the most (62%, 7 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Box Elder, in a few figures
More than half of Box Elder works in Rapid City
2,898 working residents, 62%, have their main job in Rapid City, 7.3 miles away across the town line. That’s 9 times as many as work in Box Elder itself. The commute map ↓
Box Elder has added jobs fast
Jobs based in Box Elder went from 1,026 in 2013 to 2,013 in 2023, +96%. The jobs ↓
Short distances, slow trips
Half of Box Elder’s working residents have a job less than 8 miles away, yet the average commute still takes 20 minutes, longer than the South Dakota average of 18. Time on the road ↓
Most Box Elder residents work close to home
63% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home. 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; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
Where Box Elder’s Jobs & income grade comes from
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Box Elder is better than 46% of U.S. towns, #22 of 35 in South Dakota. The poverty rate holds Box Elder’s grade up (7.5%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 38% of U.S. towns).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Box Elder could be anywhere from C− to A−.
Commuting out of Box Elder: the destinations
Where Box Elder clocks in
62% of workers
2% 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 Box Elder
2,013 jobs are based in Box Elder.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Box Elder, 2013 → 2023: 1,026 → 2,013. 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 Box Elder’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The daily trip from Box Elder: about 20 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Box Elder workers work from home, vs 10% across South Dakota. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 6,612 commuters (the 7% who work from home are left out). Across South 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.
Short hops and long hauls from Box Elder
About 16% 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.
Who commutes out of Box Elder, and who commutes in
On a workday 4,396 residents head out to work, 313 work right here, and 1,700 people come in from elsewhere.
About 11,000 people are in Box Elder on a workday afternoon, 19% fewer than live here.
0.43 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute 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.
Getting around Box Elder: mostly by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Box Elder is more walkable than 38% of U.S. towns, #31 of 35 in South Dakota. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 3.3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 4.3% across South Dakota, on an EPA index of 4.9.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 7,099 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). 1.3% of Box Elder households have no vehicle (South Dakota 5.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Box Elder’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Box Elder ranks: 1,471st of 2,227 U.S. towns of 10,000 to 19,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Beverly Hills MI | 10,449 | $177K | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | New Albany OH | 11,803 | $238K | 1.4% | 0.9% | 11% | A+ |
| 3 | Plain Township OH | 13,257 | $219K | 2.1% | 0.8% | 10% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 89 | Harrisburg SD | 10,405 | $109K | 0.5% | 1.0% | 10% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 140 | Brandon SD | 11,306 | $111K | 1.4% | 1.2% | 17% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,187 | Pierre SD | 13,848 | $78K | 10.1% | 1.2% | 65% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 1,469 | Owego NY | 18,745 | $86K | 13.6% | 4.4% | 21% | B− |
| 1,470 | Marshfield WI | 18,980 | $58K | 11.6% | 2.8% | 51% | B− |
| 1,471 | Box Elder SD | 13,936 | $73K | 7.5% | 4.9% | 7% | B− |
| 1,472 | Monroe WI | 10,581 | $69K | 8.9% | 4.3% | 46% | B− |
| 1,473 | Plattsburgh NY | 11,748 | $72K | 10.4% | 3.7% | 26% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 2,227 | Douglas AZ | 16,038 | $42K | 27.8% | 12.3% | 29% | 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 Box Elder, the top three, the last and three more from South Dakota.
63% of Box Elder works in a bordering town
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Box Elder workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Box Elder | – | B− | C+ | 20 min | $73,008 |
| Ashland Heights | under 1% | D | C− | 17 min | $57,353 |
| Rapid City | 62% | B− | B+ | 18 min | $70,870 |
| Rapid Valley | 1% | B+ | B− | 20 min | $83,208 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Rapid City. Darker towns draw more of Box Elder’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 Box Elder: questions
What is the median household income in Box Elder?
$73,008 (±$8,659) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,081 across South Dakota and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Box Elder?
7.5%, against 11.9% across South Dakota and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Box Elder?
20 minutes each way on average, against 18 across South Dakota and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Box Elder work?
7% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Rapid City (62%, 7 mi), Sioux Falls (4%, 319 mi), Wall (2%, 42 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Box Elder walkable?
Box Elder is more walkable than 38% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 4.9 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Box Elder without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 1% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Box Elder, from the people who make the trip.
More of Box Elder
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.