Photo: JERRYE AND ROY KLOTZ MD · CC BY-SA 3.0Clark’s household incomes are lower than in 76% of U.S. towns
Poverty touches 10.7% of residents, next to 11.9% for South Dakota as a whole. Jobs and income earn Clark C−; getting around on foot earns it B+. About one in five stay in Clark for work; outside it, Watertown is the main destination (12%, 28 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Clark apart on work
Where Clark’s Jobs & income grade comes from
On income, poverty and job access, Clark is better than 15% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Clark’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 4% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (7.1%) is left out: Clark’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, Clark could be anywhere from D− to C+.
The commute from Clark, by distance
About 29% 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 leaves Clark for work, and who comes in
On a workday 375 residents head out to work, 95 work right here, and 363 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 (0.97 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.
Where Clark goes to work
Where Clark clocks in
12% 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.
Inside Clark’s 458 jobs
458 jobs are based in Clark.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Clark, 2013 → 2023: 463 → 458. 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 Clark’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Clark’s commute takes about 18 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Clark workers work from home, vs 10% across South Dakota. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 586 commuters (the 4% 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.
For most of Clark, work means a drive
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Clark is more walkable than 68% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Clark 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 609 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). 13.3% of Clark households have no vehicle (South Dakota 5.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Clark’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 4,312 U.S. towns of 800 to 1,600, Clark comes 3,214th 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 122 | Wall Lake Township SD | 1,210 | $129K | 0.0% | 0.0% | 3% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 149 | Jefferson Township SD | 1,207 | $196K | 2.0% | 3.6% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 152 | Crooks SD | 1,415 | $99K | 0.5% | 1.4% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 3,212 | Muscoda WI | 1,304 | $56K | 12.5% | 4.6% | 10% | C− |
| 3,213 | Reno OH | 1,040 | $44K | 12.6% | 14.0% | 1% | C− |
| 3,214 | Clark SD | 1,183 | $59K | 10.7% | 7.1% | 20% | C− |
| 3,215 | Indian Point Township IL | 1,387 | $63K | 16.8% | 6.3% | 5% | C− |
| 3,216 | Lake Township MI | 1,137 | $63K | 12.8% | 3.2% | 1% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,312 | 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 Clark, the top three, the last and three more from South Dakota.
Next door to Clark
The biggest share goes to Day Township (2%).
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Clark workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clark | – | C− | B+ | 18 min | $58,750 |
| Day Township | 2% | — | — | — | — |
| Lincoln Township | 2% | — | — | — | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Day Township and Lincoln Township: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Clark’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 Clark: questions
What is the median household income in Clark?
$58,750 (±$10,827) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,081 across South Dakota and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Clark?
10.7%, against 11.9% across South Dakota and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Clark?
18 minutes each way on average, against 18 across South Dakota and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Clark work?
20% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Watertown (12%, 28 mi), Sioux Falls (7%, 105 mi), Willow Lake (3%, 18 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Clark walkable?
Clark is more walkable than 68% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 7.3 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Clark without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 13% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Clark, from the people who make the trip.
More of Clark
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.