Photo: The original uploader was Dekkanar at English Wikipedia. · CC BY-SA 3.0At 3.0%, unemployment in Elk Point is lower than in 70% of U.S. towns
A typical one-way commute from Elk Point lasts 21 minutes (South Dakota 18, U.S. 26). The two grades for Elk Point are B for jobs and income and B for walkability. About one in five work in Elk Point; the top destination outside it is Sioux Falls (13%, 59 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Elk Point at work: what stands out
How Elk Point earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Elk Point is better than 62% of U.S. towns. Unemployment holds Elk Point’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 35% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income and the poverty rate.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Elk Point could be anywhere from C to A.
Half of Elk Point commutes less than 16 miles
About 25% 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.
In and out of Elk Point on a workday
On a workday 688 residents head out to work, 198 work right here, and 511 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 (0.80 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.
The towns that employ Elk Point’s residents
Where Elk Point clocks in
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.
In Elk Point, 28% of jobs are in factories, building or farming
709 jobs are based in Elk Point.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Elk Point, 2013 → 2023: 769 → 709. 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 Elk Point’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 21 minutes each way for Elk Point’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Elk Point workers work from home, vs 10% across South Dakota. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,197 commuters (the 8% 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.
The commute in Elk Point is mostly behind the wheel
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Elk Point is more walkable than 58% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 4.3% across South Dakota.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,299 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). 10.1% of Elk Point households have no vehicle (South Dakota 5.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Elk Point’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Elk Point ranks: 1,517th of 5,148 U.S. towns of 1,500 to 2,800
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 66 | Delapre Township SD | 2,053 | $141K | 1.2% | 0.0% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 94 | Springdale Township SD | 2,229 | $151K | 1.3% | 0.2% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 252 | Mapleton Township SD | 2,063 | $111K | 2.4% | 2.7% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,515 | Woodland Township NJ | 1,581 | $139K | 20.3% | 3.5% | 1% | B |
| 1,516 | Two Rivers WI | 1,688 | $77K | 6.4% | 1.6% | 1% | B |
| 1,517 | Elk Point SD | 2,080 | $90K | 8.5% | 3.0% | 22% | B |
| 1,518 | Whiting WI | 1,649 | $73K | 6.5% | 2.6% | 1% | B |
| 1,519 | Fowler Township OH | 2,295 | $76K | 13.0% | 1.7% | 3% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 5,148 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Elk Point, the top three, the last and three more from South Dakota.
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 Elk Point: questions
What is the median household income in Elk Point?
$90,473 (±$12,404) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,081 across South Dakota and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Elk Point?
8.5%, against 11.9% across South Dakota and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Elk Point?
21 minutes each way on average, against 18 across South Dakota and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Elk Point work?
22% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Sioux Falls (13%, 59 mi), North Sioux City (8%, 14 mi), Vermillion (7%, 14 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Elk Point walkable?
Elk Point is more walkable than 58% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 8.6 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Elk Point without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 10% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Elk Point, from the people who make the trip.
More of Elk Point
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.