Photo: U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Breanna Carter · Public domainHousehold incomes in Pine Ridge are lower than in 84% of U.S. towns
About one in ten work in Pine Ridge itself; outside it, Wounded Knee draws the most (10%, 12 miles). Below the poverty line: 14.5% of residents, next to 11.9% across South Dakota. Jobs and income earn Pine Ridge D; getting around on foot earns it B−.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Pine Ridge
Fewer jobs are based in Pine Ridge than ten years ago
Jobs counted in Pine Ridge fell from 631 in 2013 to 283 in 2023, −55%. That can be real closings or a large employer now reporting its workers at another address; the data can’t tell the two apart. The jobs ↓
Commutes from Pine Ridge are quick
The average trip to work takes 11 minutes, against 18 across South Dakota. That’s about 54 hours a year less on the road than the typical South Dakota worker. Time on the road ↓
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 391 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What’s behind Pine Ridge’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Pine Ridge is better than 6% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Pine Ridge’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (near the bottom of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (7.9%) is left out: Pine Ridge’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Pine Ridge could be anywhere from D− to B.
The kinds of work in Pine Ridge
283 jobs are based in Pine Ridge.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Pine Ridge, 2013 → 2023: 631 → 283. 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 Pine Ridge’s own residents hold wherever they work.
From Pine Ridge, about 11 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 3.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Pine Ridge workers work from home, vs 10% across South Dakota. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 647 commuters (the 11% 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.
A workday in Pine Ridge: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 351 residents head out to work, 40 work right here, and 243 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.
0.72 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.
Where the trip to work from Pine Ridge ends
Where Pine Ridge clocks in
10% of workers
5% 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.
Near or far: the trip to work from Pine Ridge
About 19% 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.
Few in Pine Ridge walk, bike or ride to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Pine Ridge is more walkable than 48% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 13.9% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 4.3% across South Dakota, on an EPA index of 2.9.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 726 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). 20.2% of Pine Ridge households have no vehicle (South Dakota 5.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Pine Ridge’s commuters take a bus or train.
Where Pine Ridge sits among U.S. towns of 1,600 to 3,000
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 61 | Delapre Township SD | 2,053 | $141K | 1.2% | 0.0% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 93 | Springdale Township SD | 2,229 | $151K | 1.3% | 0.2% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 259 | Mapleton Township SD | 2,063 | $111K | 2.4% | 2.7% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 4,620 | Lincoln Township MI | 1,841 | $49K | 14.8% | 5.8% | 1% | D |
| 4,621 | Chauvin LA | 2,502 | $53K | 21.3% | 10.3% | 6% | D |
| 4,622 | Pine Ridge SD | 2,246 | $53K | 14.5% | 7.9% | 10% | D |
| 4,623 | Guttenberg IA | 1,789 | $58K | 24.7% | 4.6% | 22% | D |
| 4,624 | Elkhart KS | 1,722 | $57K | 16.9% | 0.0% | 33% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,102 | 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 Pine Ridge, 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 Pine Ridge: questions
What is the median household income in Pine Ridge?
$53,060 (±$39,751) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,081 across South Dakota and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Pine Ridge?
14.5%, against 11.9% across South Dakota and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Pine Ridge?
11 minutes each way on average, against 18 across South Dakota and 26 nationally. 11% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Pine Ridge work?
10% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Wounded Knee (10%, 12 mi), Batesland (10%, 24 mi), Rapid City (5%, 80 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Pine Ridge walkable?
Pine Ridge is more walkable than 48% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 2.9 out of 20, and 14% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Pine Ridge without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 20% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Pine Ridge, from the people who make the trip.
More of Pine Ridge
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.