Photo: JERRYE AND ROY KLOTZ MD · CC BY-SA 3.0Unemployment in Spearfish (2.2%) is lower than in 82% of U.S. towns
About half stay in Spearfish for work; outside it, Rapid City is the main destination (12%, 42 miles). For jobs and income Spearfish is better than 39% of U.S. towns (C+); for walkability it is more walkable than 85% of U.S. towns (A). Working residents average 16 minutes each way, against 18 across South Dakota and 26 nationally.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Spearfish, in a few figures
How Spearfish earns its Jobs & income grade
Unemployment holds Spearfish’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 25% of U.S. towns).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Spearfish could be anywhere from C− to B.
How far Spearfish’s workers travel
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.
The daily flow of workers through Spearfish
On a workday 3,063 residents head out to work, 2,558 work right here, and 4,154 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 (1.19 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 Spearfish’s residents
Where Spearfish 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.
What the 6,712 jobs in Spearfish are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Spearfish, 2013 → 2023: 6,020 → 6,712. 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 Spearfish’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Spearfish’s commute takes about 16 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Spearfish workers work from home, vs 10% across South Dakota. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 6,336 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.
Good to walk, short on transit: Spearfish
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 9.2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 4.3% across South Dakota, on an EPA index of 8.0.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 6,783 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). 7.4% of Spearfish households have no vehicle (South Dakota 5.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Spearfish’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 10,000 to 19,000, Spearfish ranks 1,599th of 2,227 on jobs and income
| # | 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 |
| … | |||||||
| 1,597 | Burley ID | 12,409 | $67K | 15.3% | 2.8% | 35% | C+ |
| 1,598 | Cottage Grove OR | 10,851 | $81K | 10.7% | 6.0% | 18% | C+ |
| 1,599 | Spearfish SD | 14,154 | $66K | 15.2% | 2.2% | 46% | C+ |
| 1,600 | Country Club CA | 10,161 | $81K | 15.4% | 10.4% | 1% | C+ |
| 1,601 | Somers Point NJ | 10,590 | $71K | 9.2% | 10.5% | 12% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 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 Spearfish, the top three, the last and three more from South Dakota.
The towns around Spearfish
The biggest share goes to North Spearfish (3%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Spearfish workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spearfish | – | C+ | A | 16 min | $65,688 |
| North Spearfish | 3% | C+ | D | 18 min | $76,809 |
| Mountain Plains | under 1% | — | — | 16 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Mountain Plains: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Spearfish’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 Spearfish: questions
What is the median household income in Spearfish?
$65,688 (±$12,528) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,081 across South Dakota and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Spearfish?
15.2%, against 11.9% across South Dakota and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Spearfish?
16 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 Spearfish work?
46% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Rapid City (12%, 42 mi), Deadwood (7%, 9 mi), Sioux Falls (4%, 358 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Spearfish walkable?
Spearfish is more walkable than 85% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 8.0 out of 20, and 9% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Spearfish without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 7% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Spearfish, from the people who make the trip.
More of Spearfish
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.