[5] Sandpoint's major economic contributors include forest products, light manufacturing, tourism, recreation and government services.

As the largest service center in the two northern Idaho counties (Bonner and Boundary), as well as northwestern Montana, it has an active retail sector.

[6] Salish Tribes, specifically the Kalispel, and the Kootenai, built encampments on the shore of Lake Pend Oreille every summer, fished, made baskets of cedar, and collected huckleberries before returning to either Montana or Washington in the fall.

The lumber companies bought land from the Northern Pacific Railroad and built a major mill at Sandpoint and adjacent Kootenai.

Farming and ranching became the third largest business in the area, behind lumber and railroads, prior to the "discovery" of Lake Pend Oreille as a sports fishery in the 1950s.

The economy was given a boost during World War II from Farragut Naval Station, a training center for the US Navy located at the southwestern end of Lake Pend Oreille.

The beauty of the surrounding Selkirk and Cabinet Mountains and Lake Pend Oreille has kept Sandpoint a tourist favorite for water sports, hunting, hiking, horseback riding, fishing and skiing.

Many Sandpoint residents reacted negatively to such groups; some formed the Bonner County Human Rights Task Force in opposition.

[10] In December 2011, Sandpoint became the first city in Idaho to pass an ordinance prohibiting discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodations based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

Sandpoint's historic vaudeville-era Panida Theater hosts frequent performing art events and an ongoing independent film series.

Described as glowing orbs, these lights have been attributed to various causes, including possible military activity from the nearby Farragut Naval Training Station, though no definitive explanations have been provided.

[14] Sandpoint has a fairly typical inland Northwestern humid continental climate (Köppen Dsb), with cold, snowy winters and dry summers with large diurnal temperature swings from hot in the day to very cool at night.

Amtrak's Empire Builder carries passengers daily in both directions between Chicago, Illinois to the east and Seattle, Washington and Portland, Oregon to the west.