Photo: Kswx29 · CC BY 3.0Earning a living in St. Marys
Home is the office for 6% of workers, against 12% across Kansas. For jobs and income St. Marys is better than 48% of U.S. towns (B−); for walkability it is more walkable than 69% of U.S. towns (B+). About one in four work in St. Marys; the top destination outside it is Belvue (15%, 6 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The work figures that set St. Marys apart
St. Marys trades workers with the towns around it
St. Marys has about as many jobs (1,130) as working residents (1,021), but they are mostly different people: 751 residents leave for work each day while 860 people come in. Only 24% of the jobs in St. Marys are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
A young workforce
33% of St. Marys’ working residents are 29 or younger, about one in three. The jobs ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2024, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey.
The four measures behind St. Marys’ grade
The poverty rate holds St. Marys’ grade up (8.6%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 38% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, St. Marys could be anywhere from C− to A−.
Who commutes out of St. Marys, and who commutes in
On a workday 751 residents head out to work, 270 work right here, and 860 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 (1.11 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2024, primary jobs.
St. Marys makes things: 34% of its jobs are in goods
1,130 jobs are based in St. Marys.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in St. Marys, 2014 → 2024: 1,038 → 1,130. 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 2024.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs St. Marys’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Where the trip to work from St. Marys ends
Where St. Marys clocks in
10% of workers
6% 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.
About 16 minutes to work from St. Marys
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of St. Marys workers work from home, vs 12% across Kansas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,260 commuters (the 6% who work from home are left out). Across Kansas: 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.
St. Marys’ commute, mile by mile
About 17% 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 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
The commute in St. Marys is mostly behind the wheel
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 10.6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.4% across Kansas, on an EPA index of 6.0.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,336 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). 3.0% of St. Marys households have no vehicle (Kansas 5.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of St. Marys’ commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 4,703 U.S. towns of 2,000 to 3,800, St. Marys comes 2,315th on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5 | Mission Hills KS | 3,522 | $250K | 1.2% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 43 | Oxford Township KS | 2,058 | $163K | 1.9% | 2.1% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 57 | Minneha Township KS | 3,472 | $143K | 2.1% | 1.8% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,313 | Hanover Township OH | 2,385 | $55K | 6.3% | 3.0% | 14% | B− |
| 2,314 | Vermillion Township OH | 2,647 | $68K | 10.3% | 3.5% | 3% | B− |
| 2,315 | St. Marys KS | 2,790 | $77K | 8.6% | 4.4% | 26% | B− |
| 2,316 | Sabetha KS | 2,474 | $70K | 10.6% | 1.6% | 44% | B− |
| 2,317 | Milford Township IN | 2,992 | $91K | 8.5% | 5.0% | 7% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,703 | Cibecue AZ | 2,228 | $26K | 57.2% | 13.3% | 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 St. Marys, the top three, the last and three more from Kansas.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Two sources, two years. Trips, distances and jobs based here: Census LEHD 2024, 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 St. Marys: questions
What is the median household income in St. Marys?
$76,771 (±$12,333) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,275 across Kansas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in St. Marys?
8.6%, against 11.3% across Kansas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from St. Marys?
16 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Kansas and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in St. Marys work?
26% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Belvue (15%, 6 mi), Topeka (10%, 23 mi), Manhattan (6%, 29 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is St. Marys walkable?
St. Marys is more walkable than 69% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 6.0 out of 20, and 11% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around St. Marys without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from St. Marys, from the people who make the trip.
More of St. Marys
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2024, 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.