Photo: kennethaw88 · CC BY 4.0Households in St. Johns earn less than those in 60% of U.S. towns
St. Johns grades B− for jobs and income and B+ for walkability. Below the poverty line: 12.5% of residents (Michigan 13.2%). About one in five stay in St. Johns for work; outside it, Lansing is the main destination (19%, 20 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2021, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in St. Johns, in a few figures
What’s behind St. Johns’ Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, St. Johns is better than 48% of U.S. towns, #419 of 701 in Michigan. Job access by car holds St. Johns’ grade up (ahead of 64% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down. It also does well on unemployment.
The commuting and job counts on this page are Census LEHD 2021: Michigan reports later than other states, so its newest year is two years behind.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, St. Johns could be anywhere from C to A−.
Who leaves St. Johns for work, and who comes in
On a workday 2,646 residents head out to work, 701 work right here, and 3,042 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 (1.12 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2021, primary jobs.
Where St. Johns’ working residents head each day
Where St. Johns clocks in
19% 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.
The 3,743 jobs based in St. Johns
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in St. Johns, 2011 → 2021: 4,584 → 3,743. 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 2021.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs St. Johns’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 20 minutes to work from St. Johns
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of St. Johns workers work from home, vs 14% across Michigan. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,841 commuters (the 18% who work from home are left out). Across Michigan: 86% 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.
How far it is to work from St. Johns
About 21% 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 2021.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Driving is how St. Johns gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, St. Johns is more walkable than 74% of U.S. towns, #111 of 701 in Michigan. Both inputs place St. Johns near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 3,478 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 7.2% of St. Johns households have no vehicle (Michigan 7.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of St. Johns’ commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 3,091 U.S. towns of 5,400 to 10,500, St. Johns comes 1,848th on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 7 | Beverly Hills MI | 10,449 | $177K | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 35 | Grosse Pointe Farms MI | 9,735 | $161K | 2.5% | 1.9% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,846 | Hitchcock TX | 7,722 | $74K | 14.4% | 5.5% | 4% | B− |
| 1,847 | Columbia City IN | 10,256 | $68K | 13.6% | 3.7% | 15% | B− |
| 1,848 | St. Johns MI | 7,780 | $69K | 12.5% | 4.1% | 21% | B− |
| 1,849 | Glenwood IL | 8,416 | $77K | 10.6% | 17.0% | 3% | B− |
| 1,850 | Cherryville NC | 6,523 | $71K | 12.4% | 3.0% | 10% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,091 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 14% | 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. Johns, the top three, the last and three more from Michigan.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Two sources, two years. Trips, distances and jobs based here: Census LEHD 2021, 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. Johns: questions
What is the median household income in St. Johns?
$68,728 (±$8,966) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,875 across Michigan and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in St. Johns?
12.5%, against 13.2% across Michigan and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from St. Johns?
20 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Michigan and 26 nationally. 18% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in St. Johns work?
21% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Lansing (19%, 20 mi), East Lansing (6%, 18 mi), Delta Township (5%, 20 mi) (Census LEHD 2021).
Is St. Johns walkable?
St. Johns is more walkable than 74% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 8.7 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around St. Johns without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 7% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from St. Johns, from the people who make the trip.
More of St. Johns
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2021, 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.