Berry Cemetery · Photo: Brian Sims · CC BY-SA 4.0About half of Ash Grove’s working residents commute to Springfield
Jobs & income C: better than 33% of U.S. towns on income, poverty and job access.
Walkability C+: more walkable than 41% of U.S. towns.
Household incomes here are lower than in 77% of U.S. towns. Working residents average 29 minutes each way (Missouri 24, U.S. 26). Only 8% work in Ash Grove; the top destination outside it is Springfield (48%, 18 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work and commuting in Ash Grove, in brief
Nearly half of Ash Grove works in Springfield
239 working residents, 48%, have their main job in Springfield, 18 miles away. That’s 6 times as many as work in Ash Grove itself. The commute map ↓
Many jobs in Ash Grove pay little
32% of the jobs based in Ash Grove pay $1,250 a month or less, under $15,000 a year. The jobs ↓
The better-paid jobs are outside Ash Grove
55% of Ash Grove residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, but only 33% of the jobs based in Ash Grove pay that much. Most residents work elsewhere: 92% leave town for their job. The jobs ↓
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 493 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What’s behind Ash Grove’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Ash Grove is better than 33% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Ash Grove’s grade up (ahead of 48% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($58,250, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (4.0%) is left out: Ash Grove’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Ash Grove could be anywhere from C− to B.
48% of working residents work in Springfield
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
Where Ash Grove clocks in
48% of workers
3% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
What the 449 jobs in Ash Grove are
449 jobs are based in Ash Grove. Here is what they are, next to the jobs Ash Grove’s own residents hold wherever they work.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Ash Grove, 2013 → 2023: 423 → 449. 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.
Who leaves, who stays, who comes in
On a workday 456 residents head out to work, 37 work right here, and 412 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 (0.91 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.
About 29 minutes each way, longer than most of Missouri
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Ash Grove workers work from home, vs 13% across Missouri. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 442 commuters (the 15% who work from home are left out). Across Missouri: 86% drive alone, 1% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
Half of Ash Grove commutes less than 20 miles
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
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 2023.
Most trips from Ash Grove start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Ash Grove is more walkable than 41% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Ash Grove 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 522 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). 6.3% of Ash Grove households have no vehicle (Missouri 6.6%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Ash Grove’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ash Grove is 3,147th of 5,794 U.S. towns of 1,100 to 2,100 on jobs and income
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Ash Grove, the top three, the last and three more from Missouri.
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 15 | Warson Woods MO | 1,990 | $207K | 1.3% | 1.8% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 59 | Lake Winnebago MO | 1,869 | $179K | 1.0% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 103 | LaBarque Creek MO | 1,457 | $133K | 1.1% | 1.7% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,145 | Ellis KS | 1,917 | $73K | 21.2% | 2.5% | 15% | C |
| 3,146 | Lakefield MN | 1,697 | $72K | 10.5% | 0.5% | 21% | C |
| 3,147 | Ash Grove MO | 1,532 | $58K | 11.0% | 4.0% | 8% | C |
| 3,148 | Drexel NC | 1,764 | $62K | 11.7% | 13.7% | 1% | C |
| 3,149 | Yellow Creek Township OH | 1,889 | $66K | 10.6% | 3.8% | 1% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 5,794 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 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.
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 Ash Grove: questions
What is the median household income in Ash Grove?
$58,250 (±$7,193) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $70,702 across Missouri and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Ash Grove?
11.0%, against 12.6% across Missouri and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Ash Grove?
29 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Missouri and 26 nationally. 15% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Ash Grove work?
8% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Springfield (48%, 18 mi), Walnut Grove (3%, 7 mi), Bolivar (3%, 22 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Ash Grove walkable?
Ash Grove is more walkable than 41% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 6.8 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Ash Grove without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Ash Grove, from the people who make the trip.
More of Ash Grove
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.