Lewis Shaw Coleman House · Photo: Johnston9494 · CC BY-SA 4.0Households in Aurora earn less than those in 88% of U.S. towns
Aurora grades D for jobs and income and B for walkability. 18.1% of residents live below the poverty line, next to 12.6% for Missouri as a whole. About one in seven work in Aurora itself; outside it, Springfield draws the most (20%, 28 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Aurora stands out on work
Where Aurora’s Jobs & income grade comes from
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Aurora is better than 12% of U.S. towns, #214 of 247 in Missouri. Job access by car holds Aurora’s grade up (ahead of 40% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($49,848, U.S. $80,734).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Aurora could be anywhere from D to C+.
How far it is to work from Aurora
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.
Who works in Aurora, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 2,806 residents head out to work, 554 work right here, and 1,812 people come in from elsewhere.
About 6,700 people are in Aurora on a workday afternoon, 13% fewer than live here.
0.70 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Where Aurora’s working residents head each day
Where Aurora clocks in
20% of workers
13% of workers
3% 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 kinds of work in Aurora
2,366 jobs are based in Aurora.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Aurora, 2013 → 2023: 2,463 → 2,366. 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 Aurora’s own residents hold wherever they work.
A commute of about 21 minutes in Aurora
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Aurora workers work from home, vs 13% across Missouri. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,803 commuters (the 9% who work from home are left out). Across Missouri: 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.
For most of Aurora, work means a drive
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Aurora is more walkable than 64% of U.S. towns, #111 of 247 in Missouri. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.9% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 3.2% across Missouri.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 3,077 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). 5.5% of Aurora households have no vehicle (Missouri 6.6%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Aurora’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Aurora compares with U.S. towns of 5,400 to 10,400
| # | 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 | Ladue MO | 8,934 | $250K | 1.1% | 1.7% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,781 | Lewistown PA | 8,385 | $40K | 35.7% | 4.3% | 13% | D |
| 2,782 | Brownfield TX | 8,762 | $42K | 21.2% | 5.1% | 31% | D |
| 2,783 | Aurora MO | 7,686 | $50K | 18.1% | 7.1% | 16% | D |
| 2,784 | Marion VA | 5,555 | $41K | 20.7% | 4.8% | 29% | D |
| 2,785 | Sequim WA | 8,215 | $60K | 12.9% | 9.7% | 22% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 3,051 | 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 Aurora, the top three, the last and three more from Missouri.
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 Aurora: questions
What is the median household income in Aurora?
$49,848 (±$9,771) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $70,702 across Missouri and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Aurora?
18.1%, against 12.6% across Missouri and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Aurora?
21 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Missouri and 26 nationally. 9% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Aurora work?
16% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Springfield (20%, 28 mi), Monett (13%, 12 mi), Mount Vernon (3%, 11 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Aurora walkable?
Aurora is more walkable than 64% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 8.8 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Aurora 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 Aurora, from the people who make the trip.
More of Aurora
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.