James Beauchamp Clark House · Photo: MustardsMom · CC BY-SA 4.0Bowling Green’s household incomes are lower than in 84% of U.S. towns
Poverty touches 25.8% of residents, against 12.6% across Missouri. The two grades for Bowling Green are D for jobs and income and A− for walkability. About one in five work in Bowling Green itself; outside it, Hannibal draws the most (6%, 27 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Bowling Green and work: the main findings
Bowling Green trades workers with the towns around it
Bowling Green has about as many jobs (1,869) as working residents (1,606), but they are mostly different people: 1,262 residents leave for work each day while 1,525 people come in. Only 18% of the jobs in Bowling Green are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
A big share show a job far from home
35% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. How far ↓
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.
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Bowling Green
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Bowling Green is better than 7% of U.S. towns, #233 of 247 in Missouri. Unemployment holds Bowling Green’s grade up (6.3%, U.S. 5.2%); the poverty rate pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Bowling Green could be anywhere from D− to C.
Who leaves Bowling Green for work, and who comes in
On a workday 1,262 residents head out to work, 344 work right here, and 1,525 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 (1.16 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.
Bowling Green’s commute, mile by mile
About 35% 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.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Where the trip to work from Bowling Green ends
Where Bowling Green clocks in
6% of workers
4% of workers
4% 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.
Jobs in Bowling Green: what the 1,869 are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Bowling Green, 2013 → 2023: 1,901 → 1,869. 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 Bowling Green’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 24 minutes to work from Bowling Green
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Bowling Green workers work from home, vs 13% across Missouri. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,217 commuters (the 6% 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.
Bowling Green is easy on foot, hard by bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Bowling Green is more walkable than 79% of U.S. towns, #50 of 247 in Missouri. Both inputs place Bowling Green 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 1,295 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). 11.1% of Bowling Green households have no vehicle (Missouri 6.6%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Bowling Green’s commuters take a bus or train.
Bowling Green and other U.S. towns of 3,100 to 6,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Mission Hills KS | 3,522 | $250K | 1.2% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Ho-Ho-Kus NJ | 4,313 | $250K | 0.0% | 1.7% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 34 | St. Paul MO | 3,849 | $159K | 0.5% | 0.5% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 183 | Frontenac MO | 3,790 | $233K | 2.0% | 4.4% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 240 | Weldon Spring MO | 5,301 | $159K | 0.7% | 4.2% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 3,742 | Benson AZ | 5,532 | $49K | 12.1% | 8.7% | 25% | D |
| 3,743 | Mingo Junction OH | 3,233 | $54K | 26.3% | 8.6% | 4% | D |
| 3,744 | Bowling Green MO | 4,472 | $53K | 25.8% | 6.3% | 21% | D |
| 3,745 | L'Anse Township MI | 3,634 | $55K | 15.9% | 6.5% | 31% | D |
| 3,746 | Menominee WI | 4,199 | $62K | 21.7% | 10.0% | 45% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 4,000 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 18% | 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 Bowling Green, 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 Bowling Green: questions
What is the median household income in Bowling Green?
$53,295 (±$8,485) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $70,702 across Missouri and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Bowling Green?
25.8%, against 12.6% across Missouri and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Bowling Green?
24 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Missouri and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Bowling Green work?
21% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Hannibal (6%, 27 mi), O'Fallon (4%, 47 mi), Louisiana (4%, 10 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Bowling Green walkable?
Bowling Green is more walkable than 79% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 8.2 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Bowling Green without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 11% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Bowling Green, from the people who make the trip.
More of Bowling Green
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.