Sanborn Field and Soil Erosion Plots · Photo: Iwtwb8 · CC BY-SA 3.0Family incomes in Columbia top those of 67% of U.S. towns
About two in three stay in Columbia for work; outside it, Jefferson City is the main destination (5%, 28 miles). Leaving out college students, 11.4% of residents live below the poverty line, where Missouri as a whole has 11.9%. Jobs and income earn Columbia B; getting around on foot earns it A.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Columbia apart on work
Columbia is where the jobs are
Columbia has 88,533 jobs, 1.7 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Commutes from Columbia are quick
The average trip to work takes 16 minutes, against 24 across Missouri. That’s about 61 hours a year less on the road than the typical Missouri worker. Time on the road ↓
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.
Income, poverty and work: Columbia’s grade explained
On family income, poverty and job access, Columbia is better than 64% of U.S. towns, #81 of 247 in Missouri. Job access by car holds Columbia’s grade up (ahead of 69% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down. It also does well on family income.
22% of Columbia’s residents are college students, and off-campus students count in the Census poverty figures. Where students are 15% or more of the people the Census checks for poverty (17% here), the grade uses the rate without them: 11.4%, against 19.3% for all residents. Unemployment (4.0%) is left out here: students looking for part-time work count as unemployed. Income is ranked as median family income ($106,412), since student households pull the household median down ($66,498).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for family income and poverty, Columbia could be anywhere from B to B+.
Who commutes out of Columbia, and who commutes in
On a workday 16,310 residents head out to work, 36,323 work right here, and 52,210 people come in from elsewhere.
About 167,000 people are in Columbia on a workday afternoon, 27% more than live here.
1.7 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than 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.
How long Columbia spends getting to work: about 16 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Columbia workers work from home, vs 13% across Missouri. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 60,167 commuters (the 10% 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.
Commuting in to Columbia: where workers come from
Where Columbia clocks in
5% of workers
2% of workers
1% 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.
Columbia is a services town
88,533 jobs are based in Columbia.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Columbia, 2013 → 2023: 73,963 → 88,533. 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 Columbia’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Miles to work from Columbia
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.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Good to walk, short on transit: Columbia
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Columbia is more walkable than 85% of U.S. towns, #25 of 247 in Missouri. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 8.1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.2% across Missouri, on an EPA index of 8.2.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 66,882 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). 7.1% of Columbia households have no vehicle (Missouri 6.6%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Columbia’s commuters take a bus or train.
These are town averages; neighborhoods differ.
Among U.S. towns of 92,000 to 177,000, Columbia ranks 132nd of 287 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Carmel IN | 105,634 | $142K | 3.9% | 2.7% | 23% | A+ |
| 2 | Clay Township IN | 104,932 | $142K | 3.9% | 2.7% | 23% | A+ |
| 3 | Fishers IN | 104,812 | $130K | 4.0% | 2.8% | 14% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 13 | O'Fallon MO | 96,101 | $110K | 5.4% | 2.7% | 15% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 41 | Lee's Summit MO | 107,514 | $103K | 5.7% | 3.8% | 20% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 130 | Davie FL | 110,851 | $87K | 11.2% | 5.2% | 10% | B |
| 131 | Elgin IL | 115,476 | $90K | 9.8% | 6.1% | 20% | B |
| 132 | Columbia MO | 130,851 | $66K | 19.3% | 4.0% | 69% | B |
| 133 | Joliet IL | 152,241 | $92K | 11.1% | 5.5% | 16% | B |
| 134 | Quincy MA | 103,173 | $99K | 10.6% | 6.9% | 14% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 213 | Independence MO | 121,675 | $60K | 15.8% | 5.6% | 16% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 287 | Macon-Bibb County GA | 157,556 | $51K | 24.7% | 8.1% | 53% | 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 Columbia, 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.
- Students. 22% of residents are college students; the poverty input leaves off-campus students out (above).
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Columbia: questions
What is the median household income in Columbia?
$66,498 (±$1,794) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $70,702 across Missouri and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Columbia?
19.3% of residents live below the poverty line; leaving out college students, 11.4%. Missouri: 12.6%.
How long is the commute from Columbia?
16 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Missouri and 26 nationally. 10% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Columbia work?
69% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Jefferson City (5%, 28 mi), Kansas City (2%, 120 mi), Springfield (1%, 132 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Columbia walkable?
Columbia is more walkable than 85% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 8.2 out of 20, and 8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Columbia without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 7% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Columbia, from the people who make the trip.
More of Columbia
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.