Households in Crane have lower incomes than those in 97% of U.S. towns
About one in ten work in Crane; the top destination outside it is Springfield (24%, 25 miles). 34.2% of residents live below the poverty line; Missouri has 12.6%. The two grades for Crane are D for jobs and income and C for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Crane and work: the main findings
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Crane
On income, poverty and job access, Crane is better than 5% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Crane’s grade up (ahead of 35% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down.
Unemployment (6.5%) is left out: Crane’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, Crane could be anywhere from D− to D.
Short hops and long hauls from Crane
About 22% 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.
Who commutes out of Crane, and who commutes in
On a workday 567 residents head out to work, 52 work right here, and 289 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,200 people are in Crane on a workday afternoon, 18% fewer than live here.
0.55 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.
The places Crane commutes to
Where Crane clocks in
24% 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.
Inside Crane’s 341 jobs
341 jobs are based in Crane.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Crane, 2013 → 2023: 433 → 341. 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 Crane’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Commuting from Crane: about 26 minutes a trip
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Crane workers work from home, vs 13% across Missouri. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 564 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.
The commute in Crane is mostly behind the wheel
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Crane is more walkable than 31% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Crane 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 625 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). 5.8% of Crane households have no vehicle (Missouri 6.6%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Crane’s commuters take a bus or train.
Where Crane sits among U.S. towns of 1,100 to 2,000
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 14 | Warson Woods MO | 1,990 | $207K | 1.3% | 1.8% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 53 | Lake Winnebago MO | 1,869 | $179K | 1.0% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 90 | LaBarque Creek MO | 1,457 | $133K | 1.1% | 1.7% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,873 | Bagley MN | 1,310 | $45K | 17.7% | 6.6% | 33% | D |
| 4,874 | Summit MS | 1,417 | $29K | 45.8% | 9.8% | 2% | D |
| 4,875 | Crane MO | 1,509 | $37K | 34.2% | 6.5% | 8% | D |
| 4,876 | Sherburne NY | 1,359 | $45K | 19.6% | 5.7% | 12% | D |
| 4,877 | Holly Hill SC | 1,280 | $34K | 38.6% | 3.4% | 7% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,397 | 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.
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Crane, 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 Crane: questions
What is the median household income in Crane?
$37,132 (±$18,984) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $70,702 across Missouri and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Crane?
34.2%, against 12.6% across Missouri and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Crane?
26 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Missouri and 26 nationally. 10% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Crane work?
8% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Springfield (24%, 25 mi), Aurora (4%, 9 mi), Republic (3%, 20 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Crane walkable?
Crane is more walkable than 31% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 6.2 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Crane 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 Crane, from the people who make the trip.
More of Crane
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.