Photo: KOMUnews · CC BY 2.0Households in Glasgow have lower incomes than those in 87% of U.S. towns
Home is the office for 5% of workers (Missouri 13%). 11.9% of residents are in poverty, where Missouri as a whole has 12.6%. Jobs and income earn Glasgow D; getting around on foot earns it A−.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The work figures that set Glasgow apart
Glasgow’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Glasgow is Columbia, 34 miles away as the crow flies. 19% of working residents (91) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Commutes from Glasgow are quick
The average trip to work takes 17 minutes, against 24 across Missouri. That’s about 54 hours a year less on the road than the typical Missouri worker. Time on the road ↓
Glasgow makes and builds things
35% of the jobs based in Glasgow are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Glasgow residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 19%. 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 491 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Inside Glasgow’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Glasgow is better than 10% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Glasgow’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 8% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (3.1%) is left out: Glasgow’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, Glasgow could be anywhere from D− to C.
Short hops and long hauls from Glasgow
About 25% 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.
Each way, about 17 minutes from Glasgow
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Glasgow workers work from home, vs 13% across Missouri. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 506 commuters (the 5% 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.
Goods, not services: 35% of the jobs in Glasgow
532 jobs are based in Glasgow.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Glasgow, 2013 → 2023: 455 → 532. 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 Glasgow’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Glasgow by day and by night
On a workday 416 residents head out to work, 75 work right here, and 457 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 (1.08 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.
19% of working residents work in Columbia
Where Glasgow clocks in
19% of workers
12% 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.
Glasgow is more walkable than most U.S. towns, with limited transit
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Glasgow is more walkable than 84% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Glasgow 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 535 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). 4.0% of Glasgow households have no vehicle (Missouri 6.6%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Glasgow’s commuters take a bus or train.
Glasgow is 3,050th of 3,771 U.S. towns of 800 to 1,500 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 29 | Loch Lloyd MO | 1,090 | $184K | 2.5% | 0.5% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 61 | LaBarque Creek MO | 1,457 | $133K | 1.1% | 1.7% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 80 | Fremont Hills MO | 1,098 | $171K | 3.9% | 1.9% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,048 | Ray City GA | 1,132 | $56K | 18.6% | 4.8% | 1% | D |
| 3,049 | Toledo IL | 1,140 | $56K | 18.1% | 1.0% | 10% | D |
| 3,050 | Glasgow MO | 1,080 | $50K | 11.9% | 3.1% | 15% | D |
| 3,051 | Crescent OK | 1,429 | $63K | 19.3% | 4.8% | 6% | D |
| 3,052 | Lexington TX | 1,342 | $56K | 15.6% | 10.9% | 3% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 3,771 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 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 Glasgow, 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 Glasgow: questions
What is the median household income in Glasgow?
$50,446 (±$11,638) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $70,702 across Missouri and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Glasgow?
11.9%, against 12.6% across Missouri and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Glasgow?
17 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Missouri and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Glasgow work?
15% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Columbia (19%, 34 mi), Fayette (12%, 10 mi), Boonville (4%, 19 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Glasgow walkable?
Glasgow is more walkable than 84% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 8.9 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Glasgow without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Glasgow, from the people who make the trip.
More of Glasgow
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.