Greenfield Opera House Building · Photo: Kbh3rd · CC BY-SA 3.0Households in Greenfield have lower incomes than those in 98% of U.S. towns
4% of workers have no commute at all, against 13% across Missouri. Below the poverty line: 26.7% of residents; Missouri has 12.6%. The two grades for Greenfield are D− for jobs and income and B+ for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Greenfield
Greenfield’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Greenfield is Springfield, 34 miles away as the crow flies. 26% of working residents (121) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Fewer jobs are based in Greenfield than ten years ago
Jobs counted in Greenfield fell from 700 in 2013 to 321 in 2023, −54%. That can be real closings or a large employer now reporting its workers at another address; the data can’t tell the two apart. The jobs ↓
Greenfield workers spend longer getting to work
The average trip takes 29 minutes each way, against 24 across Missouri. Over a year that’s about 222 hours of commuting, 38 more than the state’s typical 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; with 473 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What’s behind Greenfield’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Greenfield is near the bottom of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Greenfield’s grade.
Unemployment (8.3%) is left out: Greenfield’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A firm grade. At either end of the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Greenfield stays D−.
The distance from Greenfield to work
About 21% 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.
Jobs in Greenfield: what the 321 are
321 jobs are based in Greenfield.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Greenfield, 2013 → 2023: 700 → 321. 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 Greenfield’s own residents hold wherever they work.
A commute of about 29 minutes in Greenfield
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Greenfield workers work from home, vs 13% across Missouri. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 408 commuters (the 4% 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.
Who works in Greenfield, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 441 residents head out to work, 32 work right here, and 289 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,100 people are in Greenfield on a workday afternoon, 12% fewer than live here.
0.68 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.
26% of working residents work in Springfield
Where Greenfield clocks in
26% 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.
Most of Greenfield commutes by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Greenfield is more walkable than 73% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Greenfield 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 427 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). 14.4% of Greenfield households have no vehicle (Missouri 6.6%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Greenfield’s commuters take a bus or train.
U.S. towns of 900 to 1,700, and where Greenfield sits
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 35 | Loch Lloyd MO | 1,090 | $184K | 2.5% | 0.5% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 82 | LaBarque Creek MO | 1,457 | $133K | 1.1% | 1.7% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 106 | Fremont Hills MO | 1,098 | $171K | 3.9% | 1.9% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,748 | Newberry MI | 1,397 | $46K | 29.7% | 10.8% | 25% | D− |
| 4,749 | Appleton MN | 1,361 | $44K | 28.3% | 6.3% | 30% | D− |
| 4,750 | Greenfield MO | 1,242 | $36K | 26.7% | 8.3% | 7% | D− |
| 4,751 | Roseboro NC | 1,189 | $39K | 39.2% | 2.6% | 4% | D− |
| 4,752 | Lake Kathryn FL | 1,024 | $50K | 29.5% | 3.4% | 0% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,866 | 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 Greenfield, 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 Greenfield: questions
What is the median household income in Greenfield?
$36,420 (±$5,392) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $70,702 across Missouri and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Greenfield?
26.7%, against 12.6% across Missouri and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Greenfield?
29 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Missouri and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Greenfield work?
7% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Springfield (26%, 34 mi), Lockwood (4%, 7 mi), Bolivar (4%, 27 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Greenfield walkable?
Greenfield is more walkable than 73% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 7.6 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Greenfield without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 14% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Greenfield, from the people who make the trip.
More of Greenfield
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.