Smith, Orie J., Black and White Stock Farm Historic District · Photo: Andrew.Belair · CC BY-SA 3.0Kirksville is a college town: 28% of residents are students
Family incomes here are lower than in 77% of U.S. towns. Kirksville grades C− for jobs and income and A− for walkability. More than half stay in Kirksville for work; outside it, Columbia is the main destination (3%, 87 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work and commuting in Kirksville, in brief
Commutes from Kirksville are quick
The average trip to work takes 13 minutes, against 24 across Missouri. That’s about 84 hours a year less on the road than the typical Missouri worker. Time on the road ↓
A big share show a job far from home
33% 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 2024, 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 Kirksville
On family income, poverty and job access, Kirksville is better than 16% of U.S. towns, #198 of 247 in Missouri. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Kirksville’s grade.
Unemployment (4.0%) is left out here: students looking for part-time work count as unemployed. Income is ranked as median family income ($72,338), since student households pull the household median down ($50,071).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for family income and poverty, Kirksville could be anywhere from D to C.
How long Kirksville spends getting to work: about 13 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Kirksville workers work from home, vs 13% across Missouri. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 6,566 commuters (the 7% 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.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Kirksville
About 33% 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 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
How a workday changes Kirksville
On a workday 2,741 residents head out to work, 3,138 work right here, and 4,523 people come in from elsewhere.
About 20,000 people are in Kirksville on a workday afternoon, 10% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.30 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2024, primary jobs.
Where Kirksville goes to work
Where Kirksville clocks in
3% of workers
2% of workers
2% 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.
What work there is in Kirksville: 7,661 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Kirksville, 2014 → 2024: 8,431 → 7,661. 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 2024.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Kirksville’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Walkable streets, thin transit: Kirksville
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Kirksville is more walkable than 83% of U.S. towns, #31 of 247 in Missouri. Both inputs place Kirksville 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 7,040 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). 8.8% of Kirksville households have no vehicle (Missouri 6.6%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Kirksville’s commuters take a bus or train.
Where Kirksville sits among U.S. towns of 13,000 to 24,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Plain Township OH | 13,257 | $219K | 2.1% | 0.8% | 10% | A+ |
| 2 | Rogers MN | 15,606 | $159K | 1.9% | 1.2% | 10% | A+ |
| 3 | Trophy Club TX | 13,695 | $201K | 2.1% | 2.0% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 12 | Dardenne Prairie MO | 15,032 | $153K | 1.3% | 1.6% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 144 | Creve Coeur MO | 18,480 | $127K | 6.1% | 2.6% | 10% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 202 | Webster Groves MO | 23,450 | $115K | 4.2% | 3.7% | 8% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,695 | Brownwood TX | 18,635 | $49K | 20.9% | 4.8% | 41% | C− |
| 1,696 | Ashland KY | 20,996 | $53K | 22.4% | 7.7% | 37% | C− |
| 1,697 | Kirksville MO | 17,863 | $50K | 28.2% | 4.0% | 53% | C− |
| 1,698 | McFarland CA | 14,709 | $55K | 24.1% | 7.9% | 16% | C− |
| 1,699 | Griffin GA | 23,896 | $44K | 25.2% | 6.3% | 16% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,822 | Douglas AZ | 16,038 | $42K | 27.8% | 12.3% | 28% | 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 Kirksville, 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 2024, primary jobs, where the employer reports them. Income, poverty, unemployment, commute time and how people travel: Census ACS 2020–24 averages.
- Students. 28% 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 Kirksville: questions
What is the median household income in Kirksville?
$50,071 (±$6,150) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $70,702 across Missouri and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Kirksville?
28.2% of residents live below the poverty line; leaving out college students, 15.5%. Missouri: 12.6%.
How long is the commute from Kirksville?
13 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Missouri and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Kirksville work?
53% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Columbia (3%, 87 mi), Jefferson City (2%, 115 mi), Kansas City (2%, 129 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Kirksville walkable?
Kirksville is more walkable than 83% 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 Kirksville without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 9% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Kirksville, from the people who make the trip.
More of Kirksville
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2024, 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.