Photo: Brian Stansberry · CC BY 4.0Few U.S. towns have household incomes as low as Mansfield’s
Mansfield grades D− for jobs and income and C+ for walkability. Measured by household income, Mansfield is among the lowest-earning towns in the country. 32.1% of residents live below the poverty line, where Missouri as a whole has 12.6%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Mansfield and work: the main findings
Mansfield is where the jobs are
Mansfield has 1,005 jobs, 2.7 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 1,900 people are in town, 48% more than the 1,300 who live here. Day and night ↓
Mansfield’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Mansfield is Springfield, 40 miles away as the crow flies. 14% of working residents (54) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Mansfield makes and builds things
59% of the jobs based in Mansfield are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Mansfield residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 28%. 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 377 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
How the Jobs & income grade adds up in Mansfield
On income, poverty and job access, Mansfield is better than 2% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Mansfield’s grade up (ahead of 17% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($29,773, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (5.3%) is left out: Mansfield’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, Mansfield stays D−.
The workday shuffle in and out of Mansfield
On a workday 315 residents head out to work, 62 work right here, and 943 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,900 people are in Mansfield on a workday afternoon, 48% more than live here.
2.7 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.
Mansfield’s commute, mile by mile
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.
Factories, building and farms: 59% of the jobs in Mansfield
1,005 jobs are based in Mansfield.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Mansfield, 2013 → 2023: 619 → 1,005. 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 Mansfield’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The daily trip into Mansfield
Where Mansfield clocks in
14% of workers
10% 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.
The trip to work from Mansfield: about 30 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Mansfield workers work from home, vs 13% across Missouri. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 444 commuters (the 14% 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.
Few in Mansfield walk, bike or ride to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Mansfield is more walkable than 38% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 3.2% across Missouri.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 517 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). 9.0% of Mansfield households have no vehicle (Missouri 6.6%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Mansfield’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Mansfield compares with U.S. towns of 900 to 1,800
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 38 | Loch Lloyd MO | 1,090 | $184K | 2.5% | 0.5% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 91 | LaBarque Creek MO | 1,457 | $133K | 1.1% | 1.7% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 119 | Fremont Hills MO | 1,098 | $171K | 3.9% | 1.9% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,229 | Mound Bayou MS | 1,381 | $24K | 46.4% | 4.4% | 10% | D− |
| 5,230 | Marble Hill MO | 1,380 | $38K | 29.5% | 4.2% | 13% | D− |
| 5,231 | Mansfield MO | 1,317 | $30K | 32.1% | 5.3% | 16% | D− |
| 5,232 | Santa Anna TX | 1,043 | $44K | 24.8% | 2.2% | 11% | D− |
| 5,233 | Monroe Township OH | 1,356 | $43K | 36.3% | 5.5% | 2% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,400 | 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 Mansfield, 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 Mansfield: questions
What is the median household income in Mansfield?
$29,773 (±$7,908) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $70,702 across Missouri and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Mansfield?
32.1%, against 12.6% across Missouri and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Mansfield?
30 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Missouri and 26 nationally. 14% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Mansfield work?
16% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Springfield (14%, 40 mi), Mountain Grove (10%, 17 mi), Norwood (4%, 9 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Mansfield walkable?
Mansfield is more walkable than 38% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 7.5 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Mansfield without a car?
0% 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 Mansfield, from the people who make the trip.
More of Mansfield
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.