Calloway Manes Homestead · Photo: Treasureoak613 · CC BY-SA 4.0Household incomes in Richland are lower than in 98% of U.S. towns
Working from home is the commute for 3% of workers; Missouri has 13%. Below the poverty line: 25.9% of residents, next to 12.6% across Missouri. For jobs and income Richland is better than 2% of U.S. towns (D−); for walkability it is more walkable than 29% of U.S. towns (C).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Richland stands out on work
How Richland earns its Jobs & income grade
All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Richland’s grade.
Unemployment (3.8%) is left out: Richland’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, Richland could be anywhere from D− to D.
From Richland, about 28 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Richland workers work from home, vs 13% across Missouri. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 696 commuters (the 3% 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.
A workday in Richland: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 585 residents head out to work, 54 work right here, and 519 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 (0.90 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.
12% of working residents work in Lebanon
Where Richland clocks in
12% of workers
8% of workers
5% 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 Richland’s employers do
573 jobs are based in Richland.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Richland, 2013 → 2023: 619 → 573. 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 Richland’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Richland
About 29% 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.
In Richland, the car does most of the work
The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: hardly any 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 717 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). 4.4% of Richland households have no vehicle (Missouri 6.6%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Richland’s commuters take a bus or train.
U.S. towns of 1,200 to 2,300, and where Richland sits
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Hewlett Harbor NY | 1,332 | $250K | 1.9% | 7.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 14 | Warson Woods MO | 1,990 | $207K | 1.3% | 1.8% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 55 | Weatherby Lake MO | 2,139 | $153K | 3.4% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 56 | Lake Winnebago MO | 1,869 | $179K | 1.0% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,533 | Hooper Bay AK | 1,297 | $50K | 22.7% | 14.3% | — | D− |
| 5,534 | Whitesburg KY | 1,609 | $29K | 37.5% | 11.1% | 32% | D− |
| 5,535 | Richland MO | 1,737 | $34K | 25.9% | 3.8% | 8% | D− |
| 5,536 | Commerce OK | 2,260 | $35K | 35.1% | 3.0% | 11% | D− |
| 5,537 | Mount Union PA | 2,231 | $41K | 26.7% | 9.7% | 13% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,760 | 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 Richland, 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 Richland: questions
What is the median household income in Richland?
$34,268 (±$12,619) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $70,702 across Missouri and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Richland?
25.9%, against 12.6% across Missouri and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Richland?
28 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Missouri and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Richland work?
8% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Lebanon (12%, 19 mi), Waynesville (8%, 10 mi), St. Robert (5%, 13 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Richland walkable?
Richland is more walkable than 29% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 7.6 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Richland 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 Richland, from the people who make the trip.
More of Richland
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.