Photo: Stephenjayson · CC BY-SA 4.026% of Rolla’s residents are college students
About two in five work in Rolla itself; outside it, Columbia draws the most (4%, 76 miles). Rolla grades D for jobs and income and A− for walkability. Measured by family income, Rolla is behind 86% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Rolla
Commutes from Rolla are quick
The average trip to work takes 14 minutes, against 24 across Missouri. That’s about 77 hours a year less on the road than the typical Missouri worker. Time on the road ↓
Rolla is where the jobs are
Rolla has 11,751 jobs, 1.6 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Rolla draws workers from far and wide
The 11,751 jobs in Rolla are filled from a wide area. Rolla’s own residents hold 24% and the ten next-biggest home towns 9%; the other 67% come from many towns beyond those. The commute map ↓
A young workforce
33% of Rolla’s working residents are 29 or younger, about one in three. The jobs ↓
Fewer than half of Rolla workers earn over $40,000 a year
43% of Rolla’s working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 19% earn $1,250 a month or less. 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.
Where Rolla’s Jobs & income grade comes from
On family income, poverty and job access, Rolla is better than 14% of U.S. towns, #207 of 247 in Missouri. Job access by car holds Rolla’s grade up (ahead of 36% of U.S. towns); family income pulls it down ($64,509, U.S. $99,999).
Where students are 15% or more of the people the Census checks for poverty (18% here), the grade uses the rate without them: 17.3%, against 23.6% for all residents. Unemployment (4.6%) is left out here: students looking for part-time work count as unemployed. Income is ranked as median family income ($64,509), since student households pull the household median down ($46,204).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for family income and poverty, Rolla could be anywhere from D to C−.
Commuting from Rolla: about 14 minutes a trip
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 4.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Rolla workers work from home, vs 13% across Missouri. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 7,774 commuters (the 6% 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 commutes out of Rolla, and who commutes in
On a workday 4,386 residents head out to work, 2,815 work right here, and 8,936 people come in from elsewhere.
About 25,000 people are in Rolla on a workday afternoon, 22% more than live here.
1.6 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.
Where Rolla’s workforce comes from
Where Rolla clocks in
4% of workers
4% of workers
3% 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 Rolla’s employers do
11,751 jobs are based in Rolla.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Rolla, 2013 → 2023: 11,660 → 11,751. 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 Rolla’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Near or far: the trip to work from Rolla
About 35% 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 Rolla, walking beats the bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Rolla is more walkable than 83% of U.S. towns, #30 of 247 in Missouri. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 6.8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.2% across Missouri, on an EPA index of 8.1.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 8,298 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). 7.7% of Rolla households have no vehicle (Missouri 6.6%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Rolla’s commuters take a bus or train.
Rolla next to U.S. towns of 14,000 to 28,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rogers MN | 15,606 | $159K | 1.9% | 1.2% | 10% | A+ |
| 2 | West Springfield VA | 22,532 | $163K | 1.9% | 1.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Ada Township MI | 14,769 | $168K | 2.0% | 0.7% | 10% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 10 | Dardenne Prairie MO | 15,032 | $153K | 1.3% | 1.6% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 161 | Creve Coeur MO | 18,480 | $127K | 6.1% | 2.6% | 11% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 223 | Webster Groves MO | 23,450 | $115K | 4.2% | 3.7% | 7% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,841 | Lumberton NC | 18,955 | $43K | 30.8% | 5.6% | 34% | D |
| 1,842 | Duncan OK | 23,238 | $58K | 20.5% | 6.8% | 46% | D |
| 1,843 | Rolla MO | 20,588 | $46K | 23.6% | 4.6% | 39% | D |
| 1,844 | Steubenville OH | 17,922 | $48K | 26.6% | 5.3% | 33% | D |
| 1,845 | Marshall TX | 24,467 | $55K | 22.4% | 8.1% | 32% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 1,931 | Douglas AZ | 16,038 | $42K | 27.8% | 12.3% | 29% | 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 Rolla, 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.
- Students. 26% 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 Rolla: questions
What is the median household income in Rolla?
$46,204 (±$3,783) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $70,702 across Missouri and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Rolla?
23.6% of residents live below the poverty line; leaving out college students, 17.3%. Missouri: 12.6%.
How long is the commute from Rolla?
14 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Missouri and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Rolla work?
39% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Columbia (4%, 76 mi), St. James (4%, 9 mi), Jefferson City (3%, 48 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Rolla walkable?
Rolla is more walkable than 83% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 8.1 out of 20, and 7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Rolla without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Rolla, from the people who make the trip.
More of Rolla
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.