Salisbury Square Historic District · Photo: Jim Roberts · CC BY-SA 4.0Households in Salisbury earn less than those in 65% of U.S. towns
16.9% of residents are in poverty (Missouri 12.6%). For jobs and income Salisbury is better than 12% of U.S. towns (D); for walkability it is more walkable than 73% of U.S. towns (B+). About one in five stay in Salisbury for work; outside it, Moberly is the main destination (10%, 20 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Salisbury, in a few figures
Income, poverty and work: Salisbury’s grade explained
Household income holds Salisbury’s grade up ($65,329, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 9% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (4.5%) is left out: Salisbury’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, Salisbury could be anywhere from D− to C.
How far Salisbury’s workers travel
About 31% 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.
Who commutes out of Salisbury, and who commutes in
On a workday 503 residents head out to work, 130 work right here, and 417 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 (0.86 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.
Where the trip to work from Salisbury ends
Where Salisbury clocks in
10% 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.
What work there is in Salisbury: 547 jobs
547 jobs are based in Salisbury.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Salisbury, 2013 → 2023: 545 → 547. 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 Salisbury’s own residents hold wherever they work.
A commute of about 22 minutes in Salisbury
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Salisbury workers work from home, vs 13% across Missouri. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 643 commuters (the 10% 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.
Driving is how Salisbury gets around
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 714 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). 6.9% of Salisbury households have no vehicle (Missouri 6.6%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Salisbury’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 1,100 to 2,100, Salisbury ranks 4,635th of 5,794 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 15 | Warson Woods MO | 1,990 | $207K | 1.3% | 1.8% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 59 | Lake Winnebago MO | 1,869 | $179K | 1.0% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 103 | LaBarque Creek MO | 1,457 | $133K | 1.1% | 1.7% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,633 | Comer GA | 1,631 | $53K | 23.3% | 3.9% | 5% | D |
| 4,634 | Duson LA | 1,357 | $25K | 39.3% | 10.6% | <1% | D |
| 4,635 | Salisbury MO | 1,564 | $65K | 16.9% | 4.5% | 21% | D |
| 4,636 | Busseron Township IN | 1,251 | $46K | 13.4% | 1.0% | 9% | D |
| 4,637 | Au Sable Township MI | 2,025 | $51K | 11.4% | 5.8% | 16% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,794 | 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 Salisbury, 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 Salisbury: questions
What is the median household income in Salisbury?
$65,329 (±$13,020) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $70,702 across Missouri and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Salisbury?
16.9%, against 12.6% across Missouri and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Salisbury?
22 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Missouri and 26 nationally. 10% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Salisbury work?
21% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Moberly (10%, 20 mi), Columbia (10%, 42 mi), Kansas City (4%, 96 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Salisbury walkable?
Salisbury is more walkable than 73% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 8.1 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Salisbury without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 7% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Salisbury, from the people who make the trip.
More of Salisbury
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.