Benjamin House · Photo: JERRYE & ROY KLOTZ MD · CC BY-SA 3.0Shelbina has lower household incomes than 90% of U.S. towns
Working from home is the commute for 2% of workers, where Missouri as a whole has 13%. Below the poverty line: 20.6% of residents, where Missouri as a whole has 12.6%. Jobs and income earn Shelbina D−; getting around on foot earns it A.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Shelbina, in brief
Commutes from Shelbina are quick
The average trip to work takes 17 minutes, against 24 across Missouri. That’s about 54 hours a year less on the road than the typical Missouri worker. Time on the road ↓
Few Shelbina workers work from home
Only 2% of workers work from home, against 13% across Missouri. Almost everyone here travels to a job. Time on the road ↓
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 607 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Shelbina’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
On income, poverty and job access, Shelbina is better than 4% of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Shelbina’s grade.
Unemployment (0.5%) is left out: Shelbina’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, Shelbina could be anywhere from D− to D.
A commute of about 17 minutes in Shelbina
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Shelbina workers work from home, vs 13% across Missouri. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 733 commuters (the 2% 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.
The daily commute in and out of Shelbina
On a workday 450 residents head out to work, 157 work right here, and 533 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 (1.14 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.
6% of working residents work in Monroe City
Where Shelbina clocks in
6% 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.
Factories, building and farms: 29% of the jobs in Shelbina
690 jobs are based in Shelbina.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Shelbina, 2013 → 2023: 664 → 690. 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 Shelbina’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How far it is to work from Shelbina
About 24% 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.
Walkable streets, thin transit: Shelbina
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Shelbina is more walkable than 91% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Shelbina 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 746 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). 7.3% of Shelbina households have no vehicle (Missouri 6.6%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Shelbina’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Shelbina compares with U.S. towns of 1,100 to 2,100
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,399 | Marks MS | 1,198 | $32K | 18.5% | 8.7% | 17% | D− |
| 5,400 | Taylorsville MS | 1,103 | $38K | 23.8% | 1.6% | 10% | D− |
| 5,401 | Shelbina MO | 1,550 | $48K | 20.6% | 0.5% | 26% | D− |
| 5,402 | Powhatan Point OH | 1,407 | $49K | 21.4% | 6.7% | 4% | D− |
| 5,403 | Whitmire SC | 1,475 | $38K | 24.3% | 7.4% | 2% | 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 Shelbina, 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 Shelbina: questions
What is the median household income in Shelbina?
$47,500 (±$11,275) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $70,702 across Missouri and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Shelbina?
20.6%, against 12.6% across Missouri and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Shelbina?
17 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Missouri and 26 nationally. 2% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Shelbina work?
26% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Monroe City (6%, 17 mi), Macon (6%, 23 mi), Hannibal (4%, 34 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Shelbina walkable?
Shelbina is more walkable than 91% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 9.0 out of 20, and 11% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Shelbina 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 Shelbina, from the people who make the trip.
More of Shelbina
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.