Households in Shell Knob earn less than those in 81% of U.S. towns
Below the poverty line: 14.7% of residents, where Missouri as a whole has 12.6%. The two grades for Shell Knob are D for jobs and income and D for walkability. 26% of workers have no commute at all, against 13% across Missouri.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Shell Knob
Shell Knob’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Shell Knob is Springfield, 45 miles away as the crow flies. 14% of working residents (59) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Home offices are common in Shell Knob
27% of Shell Knob workers work from home, against 13% across Missouri. 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 415 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Income, poverty and work: Shell Knob’s grade explained
On income, poverty and job access, Shell Knob is better than 7% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Shell Knob’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 2% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (8.4%) is left out: Shell Knob’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, Shell Knob could be anywhere from D− to C.
Near or far: the trip to work from Shell Knob
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.
Shell Knob’s commute takes about 21 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Shell Knob workers work from home, vs 13% across Missouri. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 394 commuters (the 26% 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 Shell Knob: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 394 residents head out to work, 21 work right here, and 253 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.
0.66 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute 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.
14% of working residents work in Springfield
Where Shell Knob clocks in
14% 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.
The kinds of work in Shell Knob
274 jobs are based in Shell Knob.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Shell Knob, 2013 → 2023: 186 → 274. 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 Shell Knob’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Most of Shell Knob commutes by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Shell Knob is more walkable than 12% of U.S. towns. 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 536 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). 1.7% of Shell Knob households have no vehicle (Missouri 6.6%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Shell Knob’s commuters take a bus or train.
Shell Knob is 5,494th of 6,308 U.S. towns of 1,000 to 2,000 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 17 | Warson Woods MO | 1,990 | $207K | 1.3% | 1.8% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 42 | Loch Lloyd MO | 1,090 | $184K | 2.5% | 0.5% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 65 | Lake Winnebago MO | 1,869 | $179K | 1.0% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,492 | Port Austin Township MI | 1,347 | $54K | 14.3% | 1.3% | 12% | D |
| 5,493 | Columbia Township OH | 1,189 | $59K | 22.4% | 0.0% | <1% | D |
| 5,494 | Shell Knob MO | 1,486 | $55K | 14.7% | 8.4% | 5% | D |
| 5,495 | Boles Acres NM | 1,848 | $53K | 16.2% | 1.8% | <1% | D |
| 5,496 | Siesta Acres TX | 1,573 | $35K | 20.7% | 12.1% | <1% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 6,308 | 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 Shell Knob, 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 Shell Knob: questions
What is the median household income in Shell Knob?
$54,925 (±$10,861) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $70,702 across Missouri and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Shell Knob?
14.7%, against 12.6% across Missouri and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Shell Knob?
21 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Missouri and 26 nationally. 26% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Shell Knob work?
5% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Springfield (14%, 45 mi), Cassville (7%, 16 mi), Branson (4%, 17 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Shell Knob walkable?
Shell Knob is more walkable than 12% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 5.7 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Shell Knob without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Shell Knob, from the people who make the trip.
More of Shell Knob
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.