Photo: Andrew Balet · CC BY 2.5Households in Ste. Genevieve have lower incomes than those in 90% of U.S. towns
Ste. Genevieve grades C− for jobs and income and B+ for walkability. 12.8% of residents are in poverty (Missouri 12.6%). About one in three work in Ste. Genevieve itself; outside it, Perryville draws the most (5%, 20 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Ste. Genevieve and work: the main findings
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Ste. Genevieve
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Ste. Genevieve is better than 19% of U.S. towns, #189 of 247 in Missouri. The poverty rate holds Ste. Genevieve’s grade up; household income pulls it down ($48,097, U.S. $80,734).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Ste. Genevieve could be anywhere from D to B.
Commuting from Ste. Genevieve: about 30 minutes a trip
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Ste. Genevieve workers work from home, vs 13% across Missouri. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,699 commuters (the 8% 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.
Ste. Genevieve by day and by night
On a workday 1,314 residents head out to work, 597 work right here, and 1,956 people come in from elsewhere.
About 5,700 people are in Ste. Genevieve on a workday afternoon, 13% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.34 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 Ste. Genevieve ends
Where Ste. Genevieve clocks in
5% 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.
The 2,553 jobs based in Ste. Genevieve
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Ste. Genevieve, 2013 → 2023: 2,530 → 2,553. 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 Ste. Genevieve’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Where in the region Ste. Genevieve works
About 21% 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 Ste. Genevieve, the car does most of the work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Ste. Genevieve is more walkable than 71% of U.S. towns, #81 of 247 in Missouri. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 5.5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.2% across Missouri, on an EPA index of 7.1.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,837 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). 8.1% of Ste. Genevieve households have no vehicle (Missouri 6.6%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Ste. Genevieve’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 3,500 to 6,800, Ste. Genevieve ranks 3,145th of 3,758 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Mission Hills KS | 3,522 | $250K | 1.2% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 4 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 39 | St. Paul MO | 3,849 | $159K | 0.5% | 0.5% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 102 | Cottleville MO | 6,717 | $131K | 2.0% | 2.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,143 | Clarkdale AZ | 4,806 | $47K | 18.6% | 2.7% | 5% | C− |
| 3,144 | Rensselaer IN | 5,681 | $60K | 15.3% | 5.8% | 29% | C− |
| 3,145 | Ste. Genevieve MO | 5,065 | $48K | 12.8% | 5.3% | 31% | C− |
| 3,146 | Wilkesboro NC | 3,618 | $41K | 22.6% | 4.0% | 31% | C− |
| 3,147 | Rusk TX | 5,568 | $53K | 8.5% | 11.4% | 21% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,758 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 18% | 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 Ste. Genevieve, 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 Ste. Genevieve: questions
What is the median household income in Ste. Genevieve?
$48,097 (±$7,763) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $70,702 across Missouri and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Ste. Genevieve?
12.8%, against 12.6% across Missouri and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Ste. Genevieve?
30 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Missouri and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Ste. Genevieve work?
31% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Perryville (5%, 20 mi), St. Louis (4%, 47 mi), Farmington (3%, 24 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Ste. Genevieve walkable?
Ste. Genevieve is more walkable than 71% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 7.1 out of 20, and 6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Ste. Genevieve 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 Ste. Genevieve, from the people who make the trip.
More of Ste. Genevieve
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.