Photo: JERRYE AND ROY KLOTZ MD · CC BY-SA 3.0Household incomes in Sweet Springs trail those of 91% of U.S. towns
The poverty rate is 14.9%; Missouri has 12.6%. Sweet Springs grades D for jobs and income and A− for walkability. Home is the office for 3% of workers, against 13% across Missouri.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Sweet Springs stands out on work
A big share show a job far from home
35% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. How far ↓
Few Sweet Springs workers work from home
Only 3% 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 2024, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; with 596 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
The figures behind Sweet Springs’ Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Sweet Springs is better than 10% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Sweet Springs’ grade up; household income pulls it down ($46,780, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (5.5%) is left out: Sweet Springs’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, Sweet Springs could be anywhere from D− to C−.
How far Sweet Springs goes to work
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 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
How long Sweet Springs spends getting to work: about 20 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Sweet Springs workers work from home, vs 13% across Missouri. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 500 commuters (the 3% 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.
How a workday changes Sweet Springs
On a workday 537 residents head out to work, 59 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 (0.99 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2024, primary jobs.
12% of working residents work in Marshall
Where Sweet Springs clocks in
12% of workers
8% of workers
6% 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.
In Sweet Springs, services account for most jobs
592 jobs are based in Sweet Springs.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Sweet Springs, 2014 → 2024: 500 → 592. 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 2024.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Sweet Springs’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Sweet Springs is easy on foot, hard by bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Sweet Springs is more walkable than 84% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Sweet Springs 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 515 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). 8.6% of Sweet Springs households have no vehicle (Missouri 6.6%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Sweet Springs’ commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 900 to 1,800, Sweet Springs ranks 4,491st of 5,400 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 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 38 | Loch Lloyd MO | 1,090 | $184K | 2.5% | 0.5% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 91 | LaBarque Creek MO | 1,457 | $133K | 1.1% | 1.7% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 119 | Fremont Hills MO | 1,098 | $171K | 3.9% | 1.9% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,489 | Stanaford WV | 1,449 | $44K | 44.5% | 3.1% | 2% | D |
| 4,490 | Lawrence MI | 1,005 | $36K | 28.9% | 11.1% | 7% | D |
| 4,491 | Sweet Springs MO | 1,323 | $47K | 14.9% | 5.5% | 10% | D |
| 4,492 | Yoncalla OR | 1,029 | $55K | 13.4% | 14.6% | 4% | D |
| 4,493 | Williamstown PA | 1,298 | $62K | 22.7% | 11.7% | 2% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,400 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 1% | 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 Sweet Springs, 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 2024, 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 Sweet Springs: questions
What is the median household income in Sweet Springs?
$46,780 (±$4,415) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $70,702 across Missouri and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Sweet Springs?
14.9%, against 12.6% across Missouri and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Sweet Springs?
20 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Missouri and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Sweet Springs work?
10% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Marshall (12%, 16 mi), Kansas City (8%, 62 mi), Sedalia (6%, 20 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Sweet Springs walkable?
Sweet Springs is more walkable than 84% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 8.7 out of 20, and 6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Sweet Springs without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 9% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Sweet Springs, from the people who make the trip.
More of Sweet Springs
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2024, 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.