Photo: Grey Wanderer · CC BY-SA 4.0Households in Tipton have lower incomes than those in 89% of U.S. towns
About one in seven work in Tipton itself; outside it, Jefferson City draws the most (15%, 33 miles). Below the poverty line: 20.4% of residents, next to 12.6% for Missouri as a whole. Jobs and income earn Tipton 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
The work figures that set Tipton apart
How Tipton earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Tipton is better than 6% of U.S. towns, #236 of 247 in Missouri. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Tipton’s grade.
Unemployment (0.6%) is left out: Tipton’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, Tipton could be anywhere from D− to C−.
How far Tipton’s workers travel
About 22% 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.
The workday shuffle in and out of Tipton
On a workday 829 residents head out to work, 164 work right here, and 751 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 (0.92 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 people from Tipton work
Where Tipton clocks in
15% of workers
6% 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.
Factories, building and farms: 33% of the jobs in Tipton
915 jobs are based in Tipton.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Tipton, 2013 → 2023: 1,076 → 915. 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 Tipton’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 21 minutes to work from Tipton
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Tipton workers work from home, vs 13% across Missouri. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 556 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.
Walkable streets, thin transit: Tipton
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Tipton is more walkable than 77% of U.S. towns, #57 of 247 in Missouri. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 6.7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.2% across Missouri, on an EPA index of 7.4.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 618 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). 5.7% of Tipton households have no vehicle (Missouri 6.6%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Tipton’s commuters take a bus or train.
U.S. towns of 1,900 to 3,700, and where Tipton sits
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 8 | Warson Woods MO | 1,990 | $207K | 1.3% | 1.8% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 52 | Weatherby Lake MO | 2,139 | $153K | 3.4% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 91 | Clarkson Valley MO | 2,540 | $247K | 3.0% | 2.9% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,578 | Pine Ridge SD | 2,246 | $53K | 14.5% | 7.9% | 10% | D |
| 4,579 | Rayville LA | 3,176 | $27K | 41.1% | 12.2% | 21% | D |
| 4,580 | Tipton MO | 2,766 | $49K | 20.4% | 0.6% | 17% | D |
| 4,581 | Bellows Falls VT | 2,706 | $56K | 25.1% | 11.7% | 15% | D |
| 4,582 | Union Township MO | 2,179 | $54K | 17.2% | 3.9% | 13% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 4,969 | Cibecue AZ | 2,228 | $26K | 57.2% | 13.3% | 12% | 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 Tipton, 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 Tipton: questions
What is the median household income in Tipton?
$49,257 (±$5,986) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $70,702 across Missouri and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Tipton?
20.4%, against 12.6% across Missouri and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Tipton?
21 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Missouri and 26 nationally. 10% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Tipton work?
17% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Jefferson City (15%, 33 mi), Columbia (6%, 32 mi), California (6%, 12 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Tipton walkable?
Tipton is more walkable than 77% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 7.4 out of 20, and 7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Tipton without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Tipton, from the people who make the trip.
More of Tipton
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.