Work & commute · Lake St. Louis

Work & commute in Lake St. Louis, MO

Most working residents leave Lake St. Louis for work: only 5% work in town. The top destinations are O'Fallon (12%), Wentzville (8%) and Chesterfield (7%). Half commute less than 18 miles.

Census LEHD commute flows, 2023 Census ACS commute times

Work in town

406 of 8,285 working residents

Typical commute

18 mi

Half commute less than this, straight-line

Average commute time

26 min

One way, from the Census survey

Work from home

22%

of workers, from the Census survey

Coming and going

Who leaves, who stays, who comes in

On a workday 7,879 Lake St. Louis residents head out of town to work, 406 work right here, and 7,454 people come in from elsewhere to fill jobs in Lake St. Louis.

7,879live here, work elsewhere

406live and work here

7,454work here, live elsewhere

Leave for workStayCome in

The map

Where Lake St. Louis goes to work

O'Fallon3.4 mi away

12%975

Wentzville5.1 mi away

8%644

Chesterfield13.9 mi away

7%585

St. Louis30.8 mi away

6%528

St. Peters9.7 mi away

5%453

St. Charles14.6 mi away

5%409

Lake St. Louis (in town)right here

5%406

Maryland Heights17.5 mi away

5%383

Creve Coeur20.2 mi away

4%304

Berkeley24.3 mi away

3%210

Everywhere elseother towns and states

41%3,388

Lines run between town centers; a thicker line means more commuters. The top 10 towns each way.

How far

How far Lake St. Louis commutes

Straight-line distance from home to work, for every working resident. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.

32%

44%

17%

32%Under 10 mi

44%10–24 mi

17%25–50 mi

7%Over 50 mi

Job hub or commuter town?

Lake St. Louis is balanced between jobs and homes

0.95jobs per working resident

Balanced

About as many jobs as working residents (0.95 per resident).

The jobs

What the jobs in Lake St. Louis are

7,860 jobs are based in Lake St. Louis. Here is what they are, next to the jobs Lake St. Louis’s own residents hold wherever they work.

Jobs based in Lake St. Louis

7,860 jobs

Goods (factories, building, farms)12%

Trade, transport & utilities22%

Services (health, schools, offices…)65%

$1,250 a month or less15%

$1,251–$3,333 a month25%

Over $3,333 a month60%

Jobs Lake St. Louis residents hold

8,285 working residents

Goods (factories, building, farms)15%

Trade, transport & utilities20%

Services (health, schools, offices…)65%

$1,250 a month or less14%

$1,251–$3,333 a month18%

Over $3,333 a month68%

+84%

Jobs based in Lake St. Louis, 2013 → 2023: 4,271 → 7,860. Big swings can come from how a large employer reports its locations, not only from real openings or closings.

About these numbers

How to read this page

Every worker, home to workThe Census links each worker’s home block to their main job’s block, for jobs covered by unemployment insurance. That’s most jobs, but not the self-employed.

Where the employer saysA job counts where the employer reports it. Some big employers report one address for many sites, which can make a few commutes look longer than they are.

Two surveysFlows, distances and jobs: LEHD 2023. Commute time and working from home: the Census American Community Survey.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2023, primary jobs; American Community Survey 5-year estimates.