If you are relocating to the Greater St. Louis region, chances are it’s for work. St. Louis is the home of a number of Fortune 500 companies and small start ups. The tech and medical industries are booming here. Its nationally recognized hospitals and universities draw new residents from all over the world.
Companies all over the area share a workforce made up of Missourians and Illinoisans. Many of them commute to the other state each day. A few years ago, the Belleville News Democrat reported the following stats:
- In St. Clair County, Illinois, 26.8% of the 122,551 workers aged 16 and up, work in Missouri.
- In Madison County, Illinois, the percentage is 25.6% of 122,910 workers.
- Of the 489,471 workers in St. Louis County, Missouri, 2.3% work in Illinois.
These numbers were published in 2017, so they have changed (plus, commuting has changed in general since the COVID-19 pandemic), but the trend still exists. By far, more people commute to Missouri from Illinois than in the other direction.
One thing to remember about St. Louis is that commutes here are nothing like the hours-long nightmares in other cities. And many people don’t realize how close some of the Illinois communities are to downtown or the variety of business and industrial corridors around the city. For example, it takes roughly the same amount of time to get to Clayton, Missouri from Edwardsville, Illinois as it does from Wildwood, Missouri. And O’Fallon, Illinois is closer to downtown St. Louis than O’Fallon, Missouri.
In this region, choosing to live in one state and work in another does not have to be an inconvenience. A variety of highways and bridges can get commuters back and forth with relative ease. There are also Metrolink trains and busses connecting the states with a network of routes.