ST. CHARLES COUNTY, Mo. — Growth in St. Charles County has been remarkable.
At 405,000 people, it counts nearly three times more residents today than in 1980, and long ago surpassed population totals for the city of St. Louis and Metro East counties, on the way to becoming the region's second-biggest county after St. Louis County.
Over the past several decades, substantial business growth has occurred, too, as giants like General Motors and Mastercard opened. More recent expansions have included retail giant Amazon.com Inc., the county's largest employer with a St. Peters fulfillment center that employs more than 6,000, and aerospace manufacturer Boeing Co., which operates a missile and munitions plant in St. Charles.
But lurking behind that success is a point of some concern for county leaders: An increasing percentage of its residents are commuting out of the county for work, U.S. Census Bureau figures show. That puts a strain on transportation infrastructure and potentially deprives local governments of more tax revenue that would flow if certain types of business expansion had kept up with homebuilding.
In the mid-1990s, about half of St. Charles County residents commuted out for work, County Executive Steve Ehlmann said. That figure rose to 61.2% in 2002 and 63.4% in 2019, according to the Census Bureau.
"In the last 20 years, we've had more and more people not moving to St. Charles for a job, they're keeping the same job they had before and moving to St. Charles for good schools and safe neighborhoods," Ehlmann said. "They're not moving out here from elsewhere in the region because there's a new job opportunity out here."
A top economic development official agreed. "The homes have been built a lot faster and the population growth has happened quicker than some of the business investment growth," said Scott Drachnik, CEO of the nonprofit Economic Development Council (EDC), which works to attract business to the county.
And many of the jobs being created in the county, in blue-collar fields, attract many workers from St. Louis County and the city, the officials said.
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