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Place dossier plate
SheetMO-CARUTHERSVILLE-MO · Caruthersville, MO 5,426 pop · income 5th pct · 6 tracts
Instrument codes from this place’s ACS population and household income, BEA state COL, FBI safety, national income percentile, photo-finish peer city, home-value band, and matched Census-tract book - not a moving recommendation.
Income neighbourhood around Caruthersville
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Caruthersville on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Cypress Quart… · lowest
35,893
Cypress Quart… · lowest
35,893 median HH income
23.1% of the leader · rank #1
Adel · near
35,897
Adel · near
35,897 median HH income
23.1% of the leader · rank #2
Forest City · near
35,897
Forest City · near
35,897 median HH income
23.1% of the leader · rank #3
Cannelton · near
35,900
Cannelton · near
35,900 median HH income
23.1% of the leader · rank #4
Caruthersville · this city
35,903
Caruthersville · this city
35,903 median HH income
23.2% of the leader · rank #5
Moore Haven · near
35,903
Moore Haven · near
35,903 median HH income
23.2% of the leader · rank #6
Weldon Spring · highest
155,081
Weldon Spring · highest
155,081 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #7
What this shows Neighbourhood peers only - not a full nationwide city board. Open a near peer when the gap is small; open the poles when the spread is wide.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by population, income, and FBI crime rate
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Caruthersville on ACS population and median household income
, plus FBI UCR reporting rate when the extract covers this place. Link sets are deduped so each column is a distinct comparison path, not a forecast that peers share a labor market or climate.
Similar population
Nearest out-of-state cities by ACS population. This city: 5,426.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Caruthersville - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Caruthersville places in the 5th percentile for household income and the 4th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
5th
percentile, household income
17th
percentile, home value
7th
percentile, median rent
4th
percentile, safety
📝 How we sourced this
Population, income, and housing-cost figures come from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates (B-series tables). Crime data uses FBI UCR; climate uses NOAA Climate Normals; school counts come from NCES Common Core of Data; permits use the Census Building Permits Survey (BPS). See our methodology page for the full ETL pipeline and OMB / FIPS join keys.
Data Snapshot: Caruthersville, MO
Caruthersville is a small town in Missouri, home to 5,426 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $35,903 per year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 25.7%. Typical homes in Caruthersville are valued around $118,700, and the median resident age is 36.2 years. 13.3% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 48.5% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 17 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Building Boom), up 89% from five years earlier. Caruthersville's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 4893.7 total incidents per 100,000 residents here, above the national average (agency reporting is voluntary, so this measures reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). The annual average temperature per NOAA climate normals runs 60.3°F with 55.3 inches of precipitation per year.
Living costs in Missouri run below the national norm: the state registers 90.8 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Well Below Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $972 per month. Monthly utility costs average around $219 across Missouri, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 50.6 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Caruthersville's data
How this reading path is ordered
This is not a composite city score. It is a city-specific route through the available public records, ordered for this profile so the page starts with questions the joined data can actually answer. The route here runs from within-city variation to schools and households to population change to comparison shortlist to work and mobility to housing and income to climate and hazard context to reported crime; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Caruthersville, city-specific coverage includes within-city Census tract profiles, local building permits, commute-mode shares, annual population history, matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
1. Within-city variation
What can 6 Census tracts reveal inside Caruthersville?
That layer breaks the citywide income, rent, and home-value medians into smaller Census geographies, which can reveal differences that one municipal median necessarily hides. A tract is a statistical area, not a locally defined neighborhood or a promise about conditions on a particular block. Start with the city profile for the broad comparison, then use the tract layer to test whether the same housing and income pattern is consistent across the city. Large within-city spreads are a reason to avoid treating any citywide median as a universal resident experience.
What does the education layer cover for Caruthersville?
The NCES join finds 4 public schools within the city match. 13.3% of adults age 25+ hold a bachelor's degree or higher in the ACS estimate. These measures answer different questions: the school count describes local institutions, while adult attainment describes residents and cannot be used as a school-quality rating.
The city has a broader matched school footprint, but count alone does not describe performance, capacity, program availability, or attendance boundaries. This profile deliberately avoids converting it into an unsupported family-friendliness score.
Is Caruthersville growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Recent estimates point downward. A falling count can reflect migration, household size, annexation boundaries, or estimation noise, so it is a prompt to inspect the full series rather than a claim about local economic health.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -328 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -5.9% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 17 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Which cities make useful reference points for Caruthersville?
Within Missouri, the closest population matches are Waynesville (5,422 residents, $75,179 income); Macon (5,457 residents, $51,103 income); St. Robert (5,327 residents, $60,219 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Wellston, OH (5,426 residents); Alvarado, TX (5,424 residents); Zephyrhills South, FL (5,422 residents). A third, income-matched reference set of 6 out-of-state cities sits in the income neighbourhood chart near the Place Dossier plate. These are mechanical peer sets, not claims that the places share a labor market, climate, culture, or metro context.
Use the in-state set to hold state policy and broad price conditions more nearly constant. Use the nationwide size set to ask whether cities with a similar resident count produce different housing, income, or commute outcomes. The income set is a third lens, deliberately separate from population matching. The nationwide peer panel below adds a fourth FBI UCR reporting-rate lens, not personal risk.
These joined records add useful context, but they do not need another full-size panel. Each remains a separate measure with its own geography and source boundary.
Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Caruthersville?
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. No single mode completely explains the work trip here. The mix is more useful than a one-number commute grade, especially when comparing places where transit, walking, and remote work divide the non-driving share differently.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 74.6%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Public transit
0.0%
Work from home
3.9%
Drive alone
74.6%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 2,130 workers age 16+.
How far does income reach against housing in Caruthersville?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.3 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 25.7%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
This is a citywide price-to-income reference, not a mortgage-affordability test; it does not include interest rates, taxes, insurance, household size, or an individual buyer's down payment. Income and home value move within the same broad scale here. The useful next check is not a generic affordability label, but whether similar-size cities offer a materially different income, housing, or commute trade-off.
Household income
$35,903
Home value
$118,700
Value / income
3.3×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
What physical conditions frame life in Caruthersville?
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 60.3°F, with 55.3 inches of precipitation. FEMA's state-averaged National Risk Index score for Missouri is 50.6 out of 100. Climate normals describe long-run weather; the FEMA score on PlainCities is a state average of county NRI inputs and combines hazards, exposure, vulnerability, and resilience.
The two sources should not be blended into one comfort or safety score. Use the climate values for baseline conditions and the risk index as a prompt to inspect specific hazards, insurance, and local emergency guidance for a particular address.
Mean temperature
60.3°F
Annual precipitation
55.3 in
FEMA risk index (state avg)
50.6
NOAA Climate Normals and FEMA National Risk Index (state-averaged on PlainCities). Hazard context is not address-level.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Caruthersville?
Treat this as a reporting-rate comparison, not a prediction of personal risk or a neighborhood-level safety grade. Tourism, daytime population, reporting practices, and variation inside the city are not adjusted away. The state rank and same-state peer table are the narrower comparisons available on this page.
The joined FBI UCR record reports 4893.7 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 115% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
3665.4
Violent rate
1228.3
Total reported rate
4893.7
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Lowest-decile income · poverty 25.7% (Highest-decile poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
90.8 (US=100)
Affordable · BEA RPP 2024, Missouri average
F
City profile score · Caruthersville, MO
20/100
5 published dimensions · ACS/FBI 2023
Comparative score against U.S. cities with population of 1,000 or more on Census ACS medians
(income, poverty, bachelor's share, cost of living) and FBI UCR violent-crime rates when
published. Higher means a stronger standing on those published figures, not a livability
rating, not a recommendation to move, buy, or pick a "best" city. Missing inputs drop out
and redistribute weight.
How it is calculated.
Cost of living A-
90.8 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Bachelor's+ share F
13.3%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate F
25.7%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$35,903
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime F
1,228 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Caruthersville profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 83/100 (A-) · 90.8 index
Bachelor's+ share: 15/100 (F) · 13.3%
Poverty rate: 5/100 (F) · 25.7%
Household income: 1/100 (F) · $35,903
Violent crime: 0/100 (F) · 1,228 /100k
Where Caruthersville sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Caruthersville's median home value and FBI crime rate plotted with similar-size and
same-state peers (padded with large cities when the peer set is thin). The second
read: pricey does not always mean safer, check which quadrant this city lands in.
Census ACS median home value vs FBI UCR crime rate - Caruthersville highlighted among 8 peers.Read the chart values
Caruthersville, MO (this city): home $118,700, crime 4,894/100k
Wellston, OH : home $107,900, crime 1,261/100k
Alvarado, TX : home $206,800, crime 1,546/100k
Tyrone, PA : home $122,000, crime 1,401/100k
Waynesville, MO : home $204,100, crime 1,391/100k
Macon, MO : home $133,800, crime 1,779/100k
Trenton, MO : home $93,000, crime 870/100k
Odessa, MO : home $209,600, crime 319/100k
How does Caruthersville compare to other US cities?
Where Caruthersville sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income5% higher than other cities
Home value17% pricier than other cities
Median rent7% pricier than other cities
Safety4% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
Zoom in to just Missouri and the picture shifts: Caruthersville ranks #216 of 234 Missouri cities by lowest crime rate, a different read than the national percentile above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Caruthersville against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Missouri only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Missouri-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Caruthersville near the bottom of Missouri's cities
Among the 875 Missouri cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Caruthersville ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Caruthersville only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#752 of 842
11th percentile in Missouri
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 875
0th percentile in Missouri
Median Home Value
#424 of 833
49th percentile in Missouri
Poverty Rate
#102 of 875
88th percentile in Missouri
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#518 of 875
40th percentile in Missouri
How in-state ranks are ordered
Ranked by raw value (highest first); a higher rank is not automatically "better" for every measure, see each metric's own context above. This is a comparison within Missouri only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
5th percentile nationally for median household income · 4th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Caruthersville's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Caruthersville's percentile rank on 3 favorable-direction measures (income, affordability, safety) vs. every tracked US city -- higher on every axis is more favorable. Not a composite quality score, just the arithmetic mean of the axes shown.
How Caruthersville's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$118,700Among the most affordablemore affordable than 83% of 15,600 US cities
Show national distribution
Each bar is a $25K-wide band; taller bars hold more US cities. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year Estimates · 2023
Caruthersville's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.3×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#8,151 of 15,516
More affordable than 47% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#6,672 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 3.3×, Caruthersville sits in the moderate band:
national rank #8,151 of 15,516 and #6,672 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
Income and home value move in the same broad scale; check same-state peers before treating the multiple as an advantage or a warning.
How this ratio is calculated
Ratio = Census ACS 2023 median home value ÷ median household income for cities with both fields and population ≥ 1,000.
Rank 1 = lowest ratio (most compact). Bands match the fleet affordability thresholds used on guides (<3.0 / 3.0–5.0 / >5.0).
This is not a mortgage payment estimate and does not include rates, taxes, insurance, or down payment.
Income distribution context
$35,903Caruthersville, MO median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Caruthersville, MO median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Caruthersville, MO.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)13.3%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)25.7%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)48.5%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
5,426
Median Income
$35,903
Median Home Value
$118,700
Median Age
36.2
Poverty Rate
25.7%
Labor force participation
48.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
13.3%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
4893.7
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
1228.3
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
3665.4
per 100,000 residents
Crime reporting caveat
Reflects incidents reported to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program — agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies by jurisdiction and year, so this reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score. Not adjusted for tourism, commuter, or daytime population.
Climate
Avg Temperature
60.3°F
Annual Precipitation
55.3"
Annual Snowfall
N/A
Schools
Total Schools
4
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Caruthersville's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
5,539 residents
2021
5,428 residents
2022
5,307 residents
2023
5,248 residents
2024
5,199 residents
2025
5,211 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
17
housing units authorized
Single-Family
7
detached homes
Multifamily
10
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
3.1
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
9
4
5
$0.4M
2020
10
4
6
$0.4M
2021
12
5
7
$0.5M
2022
14
9
5
$0.6M
2023
15
10
5
$0.6M
2024
17
7
10
$0.7M
Permit volume increased 89% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
74.6%
Carpool
18.5%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
2.5%
Work from Home
3.9%
Based on 2,130 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Missouri statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $219
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Missouri at $219 (electricity about $105 , water and sewer about $42 ).
These are Missouri statewide averages, not a meter reading for Caruthersville. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Missouri's BEA cost-of-living index is 90.8 (Well Below Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Caruthersville is $972/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Missouri statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 50.6 / 100 (Low).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Missouri statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Caruthersville sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Caruthersville compares to similar-size Missouri cities
Same-state peer method
Closest same-state population matches, not geographic neighbors. Population + median household income come from Census Bureau ACS 5-year B01001 and B19013.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year 2023, FBI UCR, NOAA Climate Normals, NCES CCD, Census BPS 2024, Census ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.