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Place dossier plate
SheetMO-GARDEN-CITY-MO · Garden City, MO 1,539 pop · income 41st pct
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 Garden City
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Garden City on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Bismarck · lowest
41,550
Bismarck · lowest
41,550 median HH income
39.5% of the leader · rank #1
Eaton Rapids · near
63,618
Eaton Rapids · near
63,618 median HH income
60.4% of the leader · rank #2
Madera · near
63,619
Madera · near
63,619 median HH income
60.4% of the leader · rank #3
Garden City · this city
63,625
Garden City · this city
63,625 median HH income
60.4% of the leader · rank #4
Oak Grove CDP… · near
63,625
Oak Grove CDP… · near
63,625 median HH income
60.4% of the leader · rank #5
Bonneauville · near
63,631
Bonneauville · near
63,631 median HH income
60.4% of the leader · rank #6
Jamesport · highest
105,282
Jamesport · highest
105,282 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 Garden City 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: 1,539.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Garden City - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Garden City lands in the 41st percentile for household income and the 85th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
41st
percentile, household income
32nd
percentile, home value
7th
percentile, median rent
85th
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: Garden City, MO
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 1,539 residents in Garden City, a small town within Missouri. Garden City households earn a median of $63,625 annually, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 0.0%. Garden City's housing stock carries a median value of $165,200, and the median resident age is 36.3 years. Educational attainment runs 8.0% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 65.3% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 3 residential building permits were authorized in Garden City (Building Boom), up 50% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Garden City reports a comparatively low crime rate: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 512.2 total incidents per 100,000 residents here, below the national average (agency reporting is voluntary, so this measures reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
Living costs in Missouri run below the national norm: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts Missouri at 90.8 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Well Below Average). 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. Commute times here average 28.9 minutes, with 83.9% driving alone and 3.5% working from home, per Census ACS commuting data. 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 Garden City'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 reported crime to work and mobility to population change to housing and income to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Garden City, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, local building permits, commute-mode shares, FBI reported-crime rates.
No matched row is reported here for matched public-school count, within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Reported crime
What can the FBI record say about safety in Garden City?
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 512.2 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 78% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
What does the journey to work look like in Garden City?
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 83.9%. The reported mean trip to work is 28.9 minutes.
Is Garden City 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 -17 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -1.0% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 3 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 Garden City?
Within Missouri, the closest population matches are Crane (1,545 residents, $47,892 income); Advance (1,549 residents, $51,583 income); Fair Grove (1,551 residents, $71,447 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Keystone Heights, FL (1,539 residents); Wellman, IA (1,539 residents); Fountain Green, UT (1,539 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.
Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Garden City?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 2.6 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 0.0%, 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
$63,625
Home value
$165,200
Value / income
2.6×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Below median income · poverty 0.0% (Very low poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
90.8 (US=100)
Affordable · BEA RPP 2024, Missouri average
C+
City profile score · Garden City, MO
63/100
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.
Poverty rate A+
0.0%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
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.
Violent crime A-
64 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Household income D
$63,625
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share F
8.0%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Garden City profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Poverty rate: 100/100 (A+) · 0.0%
Cost of living: 83/100 (A-) · 90.8 index
Violent crime: 80/100 (A-) · 64 /100k
Household income: 40/100 (D) · $63,625
Bachelor's+ share: 1/100 (F) · 8.0%
Where Garden City sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Garden City'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 - Garden City highlighted among 22 peers.Read the chart values
Garden City, MO (this city): home $165,200, crime 512/100k
Advance, MO : home $130,100, crime 977/100k
New York, NY : home $751,700, crime 3,039/100k
Los Angeles, CA : home $879,500, crime 2,212/100k
Chicago, IL : home $315,200, crime 4,012/100k
Houston, TX : home $253,400, crime 5,442/100k
Phoenix, AZ : home $381,900, crime 3,125/100k
Philadelphia, PA : home $232,400, crime 5,457/100k
San Antonio, TX : home $219,700, crime 5,218/100k
San Diego, CA : home $848,500, crime 2,082/100k
Dallas, TX : home $295,300, crime 4,010/100k
San Jose, CA : home $1,187,800, crime 3,195/100k
Austin, TX : home $512,700, crime 3,709/100k
Fort Worth, TX : home $277,300, crime 3,158/100k
Columbus, OH : home $234,500, crime 3,088/100k
Indianapolis, IN : home $207,000, crime 4,214/100k
San Francisco, CA : home $1,380,500, crime 4,526/100k
Seattle, WA : home $912,100, crime 5,783/100k
Denver, CO : home $586,700, crime 5,755/100k
Oklahoma City, OK : home $215,100, crime 3,570/100k
El Paso, TX : home $171,700, crime 1,772/100k
Washington, DC : home $724,600, crime 4,514/100k
How does Garden City compare to other US cities?
Where Garden City sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income41% higher than other cities
Home value32% pricier than other cities
Median rent7% pricier than other cities
Safety85% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
A national percentile can hide a lot of local variation: narrowed to Missouri alone, Garden City ranks #21 of 234 Missouri cities by lowest crime rate - a different, more locally useful comparison than stacking it against the entire country.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Garden City 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 Garden City near the bottom of Missouri's cities
Among the 875 Missouri cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Garden City ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Garden City only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#277 of 842
67th percentile in Missouri
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 875
0th percentile in Missouri
Median Home Value
#260 of 833
69th percentile in Missouri
Poverty Rate
#795 of 875
0th percentile in Missouri
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#691 of 875
21st 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
41st percentile nationally for median household income · 85th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Garden City's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Garden City'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 Garden City's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$165,200Among the most affordablemore affordable than 68% 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
Garden City's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.6×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#4,486 of 15,516
More affordable than 71% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#3,995 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.6×, Garden City sits in the affordable band:
national rank #4,486 of 15,516 and #3,995 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
The multiple is comparatively compact among tracked cities, but a low ratio can still coexist with slow demand or household-level hardship.
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
$63,625Garden City, MO median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Garden City, 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 Garden City, MO.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)8.0%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)0.0%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)65.3%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
1,539
Median Income
$63,625
Median Home Value
$165,200
Median Age
36.3
Poverty Rate
0.0%
Labor force participation
65.3%
Bachelor's Degree+
8.0%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
512.2
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
64.0
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
448.1
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.
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Garden City's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
1,634 residents
2021
1,624 residents
2022
1,594 residents
2023
1,583 residents
2024
1,603 residents
2025
1,617 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
3
housing units authorized
Single-Family
3
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
1.9
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
2
2
0
$0.3M
2020
3
3
0
$0.8M
2021
6
6
0
$1.7M
2022
4
4
0
$1.2M
2023
2
2
0
$0.8M
2024
3
3
0
$1.1M
Permit volume increased 50% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
28.9 minutes
Drive Alone
83.9%
Carpool
12.6%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.0%
Work from Home
3.5%
Based on 737 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 Garden City. 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 Garden City 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 Garden City sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Garden City 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, 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.