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Place dossier plate
SheetMO-GRAIN-VALLEY-MO · Grain Valley, MO 15,967 pop · income 68th 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 Grain Valley
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Grain Valley on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Poplar Bluff · lowest
42,035
Poplar Bluff · lowest
42,035 median HH income
34.4% of the leader · rank #1
Grain Valley · this city
87,266
Grain Valley · this city
87,266 median HH income
71.5% of the leader · rank #2
New Brighton · near
87,272
New Brighton · near
87,272 median HH income
71.5% of the leader · rank #3
Fairbanks · near
87,273
Fairbanks · near
87,273 median HH income
71.5% of the leader · rank #4
Williamsburg · near
87,273
Williamsburg · near
87,273 median HH income
71.5% of the leader · rank #5
Oostburg · near
87,276
Oostburg · near
87,276 median HH income
71.5% of the leader · rank #6
Bay · highest
122,083
Bay · highest
122,083 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 Grain Valley 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: 15,967.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Grain Valley - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Grain Valley lands in the 68th percentile for household income and the 49th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
68th
percentile, household income
60th
percentile, home value
7th
percentile, median rent
49th
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: Grain Valley, MO
Grain Valley is a small town in Missouri, home to 15,967 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $87,266 per year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 4.9%. Home values in Grain Valley run a median of $269,800, and the median resident age is 35.8 years. 27.8% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 74.9% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 28 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Construction Slowdown), down 81% from five years earlier. Grain Valley reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 1405.8 incidents per 100,000 residents, below the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects 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). Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $972 monthly. 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 Grain Valley'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 schools and households to work and mobility to reported crime to population change to comparison shortlist to housing and income; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Grain Valley, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, annual population history, commute-mode shares, FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
What does the education layer cover for Grain Valley?
The NCES join finds 8 public schools within the city match. 27.8% 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.
What does the journey to work look like in Grain Valley?
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. Remote work has a visible role in the local pattern. That can reduce commute exposure for some workers, but it says nothing about job availability or broadband quality; read it alongside income and housing rather than as a stand-alone lifestyle score.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 77.2%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Grain Valley?
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 1405.8 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 38% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Which cities make useful reference points for Grain Valley?
Within Missouri, the closest population matches are Overland (15,762 residents, $57,755 income); Sikeston (16,231 residents, $53,203 income); Poplar Bluff (16,243 residents, $42,035 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are The Dalles, OR (15,973 residents); Longwood, FL (15,952 residents); Washington, IL (15,946 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.
Population change
Is Grain Valley growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Recent estimates point upward. Growth can increase housing demand and service needs, but the permit record must move in the same direction before calling it a supply response; the two series measure different things.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +1,231 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +7.9% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 28 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Period change
+7.9%
2025 estimate
16,908
2020 estimate
15,677
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
How far does income reach against housing in Grain Valley?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.1 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 4.9%, 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
$87,266
Home value
$269,800
Value / income
3.1×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Above median income · poverty 4.9% (Below-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
90.8 (US=100)
Affordable · BEA RPP 2024, Missouri average
B-
City profile score · Grain Valley, MO
65/100
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.
Household income B-
$87,266
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate B-
4.9%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share C-
27.8%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Violent crime C-
177 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Grain Valley profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 83/100 (A-) · 90.8 index
Household income: 67/100 (B-) · $87,266
Poverty rate: 66/100 (B-) · 4.9%
Bachelor's+ share: 54/100 (C-) · 27.8%
Violent crime: 52/100 (C-) · 177 /100k
Where Grain Valley sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Grain Valley'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 - Grain Valley highlighted among 10 peers.Read the chart values
Grain Valley, MO (this city): home $269,800, crime 1,406/100k
The Dalles, OR : home $318,400, crime 2,928/100k
Longwood, FL : home $327,400, crime 1,607/100k
Washington, IL : home $216,700, crime 1,225/100k
Marco Island, FL : home $866,200, crime 471/100k
Overland, MO : home $121,500, crime 2,709/100k
Sikeston, MO : home $158,100, crime 4,655/100k
Poplar Bluff, MO : home $109,700, crime 248/100k
Jackson, MO : home $227,600, crime 1,117/100k
Carthage, MO : home $133,500, crime 1,460/100k
How does Grain Valley compare to other US cities?
Grain Valley measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income68% higher than other cities
Home value60% pricier than other cities
Median rent7% pricier than other cities
Safety49% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
National percentiles can mask local variation. Looking only at Missouri, Grain Valley ranks #118 of 234 Missouri cities by lowest crime rate - a narrower, more locally useful cut than the national comparison above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Grain Valley 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 Grain Valley near the bottom of Missouri's cities
Among the 875 Missouri cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Grain Valley ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Grain Valley only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#118 of 842
86th percentile in Missouri
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 875
0th percentile in Missouri
Median Home Value
#85 of 833
90th percentile in Missouri
Poverty Rate
#618 of 875
29th percentile in Missouri
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#183 of 875
79th 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
68th percentile nationally for median household income · 49th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Grain Valley's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Grain Valley'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 Grain Valley's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$269,80040th percentilemore affordable than 40% 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
Grain Valley's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.1×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#7,148 of 15,516
More affordable than 54% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#1,035 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 3.1×, Grain Valley sits in the moderate band:
national rank #7,148 of 15,516 and #1,035 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
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
$87,266Grain Valley, MO median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Grain Valley, 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 Grain Valley, MO.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)27.8%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)4.9%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)74.9%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
15,967
Median Income
$87,266
Median Home Value
$269,800
Median Age
35.8
Poverty Rate
4.9%
Labor force participation
74.9%
Bachelor's Degree+
27.8%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1405.8
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
177.2
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1228.6
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.
Schools
Total Schools
8
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Grain Valley's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
15,677 residents
2021
16,002 residents
2022
16,151 residents
2023
16,626 residents
2024
16,877 residents
2025
16,908 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
28
housing units authorized
Single-Family
9
detached homes
Multifamily
19
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
1.8
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
145
125
20
$34.9M
2020
189
123
66
$41.0M
2021
128
128
0
$36.2M
2022
210
104
106
$49.4M
2023
60
60
0
$20.5M
2024
28
9
19
$5.5M
Permit volume decreased 81% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
77.2%
Carpool
4.4%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.6%
Work from Home
17.5%
Based on 8,783 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 Grain Valley. 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 Grain Valley 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 Grain Valley sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Grain Valley 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, 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.