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Place dossier plate
SheetMO-INDEPENDENCE-MO · Independence, MO 121,944 pop · income 34th pct · 227 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 Independence
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Independence on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Springfield · lowest
45,984
Springfield · lowest
45,984 median HH income
40.6% of the leader · rank #1
Val Verde Park · near
59,476
Val Verde Park · near
59,476 median HH income
52.4% of the leader · rank #2
Akron · near
59,479
Akron · near
59,479 median HH income
52.5% of the leader · rank #3
Sweet Home · near
59,479
Sweet Home · near
59,479 median HH income
52.5% of the leader · rank #4
Elgin · near
59,479
Elgin · near
59,479 median HH income
52.5% of the leader · rank #5
Independence · this city
59,480
Independence · this city
59,480 median HH income
52.5% of the leader · rank #6
Arvada · highest
113,396
Arvada · highest
113,396 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 Independence 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: 121,944.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Independence - the verdict
Independence ranks in the 34th percentile for household income and the 7th percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
34th
percentile, household income
32nd
percentile, home value
7th
percentile, median rent
7th
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: Independence, MO
Missouri's Independence is a mid-sized U.S. city, with 121,944 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Households in Independence report a median income of $59,480 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 11.5%. Independence's housing stock carries a median value of $166,400, and the median resident age is 38.4 years. Educational attainment runs 20.9% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 59.2% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 56 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Construction Slowdown), down 85% from five years earlier. Independence's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 4094.9 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). NOAA climate normals record an annual average temperature of 54.0°F with 44.7 inches of precipitation per year and 13.2 inches of snowfall.
Living costs in Missouri run below the national norm: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, Missouri scores 90.8 (Well Below Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. 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. Natural-hazard exposure scores 50.6 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Independence'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 climate and hazard context to housing and income to within-city variation to comparison shortlist to schools and households to population change to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Independence, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, FBI reported-crime rates, within-city Census tract profiles, matched public-school count, local building permits, annual population history.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
Question 1
What can the FBI record say about safety in Independence?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 4094.9 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 80% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
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.
What physical conditions frame life in Independence?
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.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 54.0°F, with 44.7 inches of precipitation and 13.2 inches of annual snowfall. 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.
What can 227 Census tracts reveal inside Independence?
PlainCities matches 227 Census tracts to this city.
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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Independence?
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.
Within Missouri, the closest population matches are Columbia (127,200 residents, $64,488 income); Lee's Summit (102,583 residents, $104,989 income); O'Fallon (92,697 residents, $107,203 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Rochester, MN (121,638 residents); College Station, TX (122,280 residents); Lafayette, LA (121,537 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.
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 Independence?
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.
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 2.8 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 11.5%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
2.8×
Home value
$166,400
Household income
$59,480
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
What does the education layer cover for Independence?
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.
The NCES join finds 36 public schools within the city match. 20.9% 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.
Poverty estimate
11.5%
Bachelor's degree+
20.9%
Matched public schools
36
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Is Independence growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -1,191 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -1.0% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 56 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
The recent population line is broadly flat. That makes the composition of change more important than the headline count: housing turnover, household size, and age structure can shift even when the total barely moves.
2020 estimate
122,866
2025 estimate
121,675
Period change
-1.0%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
What does the journey to work look like in Independence?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 81.2%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
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.
Drive alone
81.2%
Work from home
10.1%
Public transit
0.3%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 56,213 workers age 16+.
Below median income · poverty 11.5% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
90.8 (US=100)
Affordable · BEA RPP 2024, Missouri average
D
City profile score · Independence, MO
40/100
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
20.9%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$59,480
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
11.5%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
571 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Independence profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 83/100 (A-) · 90.8 index
Bachelor's+ share: 37/100 (F) · 20.9%
Household income: 34/100 (F) · $59,480
Poverty rate: 34/100 (F) · 11.5%
Violent crime: 11/100 (F) · 571 /100k
Where Independence sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Independence'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 - Independence highlighted among 13 peers.Read the chart values
Independence, MO (this city): home $166,400, crime 4,095/100k
Rochester, MN : home $287,500, crime 1,523/100k
College Station, TX : home $326,500, crime 1,273/100k
Lafayette, LA : home $251,300, crime 5,414/100k
Ann Arbor, MI : home $435,100, crime 2,018/100k
Clovis, CA : home $453,300, crime 1,911/100k
Arvada, CO : home $600,800, crime 2,765/100k
Columbia, MO : home $268,300, crime 2,665/100k
Lee's Summit, MO : home $313,200, crime 2,444/100k
O'Fallon, MO : home $305,100, crime 538/100k
Springfield, MO : home $165,200, crime 5,363/100k
St. Joseph, MO : home $144,200, crime 4,580/100k
St. Charles, MO : home $280,800, crime 1,022/100k
How does Independence compare to other US cities?
Here's how Independence stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income34% higher than other cities
Home value32% pricier than other cities
Median rent7% pricier than other cities
Safety7% 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: Independence ranks #201 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 Independence 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 Independence near the bottom of Missouri's cities
Among the 875 Missouri cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Independence ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Independence only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#316 of 842
62nd percentile in Missouri
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 875
0th percentile in Missouri
Median Home Value
#256 of 833
69th percentile in Missouri
Poverty Rate
#378 of 875
56th percentile in Missouri
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#287 of 875
67th 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
34th percentile nationally for median household income · 7th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Independence's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Independence'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 Independence's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$166,400Among 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
Independence's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.8×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#5,574 of 15,516
More affordable than 64% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#80 of 750
Mid-size cities (50,000–199,999)
At 2.8×, Independence sits in the affordable band:
national rank #5,574 of 15,516 and #80 of 750mid-size cities (50,000–199,999).
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
$59,480Independence, MO median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Independence, 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 Independence, MO.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)20.9%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)11.5%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)59.2%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
121,944
Median Income
$59,480
Median Home Value
$166,400
Median Age
38.4
Poverty Rate
11.5%
Labor force participation
59.2%
Bachelor's Degree+
20.9%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
4094.9
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
571.2
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
3523.7
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
54.0°F
Annual Precipitation
44.7"
Annual Snowfall
13.2"
Schools
Total Schools
36
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Independence's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
122,866 residents
2021
122,202 residents
2022
121,083 residents
2023
121,213 residents
2024
121,944 residents
2025
121,675 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
56
housing units authorized
Single-Family
48
detached homes
Multifamily
8
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
0.5
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
384
86
298
$50.0M
2020
326
82
244
$38.2M
2021
143
99
44
$25.1M
2022
333
40
293
$44.3M
2023
58
54
4
$12.2M
2024
56
48
8
$10.8M
Permit volume decreased 85% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
81.2%
Carpool
7.3%
Public Transit
0.3%
Walk
0.5%
Work from Home
10.1%
Other
0.6%
Based on 56,213 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 Independence. 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 Independence 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 Independence sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Independence 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.