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Place dossier plate
SheetMO-LAKE-ST-LOUIS-MO · Lake St. Louis, MO 17,538 pop · income 88th 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 Lake St. Louis
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Lake St. Louis on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
McKeesport · lowest
31,854
McKeesport · lowest
31,854 median HH income
24.7% of the leader · rank #1
Catlett · near
123,403
Catlett · near
123,403 median HH income
95.7% of the leader · rank #2
South Seaville · near
123,409
South Seaville · near
123,409 median HH income
95.7% of the leader · rank #3
Watertown · near
123,422
Watertown · near
123,422 median HH income
95.8% of the leader · rank #4
Lake St. Louis · this city
123,427
Lake St. Louis · this city
123,427 median HH income
95.8% of the leader · rank #5
Dakota Dunes · near
123,438
Dakota Dunes · near
123,438 median HH income
95.8% of the leader · rank #6
Clayton · highest
128,898
Clayton · highest
128,898 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 Lake St. Louis 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: 17,538.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Lake St. Louis - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Lake St. Louis places in the 88th percentile for household income and the 78th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
88th
percentile, household income
75th
percentile, home value
7th
percentile, median rent
78th
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: Lake St. Louis, MO
Missouri's Lake St. Louis is a small town, with 17,538 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Median household income here is $123,427 per year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 4.4%. Home values in Lake St. Louis run a median of $375,300, and the median resident age is 43.2 years. 49.5% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 64.2% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 29 residential building permits were authorized in Lake St. Louis (Construction Slowdown), down 84% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Lake St. Louis reports a comparatively low crime rate: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 662.0 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: 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. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Missouri run around $219, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 50.6 out of 100 (Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Lake St. Louis'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 population change to schools and households to housing and income to work and mobility to reported crime to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Lake St. Louis, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, commute-mode shares, matched public-school count, annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates.
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
Is Lake St. Louis growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +2,325 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +13.8% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 29 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
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.
What does the education layer cover for Lake St. Louis?
The matched institution count is small, so district boundaries and schools outside the city line may matter more than the municipal count suggests. Use the number as a coverage cue, then verify attendance zones with the district before making a household decision.
The NCES join finds 1 public school within the city match. 49.5% 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Lake St. Louis?
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 3.0 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 4.4%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Which cities make useful reference points for Lake St. Louis?
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 Kirksville (17,493 residents, $48,063 income); Clayton (17,282 residents, $128,898 income); Farmington (17,999 residents, $49,882 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Eastlake, OH (17,538 residents); Graham, NC (17,537 residents); Morganton, NC (17,541 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.
Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Lake St. Louis?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 75.3%. 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. 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.
Drive alone
75.3%
Work from home
18.3%
Public transit
0.0%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 9,276 workers age 16+.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Lake St. Louis?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 662.0 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 71% lower 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.
Total reported rate
662.0
Violent rate
56.9
Property rate
605.2
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
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.
Household income A
$123,427
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share A-
49.5%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
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-
57 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Poverty rate B-
4.4%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Lake St. Louis profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 87/100 (A) · $123,427
Bachelor's+ share: 83/100 (A-) · 49.5%
Cost of living: 83/100 (A-) · 90.8 index
Violent crime: 82/100 (A-) · 57 /100k
Poverty rate: 69/100 (B-) · 4.4%
Where Lake St. Louis sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Lake St. Louis'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 - Lake St. Louis highlighted among 9 peers.Read the chart values
Lake St. Louis, MO (this city): home $375,300, crime 662/100k
Eastlake, OH : home $168,300, crime 1,923/100k
Graham, NC : home $200,600, crime 2,227/100k
Takoma Park, MD : home $721,500, crime 7,613/100k
McKeesport, PA : home $69,800, crime 4,259/100k
Kirksville, MO : home $145,300, crime 2,352/100k
Clayton, MO : home $799,200, crime 897/100k
Farmington, MO : home $187,500, crime 3,074/100k
Manchester, MO : home $298,400, crime 1,346/100k
How does Lake St. Louis compare to other US cities?
Here's how Lake St. Louis stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income88% higher than other cities
Home value75% pricier than other cities
Median rent7% pricier than other cities
Safety78% 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, Lake St. Louis ranks #39 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 Lake St. Louis 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 Lake St. Louis near the bottom of Missouri's cities
Among the 875 Missouri cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Lake St. Louis ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Lake St. Louis only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#34 of 842
96th percentile in Missouri
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 875
0th percentile in Missouri
Median Home Value
#41 of 833
95th percentile in Missouri
Poverty Rate
#634 of 875
27th percentile in Missouri
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#56 of 875
94th 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
88th percentile nationally for median household income · 78th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Lake St. Louis's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Lake St. Louis'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 Lake St. Louis's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$375,30025th percentilemore affordable than 25% 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
Lake St. Louis's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.0×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#6,902 of 15,516
More affordable than 56% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#966 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 3.0×, Lake St. Louis sits in the moderate band:
national rank #6,902 of 15,516 and #966 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
$123,427Lake St. Louis, MO median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Lake St. Louis, 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 Lake St. Louis, MO.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)49.5%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)4.4%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)64.2%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
17,538
Median Income
$123,427
Median Home Value
$375,300
Median Age
43.2
Poverty Rate
4.4%
Labor force participation
64.2%
Bachelor's Degree+
49.5%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
662.0
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
56.9
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
605.2
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
1
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Lake St. Louis's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
16,804 residents
2021
17,335 residents
2022
18,344 residents
2023
18,697 residents
2024
19,117 residents
2025
19,129 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
29
housing units authorized
Single-Family
29
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
1.7
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
177
169
8
$58.0M
2020
300
204
96
$90.6M
2021
552
142
410
$117.1M
2022
220
40
180
$50.4M
2023
220
64
156
$47.8M
2024
29
29
0
$14.2M
Permit volume decreased 84% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
75.3%
Carpool
5.7%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.2%
Work from Home
18.3%
Based on 9,276 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 Lake St. Louis. 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 Lake St. Louis 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 Lake St. Louis sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Lake St. Louis 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.