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Place dossier plate
SheetMO-SPRINGFIELD-MO · Springfield, MO 169,432 pop · income 14th pct · 78 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 Springfield
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Springfield on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Bayamón zona… · lowest
31,058
Bayamón zona… · lowest
31,058 median HH income
29.0% of the leader · rank #1
Shipman · near
45,982
Shipman · near
45,982 median HH income
42.9% of the leader · rank #2
Springfield · this city
45,984
Springfield · this city
45,984 median HH income
42.9% of the leader · rank #3
Marietta · near
45,986
Marietta · near
45,986 median HH income
42.9% of the leader · rank #4
Harrisville · near
45,988
Harrisville · near
45,988 median HH income
42.9% of the leader · rank #5
Plainview · near
45,991
Plainview · near
45,991 median HH income
42.9% of the leader · rank #6
O'Fallon · highest
107,203
O'Fallon · highest
107,203 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 Springfield 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: 169,432.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Springfield - the verdict
Springfield ranks in the 14th percentile for household income and the 3rd percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
14th
percentile, household income
32nd
percentile, home value
7th
percentile, median rent
3rd
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: Springfield, MO
Missouri's Springfield is a mid-sized U.S. city, with 169,432 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Springfield households earn a median of $45,984 annually, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 12.0%. Home values in Springfield run a median of $165,200, and the median resident age is 33.6 years. 30.3% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 58.7% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 127 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Stable), down 4% from five years earlier. Springfield's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 5362.8 incidents per 100,000 residents, above the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). NOAA climate normals record an annual average temperature of 57.4°F with 44.7 inches of precipitation per year and 13.7 inches of snowfall.
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. 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 Springfield'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 work and mobility to schools and households to reported crime to comparison shortlist to housing and income to population change to climate and hazard context; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Springfield, city-specific coverage includes FBI reported-crime rates, within-city Census tract profiles, annual population history, commute-mode shares, matched public-school count, local building permits.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
1. Within-city variation
What can 78 Census tracts reveal inside Springfield?
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.
PlainCities matches 78 Census tracts to this city.
What does the journey to work look like in Springfield?
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 76.7%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
What does the education layer cover for Springfield?
The NCES join finds 61 public schools within the city match. 30.3% 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Springfield?
Within Missouri, the closest population matches are Columbia (127,200 residents, $64,488 income); Independence (121,944 residents, $59,480 income); Lee's Summit (102,583 residents, $104,989 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Fort Collins, CO (169,705 residents); Lancaster, CA (170,013 residents); Pembroke Pines, FL (170,557 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.
Reported crime
What can the FBI record say about safety in Springfield?
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 5362.8 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 135% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
4184.7
Violent rate
1178.1
Total reported rate
5362.8
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
How far does income reach against housing in Springfield?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.6 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 12.0%, 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
$45,984
Home value
$165,200
Value / income
3.6×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Is Springfield growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
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.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +694 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +0.4% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 127 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
+0.4%
2025 estimate
169,847
2020 estimate
169,153
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
What physical conditions frame life in Springfield?
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 57.4°F, with 44.7 inches of precipitation and 13.7 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.
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
57.4°F
Annual precipitation
44.7 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.
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 C
30.3%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate F
12.0%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$45,984
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime F
1,178 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Springfield profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 83/100 (A-) · 90.8 index
Bachelor's+ share: 58/100 (C) · 30.3%
Poverty rate: 32/100 (F) · 12.0%
Household income: 15/100 (F) · $45,984
Violent crime: 0/100 (F) · 1,178 /100k
Where Springfield sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Springfield'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 - Springfield highlighted among 11 peers.Read the chart values
Springfield, MO (this city): home $165,200, crime 5,363/100k
Fort Collins, CO : home $548,400, crime 2,428/100k
Lancaster, CA : home $409,100, crime 2,755/100k
Garden Grove, CA : home $765,500, crime 2,035/100k
Clarksville, TN : home $236,100, crime 2,042/100k
Columbia, MO : home $268,300, crime 2,665/100k
Independence, MO : home $166,400, crime 4,095/100k
Lee's Summit, MO : home $313,200, crime 2,444/100k
O'Fallon, MO : home $305,100, crime 538/100k
St. Joseph, MO : home $144,200, crime 4,580/100k
St. Charles, MO : home $280,800, crime 1,022/100k
How does Springfield compare to other US cities?
Springfield measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income14% higher than other cities
Home value32% pricier than other cities
Median rent7% pricier than other cities
Safety3% 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, Springfield ranks #220 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 Springfield 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 Springfield near the bottom of Missouri's cities
Among the 875 Missouri cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Springfield ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Springfield only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#579 of 842
31st 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
#359 of 875
58th percentile in Missouri
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#158 of 875
82nd 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
14th percentile nationally for median household income · 3rd percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Springfield's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Springfield'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 Springfield'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
Springfield's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.6×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#9,336 of 15,516
More affordable than 40% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#236 of 750
Mid-size cities (50,000–199,999)
At 3.6×, Springfield sits in the moderate band:
national rank #9,336 of 15,516 and #236 of 750mid-size cities (50,000–199,999).
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
$45,984Springfield, MO median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Springfield, 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 Springfield, MO.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)30.3%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)12.0%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)58.7%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
169,432
Median Income
$45,984
Median Home Value
$165,200
Median Age
33.6
Poverty Rate
12.0%
Labor force participation
58.7%
Bachelor's Degree+
30.3%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
5362.8
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
1178.1
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
4184.7
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
57.4°F
Annual Precipitation
44.7"
Annual Snowfall
13.7"
Schools
Total Schools
61
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Springfield's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
169,153 residents
2021
169,248 residents
2022
170,061 residents
2023
170,290 residents
2024
170,233 residents
2025
169,847 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Stable
Total Permits (2024)
127
housing units authorized
Single-Family
113
detached homes
Multifamily
14
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
0.7
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
132
96
36
$22.2M
2020
442
118
324
$82.9M
2021
877
58
819
$65.2M
2022
273
155
118
$57.3M
2023
107
75
32
$25.9M
2024
127
113
14
$35.6M
Permit volume decreased 4% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
76.7%
Carpool
8.3%
Public Transit
1.4%
Walk
2.9%
Work from Home
9.0%
Other
1.7%
Based on 82,389 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 Springfield. 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 Springfield 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 Springfield sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Springfield 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.