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Place dossier plate
SheetMO-ST-JOSEPH-MO · St. Joseph, MO 71,542 pop · income 28th pct · 26 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 St. Joseph
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest St. Joseph on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Camden · lowest
40,450
Camden · lowest
40,450 median HH income
37.7% of the leader · rank #1
Hollywood · near
55,573
Hollywood · near
55,573 median HH income
51.8% of the leader · rank #2
Belle Rive · near
55,577
Belle Rive · near
55,577 median HH income
51.8% of the leader · rank #3
Butler · near
55,577
Butler · near
55,577 median HH income
51.8% of the leader · rank #4
St. Joseph · this city
55,578
St. Joseph · this city
55,578 median HH income
51.8% of the leader · rank #5
California Pi… · near
55,583
California Pi… · near
55,583 median HH income
51.8% 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 St. Joseph 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: 71,542.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
St. Joseph - the verdict
Nationally, St. Joseph sits in the 28th percentile for household income and the 5th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
28th
percentile, household income
25th
percentile, home value
7th
percentile, median rent
5th
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: St. Joseph, MO
St. Joseph is a small city in Missouri, home to 71,542 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Households in St. Joseph report a median income of $55,578 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 13.6%. St. Joseph's housing stock carries a median value of $144,200, and the median resident age is 37.9 years. Educational attainment runs 22.7% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 56.3% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 30 residential building permits were authorized in St. Joseph (Construction Slowdown), down 79% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. St. Joseph's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: FBI UCR figures show 4579.5 crimes per 100,000 residents, above the national average (reporting is voluntary across agencies, so treat this as reporting activity rather than 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. Monthly utility costs average around $219 across Missouri, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. The average commute for St. Joseph workers runs 15.4 minutes, with 79.1% driving alone and 6.9% working from home. 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 St. Joseph'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 work and mobility to comparison shortlist to schools and households to population change to reported crime to within-city variation to housing and income; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For St. Joseph, city-specific coverage includes FBI reported-crime rates, commute-mode shares, annual population history, local building permits, matched public-school count, within-city Census tract profiles.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
1. Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in St. Joseph?
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 79.1%. The reported mean trip to work is 15.4 minutes.
Which cities make useful reference points for St. Joseph?
Within Missouri, the closest population matches are St. Charles (71,048 residents, $85,522 income); Blue Springs (59,416 residents, $84,075 income); St. Peters (58,200 residents, $89,827 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Lake Elsinore, CA (71,516 residents); Marysville, WA (71,570 residents); Camden, NJ (71,471 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.
What does the education layer cover for St. Joseph?
The NCES join finds 2 public schools within the city match. 22.7% 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 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.
What can 26 Census tracts reveal inside St. Joseph?
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 26 Census tracts to this city.
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 St. Joseph 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 -1,133 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -1.6% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 30 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
-1.6%
2025 estimate
71,001
2020 estimate
72,134
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
What can the FBI record say about safety in St. Joseph?
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 4579.5 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 101% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
3850.9
Violent rate
728.6
Total reported rate
4579.5
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
How far does income reach against housing in St. Joseph?
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 13.6%, 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
$55,578
Home value
$144,200
Value / income
2.6×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Below median income · poverty 13.6% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
90.8 (US=100)
Affordable · BEA RPP 2024, Missouri average
F
City profile score · St. Joseph, MO
36/100
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 D
22.7%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$55,578
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
13.6%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
729 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
St. Joseph profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 83/100 (A-) · 90.8 index
Bachelor's+ share: 42/100 (D) · 22.7%
Household income: 28/100 (F) · $55,578
Poverty rate: 25/100 (F) · 13.6%
Violent crime: 4/100 (F) · 729 /100k
Where St. Joseph sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
St. Joseph'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 - St. Joseph highlighted among 11 peers.Read the chart values
St. Joseph, MO (this city): home $144,200, crime 4,580/100k
Lake Elsinore, CA : home $505,700, crime 2,027/100k
Marysville, WA : home $521,500, crime 2,187/100k
Johnson City, TN : home $238,000, crime 2,705/100k
Harlingen, TX : home $125,700, crime 2,977/100k
St. Charles, MO : home $280,800, crime 1,022/100k
Blue Springs, MO : home $241,500, crime 2,684/100k
St. Peters, MO : home $252,800, crime 1,265/100k
Joplin, MO : home $159,700, crime 4,681/100k
Florissant, MO : home $136,200, crime 2,174/100k
O'Fallon, MO : home $305,100, crime 538/100k
How does St. Joseph compare to other US cities?
St. Joseph measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income28% higher than other cities
Home value25% pricier than other cities
Median rent7% pricier than other cities
Safety5% 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, St. Joseph ranks #210 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 St. Joseph 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 St. Joseph near the bottom of Missouri's cities
Among the 875 Missouri cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, St. Joseph ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares St. Joseph only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#367 of 842
56th percentile in Missouri
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 875
0th percentile in Missouri
Median Home Value
#317 of 833
62nd percentile in Missouri
Poverty Rate
#302 of 875
65th percentile in Missouri
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#249 of 875
71st 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
28th percentile nationally for median household income · 5th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
St. Joseph's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
St. Joseph'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 St. Joseph's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$144,200Among the most affordablemore affordable than 75% 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
St. Joseph's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.6×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#4,475 of 15,516
More affordable than 71% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#48 of 750
Mid-size cities (50,000–199,999)
At 2.6×, St. Joseph sits in the affordable band:
national rank #4,475 of 15,516 and #48 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
$55,578St. Joseph, MO median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context St. Joseph, 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 St. Joseph, MO.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)22.7%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)13.6%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)56.3%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
71,542
Median Income
$55,578
Median Home Value
$144,200
Median Age
37.9
Poverty Rate
13.6%
Labor force participation
56.3%
Bachelor's Degree+
22.7%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
4579.5
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
728.6
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
3850.9
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
2
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
St. Joseph's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
72,134 residents
2021
71,388 residents
2022
70,738 residents
2023
70,892 residents
2024
71,104 residents
2025
71,001 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
30
housing units authorized
Single-Family
30
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
0.4
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
143
47
96
$22.8M
2020
194
45
149
$21.8M
2021
47
43
4
$11.0M
2022
38
32
6
$8.3M
2023
44
32
12
$10.4M
2024
30
30
0
$7.3M
Permit volume decreased 79% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
15.4 minutes
Drive Alone
79.1%
Carpool
11.4%
Public Transit
0.3%
Walk
1.4%
Work from Home
6.9%
Other
0.9%
Based on 31,907 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 St. Joseph. 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 St. Joseph 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 St. Joseph sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How St. Joseph 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.