Side-by-side metrics and state or size-class ranks use the same Census and FBI fields shown on this profile. Results stay in the URL so you can bookmark or share them.
Place dossier plate
SheetMO-UNIVERSITY-CITY-MO · University City, MO 34,655 pop · income 58th 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 University City
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest University City on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Del Rio · lowest
59,588
Del Rio · lowest
59,588 median HH income
30.7% of the leader · rank #1
Ouray · near
76,458
Ouray · near
76,458 median HH income
39.4% of the leader · rank #2
Mazon · near
76,458
Mazon · near
76,458 median HH income
39.4% of the leader · rank #3
University Ci… · this city
76,466
University Ci… · this city
76,466 median HH income
39.4% of the leader · rank #4
Petersburg · near
76,466
Petersburg · near
76,466 median HH income
39.4% of the leader · rank #5
Conyngham · near
76,468
Conyngham · near
76,468 median HH income
39.4% of the leader · rank #6
Manhattan Bea… · highest
193,904
Manhattan Bea… · highest
193,904 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 University City 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: 34,655.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
University City - the verdict
Nationally, University City sits in the 58th percentile for household income and the 35th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
58th
percentile, household income
62nd
percentile, home value
7th
percentile, median rent
35th
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: University City, MO
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 34,655 residents in University City, a small city within Missouri. Median household income here is $76,466 per year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 6.7%. Home values in University City run a median of $285,100, and the median resident age is 38.1 years. About 64.2% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 65.4% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 262 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Building Boom), up 6450% from five years earlier. Crime here tracks close to the national norm: FBI UCR figures show 1872.8 crimes per 100,000 residents, near 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: 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. The average commute for University City workers runs 17.4 minutes, with 66.1% driving alone and 17.0% 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 University City'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 comparison shortlist to reported crime to housing and income to work and mobility to population change; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For University City, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history, commute-mode shares, 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.
1. Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for University City?
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 7 public schools within the city match. 64.2% 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for University City?
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 Oakville (35,166 residents, $103,125 income); Wildwood (35,168 residents, $157,750 income); Ballwin (30,835 residents, $121,170 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Northbrook, IL (34,642 residents); Del Rio, TX (34,638 residents); Randolph, MA (34,683 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.
What can the FBI record say about safety in University City?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 1872.8 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 18% 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.
How far does income reach against housing in University City?
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 3.7 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 6.7%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
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 University City?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 66.1%. The reported mean trip to work is 17.4 minutes.
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
66.1%
Work from home
17.0%
Public transit
4.5%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 19,137 workers age 16+.
Is University City growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -508 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -1.4% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 262 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 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.
2020 estimate
35,165
2025 estimate
34,657
Period change
-1.4%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
Above median income · poverty 6.7% (Below-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
90.8 (US=100)
Affordable · BEA RPP 2024, Missouri average
C+
City profile score · University City, MO
62/100
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.
Bachelor's+ share A+
64.2%
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.
Household income C
$76,466
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate C-
6.7%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
299 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
University City profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 94/100 (A+) · 64.2%
Cost of living: 83/100 (A-) · 90.8 index
Household income: 56/100 (C) · $76,466
Poverty rate: 54/100 (C-) · 6.7%
Violent crime: 33/100 (F) · 299 /100k
Where University City sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
University City'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 - University City highlighted among 10 peers.Read the chart values
University City, MO (this city): home $285,100, crime 1,873/100k
Northbrook, IL : home $644,100, crime 1,226/100k
Del Rio, TX : home $143,200, crime 1,454/100k
Randolph, MA : home $463,500, crime 1,135/100k
Canton, GA : home $369,700, crime 930/100k
Manhattan Beach, CA : home $2,000,000+, crime 2,683/100k
Ballwin, MO : home $353,400, crime 540/100k
Liberty, MO : home $267,900, crime 1,775/100k
Raytown, MO : home $162,000, crime 4,602/100k
Kirkwood, MO : home $421,500, crime 1,609/100k
How does University City compare to other US cities?
Here's how University City stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income58% higher than other cities
Home value62% pricier than other cities
Median rent7% pricier than other cities
Safety35% 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: University City ranks #141 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 University City 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 University City near the bottom of Missouri's cities
Among the 875 Missouri cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, University City ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares University City only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#169 of 842
80th percentile in Missouri
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 875
0th percentile in Missouri
Median Home Value
#73 of 833
91st percentile in Missouri
Poverty Rate
#555 of 875
36th percentile in Missouri
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#27 of 875
97th 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
58th percentile nationally for median household income · 35th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
University City's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
University City'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 University City's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$285,10038th percentilemore affordable than 38% 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
University City's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.7×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#9,818 of 15,516
More affordable than 37% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#1,721 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 3.7×, University City sits in the moderate band:
national rank #9,818 of 15,516 and #1,721 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
$76,466University City, MO median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context University City, 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 University City, MO.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)64.2%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)6.7%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)65.4%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
34,655
Median Income
$76,466
Median Home Value
$285,100
Median Age
38.1
Poverty Rate
6.7%
Labor force participation
65.4%
Bachelor's Degree+
64.2%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1872.8
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
298.8
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1574.0
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
7
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
University City's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
35,165 residents
2021
34,908 residents
2022
34,570 residents
2023
34,361 residents
2024
34,315 residents
2025
34,657 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
262
housing units authorized
Single-Family
3
detached homes
Multifamily
259
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
7.6
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
4
4
0
$0.8M
2020
4
4
0
$0.8M
2021
5
5
0
$2.1M
2022
4
4
0
$1.7M
2023
3
3
0
$1.3M
2024
262
3
259
$46.3M
Permit volume increased 6450% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
17.4 minutes
Drive Alone
66.1%
Carpool
5.7%
Public Transit
4.5%
Walk
3.9%
Work from Home
17.0%
Other
2.8%
Based on 19,137 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 University City. 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 University City 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 University City sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How University City 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.