City profile · Missouri · Census ACS 2023

Wardsville, MO

Wardsville's Census ACS profile: residents, income, housing, and the joined public-record layers available for this place.

1,505
Residents
$117,500
Median income
$309,900
Median home
$972
Median rent (state)
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See how it ranks

State rank, size-class rank, and four peer cities for Wardsville.

Place dossier plate

Sheet MO-WARDSVILLE-MO · Wardsville, MO 1,505 pop · income 86th pct

POP-VILLAGE · INC-TOP · COL-BELOW · SAFE-UNK · RANK-TOP · PHOTO-FINISH · HOME-MID · BOOK-UNK

  • POP-VILLAGE 1,505
  • INC-TOP $117,500
  • COL-BELOW 90.8
  • SAFE-UNK Safety pending
  • RANK-TOP 86th
  • PHOTO-FINISH ≈ Santa Ynez
  • HOME-MID $309,900
  • BOOK-UNK Tracts pending

Nearest income peer: Santa Ynez, CA (+ $0 income $)

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 Wardsville

Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Wardsville on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.

median HH income

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.

Source U.S. Census Bureau · ACS 5-Year Estimates As of 2026-08-08

Compare beyond this state

Nationwide peers by population, income

Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Wardsville on ACS population and median household income . 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: 1,505.

4 peers

Similar household income

Nearest out-of-state cities by ACS median household income. This city: $117,500. Population peers are excluded.

4 peers

Wardsville - the verdict

Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Wardsville lands in the 86th percentile for household income. Source: Census ACS.

86th
percentile, household income
66th
percentile, home value
7th
percentile, median rent
📝 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: Wardsville, MO

Wardsville is a small town in Missouri, home to 1,505 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $117,500 per year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 0.7%. Home values in Wardsville run a median of $309,900, and the median resident age is 36.4 years. About 35.4% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 71.5% of working-age residents are in the labor force.

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. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Missouri run around $219, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. The average commute for Wardsville workers runs 15.8 minutes, with 77.1% driving alone and 14.3% working from home. 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 Wardsville'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 housing and income to comparison shortlist 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 Wardsville, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, annual population history. No matched row is reported here for local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count, within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.

Question 1

How far does income reach against housing in Wardsville?

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 0.7%, 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.

Compare the housing trade-off →

Question 2

Which cities make useful reference points for Wardsville?

Within Missouri, the closest population matches are Lone Jack (1,487 residents, $116,328 income); Leadwood (1,524 residents, $44,167 income); Lakeshire (1,478 residents, $61,346 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Pepeekeo, HI (1,505 residents); Susitna North, AK (1,506 residents); Belleair Beach, FL (1,506 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.

Open a side-by-side comparison →

3. Work and mobility

What does the journey to work look like in Wardsville?

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 77.1%. The reported mean trip to work is 15.8 minutes.

Compare commute patterns →

4. Population change

Is Wardsville growing, shrinking, or holding steady?

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.

Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +62 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +3.9% change. No comparable local building-permit series is available here, so population change should not be read as a housing-supply measure. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.

See the national growth ranking →

Population

1,505 residents

Micro place (under 10k)

Median Household Income

$117,500 /yr

High income · poverty 0.7% (Very low poverty)

Cost of Living Index (state)

90.8 (US=100)

Affordable · BEA RPP 2024, Missouri average

City profile score · Wardsville, MO

84/100

4 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.

Poverty rate A+
0.7%

Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.

Household income A
$117,500

Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); 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.

Bachelor's+ share B-
35.4%

Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.

Violent crime N/A
N/A

No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).

Wardsville profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions) 4-axis radar comparing 1 series across Poverty rate, Household income, Cost of living, Bachelor's+ share. Poverty rateHousehold incomeCost of livingBachelor's+ share 84 A-
Wardsville profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)
Read the chart values
  • Poverty rate: 95/100 (A+) · 0.7%
  • Household income: 85/100 (A) · $117,500
  • Cost of living: 83/100 (A-) · 90.8 index
  • Bachelor's+ share: 67/100 (B-) · 35.4%

How does Wardsville compare to other US cities?

Wardsville measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.

Household income 86% higher than other cities
Home value 66% pricier than other cities
Median rent 7% pricier than other cities

"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.

How we calculate these percentiles & ranks

Each percentile compares Wardsville 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 Wardsville near the bottom of Missouri's cities

Among the 875 Missouri cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Wardsville ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Wardsville only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.

Median Household Income
#43 of 842
95th percentile in Missouri
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 875
0th percentile in Missouri
Median Home Value
#58 of 833
93rd percentile in Missouri
Poverty Rate
#789 of 875
10th percentile in Missouri
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#118 of 875
87th 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.

86thIncome percentile
Gauge source note

86th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.

How Wardsville's home value compares nationally

Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)

$309,900 34th percentile more affordable than 34% of 15,600 US cities

Show national distribution $0–$25,000: 5 US cities (0%). Below this entry. $25,000–$50,000: 54 US cities (0%). Below this entry. $50,000–$75,000: 352 US cities (2%). Below this entry. $75,000–$100,000: 1,086 US cities (7%). Below this entry. $100,000–$125,000: 1,516 US cities (10%). Below this entry. $125,000–$150,000: 1,170 US cities (8%). Below this entry. $150,000–$175,000: 1,278 US cities (8%). Below this entry. $175,000–$200,000: 1,229 US cities (8%). Below this entry. $200,000–$225,000: 1,035 US cities (7%). Below this entry. $225,000–$250,000: 976 US cities (6%). Below this entry. $250,000–$275,000: 754 US cities (5%). Below this entry. $275,000–$300,000: 712 US cities (5%). Below this entry. $300,000–$325,000: 521 US cities (3%). This entry sits in this band. $325,000–$350,000: 526 US cities (3%). Above this entry. $350,000–$375,000: 465 US cities (3%). Above this entry. $375,000–$400,000: 393 US cities (3%). Above this entry. $400,000–$425,000: 317 US cities (2%). Above this entry. $425,000–$450,000: 300 US cities (2%). Above this entry. $450,000–$475,000: 307 US cities (2%). Above this entry. $475,000–$500,000: 250 US cities (2%). Above this entry. $500,000–$525,000: 160 US cities (1%). Above this entry. $525,000–$550,000: 156 US cities (1%). Above this entry. $550,000–$575,000: 172 US cities (1%). Above this entry. $575,000–$600,000: 172 US cities (1%). Above this entry. $600,000–$625,000: 163 US cities (1%). Above this entry. $625,000–$650,000: 167 US cities (1%). Above this entry. $650,000–$675,000: 135 US cities (1%). Above this entry. $675,000–$700,000: 101 US cities (1%). Above this entry. $700,000–$725,000: 95 US cities (1%). Above this entry. $725,000–$750,000: 71 US cities (0%). Above this entry. $750,000–$775,000: 65 US cities (0%). Above this entry. $775,000–$800,000: 70 US cities (0%). Above this entry. $800,000–$825,000: 57 US cities (0%). Above this entry. $825,000–$850,000: 67 US cities (0%). Above this entry. $850,000–$875,000: 60 US cities (0%). Above this entry. $875,000–$900,000: 58 US cities (0%). Above this entry. $900,000–$925,000: 47 US cities (0%). Above this entry. $925,000–$950,000: 37 US cities (0%). Above this entry. $950,000–$975,000: 31 US cities (0%). Above this entry. $975,000–$1,000,000: 470 US cities (3%). Above this entry. $1,000,000–$1,025,000: 0 US cities (0%). Above this entry. Wardsville $0 $1,025,000 every US city, bucketed by value

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

Wardsville's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.6×

ACS median home value divided by median household income.

Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#4,709 of 15,516
More affordable than 70% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#4,165 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)

At 2.6×, Wardsville sits in the affordable band: national rank #4,709 of 15,516 and #4,165 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000). 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

$117,500 Wardsville, MO median household income (Census ACS)

Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Household income distribution - Wardsville, MO Wardsville, MO's median household income ($117,500) against the U.S. national quintile-share pattern. The Lorenz curve and quintile bars are national context, not Wardsville, MO-specific shares. $ Household Income Distribution Wardsville, MO median $117,500/yr, vs. U.S. national quintile pattern QUINTILE SHARE OF AGGREGATE INCOME Lowest 20% 3.4% Second 20% 9.2% Middle 20% 15.1% Fourth 20% 23.2% Top 20% 49.1% LORENZ CURVE cumulative income vs. population 100% 0% 100% pop. 0%
Wardsville, 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 Wardsville, MO.

Key socioeconomic indicators

Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+) 35.4%

Census ACS S1501, educational attainment

Poverty rate (households below FPL) 0.7%

Census ACS S1701, poverty status

Labor force participation (adults 16+) 71.5%

Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force

Population
1,505
Median Income
$117,500
Median Home Value
$309,900
Median Age
36.4
Poverty Rate
0.7%
Labor force participation
71.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
35.4%

Population Change

PEP vintage

Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025

See the fastest-growing cities →
1,580 residents1,600 residents1,620 residents1,640 residents1,660 residents1,680 residents 202020212022202320242025 1,605 residents 1,667 residents ▲ +3.9%
Wardsville's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.
Read the chart as text
Period Population
2020 1,605 residents
2021 1,610 residents
2022 1,620 residents
2023 1,635 residents
2024 1,651 residents
2025 1,667 residents

Commute Patterns

Commute source

How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023

Average Commute Time
15.8 minutes
Drive Alone
77.1%
Carpool
4.0%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
1.8%
Work from Home
14.3%
Other
2.8%

Based on 781 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 Wardsville. 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 Wardsville 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 Wardsville sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.

How Wardsville 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.

City Population Median Household Income
Wardsville (this city) 1,505 $117,500
Lone Jack 1,487 $116,328
Leadwood 1,524 $44,167
Lakeshire 1,478 $61,346
Primary sources on this page

Source: U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year 2023, 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.

Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

Citation & verification links Data sourced from the U.S. Census Bureau. See our methodology for details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainCities

Primary sources: Census ACS, FBI UCR, NOAA Climate Normals, NCES. Joins use OMB Bulletin 23-01 / FIPS keys.

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Estimate caveats

ACS and UCR figures are citywide estimates with vintage lags; they do not replace a local visit, school visit, or insurance quote.

Editorial standards, provenance, and how to cite this page

Every figure on PlainCities is rendered directly from Census ACS source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page draws directly on Census ACS source data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.

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