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Place dossier plate
SheetMO-WAYNESVILLE-MO · Waynesville, MO 5,422 pop · income 56th 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 Waynesville
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Waynesville on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Caruthersville · lowest
35,903
Caruthersville · lowest
35,903 median HH income
18.2% of the leader · rank #1
Waynesville · this city
75,179
Waynesville · this city
75,179 median HH income
38.2% of the leader · rank #2
Julian · near
75,179
Julian · near
75,179 median HH income
38.2% of the leader · rank #3
Carthage · near
75,179
Carthage · near
75,179 median HH income
38.2% of the leader · rank #4
Harmony · near
75,179
Harmony · near
75,179 median HH income
38.2% of the leader · rank #5
Buckeye Lake · near
75,179
Buckeye Lake · near
75,179 median HH income
38.2% of the leader · rank #6
North Hills · highest
196,938
North Hills · highest
196,938 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 Waynesville 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: 5,422.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Waynesville - the verdict
Nationally, Waynesville sits in the 56th percentile for household income and the 49th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
56th
percentile, household income
44th
percentile, home value
7th
percentile, median rent
49th
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: Waynesville, MO
Missouri's Waynesville is a small town, with 5,422 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Median household income here is $75,179 per year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 3.2%. Home values in Waynesville run a median of $204,100, and the median resident age is 34.1 years. About 36.6% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 51.1% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 17 residential building permits were authorized in Waynesville (Rapid Growth), up 42% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Waynesville reports a comparatively low crime rate: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 1391.2 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). NOAA puts Waynesville's yearly average temperature at 56.5°F with 47.5 inches of precipitation per year and 10.2 inches of snowfall.
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. Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $972 monthly. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Missouri run around $219, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. 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 Waynesville'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 housing and income to work and mobility to comparison shortlist to reported crime to climate and hazard context to population change; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Waynesville, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, annual population history, commute-mode shares, local building permits, 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
What does the education layer cover for Waynesville?
The NCES join finds 1 public school within the city match. 36.6% 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Waynesville?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 2.7 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 3.2%, 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.
What does the journey to work look like in Waynesville?
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 82.8%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Which cities make useful reference points for Waynesville?
Within Missouri, the closest population matches are Caruthersville (5,426 residents, $35,903 income); Macon (5,457 residents, $51,103 income); St. Robert (5,327 residents, $60,219 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Zephyrhills South, FL (5,422 residents); Tyrone, PA (5,421 residents); Chelsea, MI (5,420 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 Waynesville?
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 1391.2 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 39% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
951.9
Violent rate
439.3
Total reported rate
1391.2
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
What physical conditions frame life in Waynesville?
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 56.5°F, with 47.5 inches of precipitation and 10.2 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
56.5°F
Annual precipitation
47.5 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.
Is Waynesville 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 +130 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +2.4% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 17 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
+2.4%
2025 estimate
5,558
2020 estimate
5,428
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
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.
Poverty rate B+
3.2%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share B-
36.6%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income C
$75,179
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime F
439 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Waynesville profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 83/100 (A-) · 90.8 index
Poverty rate: 77/100 (B+) · 3.2%
Bachelor's+ share: 69/100 (B-) · 36.6%
Household income: 55/100 (C) · $75,179
Violent crime: 20/100 (F) · 439 /100k
Where Waynesville sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Waynesville'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 - Waynesville highlighted among 8 peers.Read the chart values
Waynesville, MO (this city): home $204,100, crime 1,391/100k
Tyrone, PA : home $122,000, crime 1,401/100k
Chelsea, MI : home $301,100, crime 937/100k
Alvarado, TX : home $206,800, crime 1,546/100k
Caruthersville, MO : home $118,700, crime 4,894/100k
Macon, MO : home $133,800, crime 1,779/100k
Trenton, MO : home $93,000, crime 870/100k
Odessa, MO : home $209,600, crime 319/100k
How does Waynesville compare to other US cities?
Here's how Waynesville stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income56% higher than other cities
Home value44% pricier than other cities
Median rent7% pricier than other cities
Safety49% 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, Waynesville ranks #116 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 Waynesville 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 Waynesville near the bottom of Missouri's cities
Among the 875 Missouri cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Waynesville ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Waynesville only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#177 of 842
79th percentile in Missouri
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 875
0th percentile in Missouri
Median Home Value
#166 of 833
80th percentile in Missouri
Poverty Rate
#685 of 875
21st percentile in Missouri
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#105 of 875
88th 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
56th percentile nationally for median household income · 49th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Waynesville's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Waynesville'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 Waynesville's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$204,100Among the most affordablemore affordable than 56% 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
Waynesville's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.7×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#5,104 of 15,516
More affordable than 67% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#4,472 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.7×, Waynesville sits in the affordable band:
national rank #5,104 of 15,516 and #4,472 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
$75,179Waynesville, MO median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Waynesville, 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 Waynesville, MO.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)36.6%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)3.2%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)51.1%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
5,422
Median Income
$75,179
Median Home Value
$204,100
Median Age
34.1
Poverty Rate
3.2%
Labor force participation
51.1%
Bachelor's Degree+
36.6%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1391.2
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
439.3
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
951.9
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.
Climate
Avg Temperature
56.5°F
Annual Precipitation
47.5"
Annual Snowfall
10.2"
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
Waynesville's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
5,428 residents
2021
5,415 residents
2022
5,428 residents
2023
5,444 residents
2024
5,475 residents
2025
5,558 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Rapid Growth
Total Permits (2024)
17
housing units authorized
Single-Family
17
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
3.1
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
12
12
0
$2.9M
2020
13
13
0
$3.1M
2021
15
15
0
$3.6M
2022
17
17
0
$4.1M
2023
16
16
0
$3.8M
2024
17
17
0
$4.1M
Permit volume increased 42% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
82.8%
Carpool
7.8%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.9%
Work from Home
8.5%
Based on 2,437 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 Waynesville. 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 Waynesville 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 Waynesville sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Waynesville 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.