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Place dossier plate
SheetMO-WEST-SULLIVAN-MO · West Sullivan, MO 252 pop · income 19th 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 West Sullivan
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest West Sullivan on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Junction City · lowest
25,833
Junction City · lowest
25,833 median HH income
35.0% of the leader · rank #1
West Sullivan · this city
49,500
West Sullivan · this city
49,500 median HH income
67.1% of the leader · rank #2
Coin · near
49,500
Coin · near
49,500 median HH income
67.1% of the leader · rank #3
Pigeon · near
49,500
Pigeon · near
49,500 median HH income
67.1% of the leader · rank #4
Taylor · near
49,500
Taylor · near
49,500 median HH income
67.1% of the leader · rank #5
Elk City · near
49,500
Elk City · near
49,500 median HH income
67.1% of the leader · rank #6
Centerview · highest
73,750
Centerview · highest
73,750 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
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for West Sullivan 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: 252.
West Sullivan ranks in the 19th percentile for household income nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS.
19th
percentile, household income
22nd
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: West Sullivan, MO
252 people live in West Sullivan, Missouri - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Households in West Sullivan report a median income of $49,500 per year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 17.6%. Typical homes in West Sullivan are valued around $133,300, and the median resident age is 31.3 years. Educational attainment runs 1.4% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 50.0% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Living costs in Missouri run below the national norm: the state registers 90.8 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Well Below Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. 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. Workers in West Sullivan report an average commute of 25.7 minutes, with 82.0% driving alone and 4.0% 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 West Sullivan'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 population change to comparison shortlist to housing and income; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For West Sullivan, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, annual population history.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles, matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
What does the journey to work look like in West Sullivan?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 82.0%. The reported mean trip to work is 25.7 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. 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.
Is West Sullivan growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -5 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -1.7% 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.
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.
Which cities make useful reference points for West Sullivan?
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.
Within Missouri, the closest population matches are High Hill (252 residents, $65,625 income); Stella (252 residents, $39,345 income); Centerview (250 residents, $73,750 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Coffee Springs, AL (252 residents); Bliss, ID (252 residents); Bryant, IL (252 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.
How far does income reach against housing in West Sullivan?
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 2.7 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 17.6%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
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.
Household income F
$49,500
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
17.6%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
1.4%
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).
West Sullivan profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 83/100 (A-) · 90.8 index
Household income: 20/100 (F) · $49,500
Poverty rate: 18/100 (F) · 17.6%
Bachelor's+ share: 0/100 (F) · 1.4%
How does West Sullivan compare to other US cities?
Where West Sullivan sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income19% higher than other cities
Home value22% pricier than other cities
Median rent7% 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 West Sullivan 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 West Sullivan near the bottom of Missouri's cities
Among the 875 Missouri cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, West Sullivan ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares West Sullivan only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#509 of 842
40th percentile in Missouri
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 875
0th percentile in Missouri
Median Home Value
#359 of 833
57th percentile in Missouri
Poverty Rate
#206 of 875
76th percentile in Missouri
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#848 of 875
3rd 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
19th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How West Sullivan's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$133,300Among the most affordablemore affordable than 78% 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
West Sullivan's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.7×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#5,000 of 15,516
More affordable than 68% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#4,391 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.7×, West Sullivan sits in the affordable band:
national rank #5,000 of 15,516 and #4,391 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
$49,500West Sullivan, MO median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context West Sullivan, 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 West Sullivan, MO.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)1.4%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)17.6%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)50.0%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
252
Median Income
$49,500
Median Home Value
$133,300
Median Age
31.3
Poverty Rate
17.6%
Labor force participation
50.0%
Bachelor's Degree+
1.4%
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
West Sullivan's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
286 residents
2021
283 residents
2022
279 residents
2023
280 residents
2024
281 residents
2025
281 residents
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
25.7 minutes
Drive Alone
82.0%
Carpool
14.0%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.0%
Work from Home
4.0%
Based on 100 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 West Sullivan. 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 West Sullivan 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 West Sullivan sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How West Sullivan 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, 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.