Like all states, Missouri has certain places that are going on hard times. These Missouri places have an above-average percentage of people living in poverty, out of work, or not making as much as they should be.
Even as the economy continues to improve, it’s worthwhile to look at the places in each state struggling to make ends meet. So we set our sites on locating the poorest places in Missouri.
To do so, we used Saturday Night Science to analyze the newest Census data from the American Community Survey for the 131 cities in Missouri with more than 5,000 people.
$34,652 median income · 31.4% poverty · #1 lowest income in Missouri
Located in
Pemiscot County, Missouri
Caruthersville, unfortunately, ranks as the poorest place in Missouri thanks to combination of low pay and and a lack of jobs.
The city of 5,326 people averages the lowest median household income in Missouri and the 2nd highest poverty rate. At the very least, the cost of living ranks in the bottom 15% of place in the state, so things like housing are relatively affordable.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$44,265 median income · 35.1% poverty · #7 lowest income in Missouri
Located in
St. Louis County, Missouri
The second poorest city in Missouri is Berkeley.
The city ranks as having the highest incidence of poverty and 7th lowest median household income. However, the unemployment rate ‘only’ ranks as the 25th highest in the Show Me State.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$42,813 median income · 27.8% poverty · #4 lowest income in Missouri
Located in
Vernon County, Missouri
Placing as the third poorest city, Nevada’s median income ranks as the 4th lowest.
And that’s a sign that there’s a relatively substantial jump in the quality of the economy from second to third place on our list. The poverty rate is 27.8% and ranks near the bottom of places in the state.
But what makes up for the relatively low incomes of the city is its low cost of living. The income you do make here goes further than in most parts of the Show Me State.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$38,984 median income · 25.2% poverty · #2 lowest income in Missouri
Located in
St. Louis County, Missouri
Jennings ranks as the fourth poorest place in Missouri.
The town ranks as having the 2nd lowest median household income and the 8th highest incidence of poverty in the state.
That being said, there’s still a ton of cultural diversity in the city as it hosts many events throughout the year.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$44,002 median income · 28.1% poverty · #5 lowest income in Missouri
Located in
Howell County, Missouri
The fifth poorest city in Missouri is West Plains.
The city ranks as having the 5th lowest median income in the state. However, an extremely low cost of living prevents a good number of folks from living in poverty as the poverty rate only ranks as the 5th highest in Missouri.
Still not the best news for West Plains.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$46,179 median income · 28.3% poverty · #8 lowest income in Missouri
Located in
St. Francois County, Missouri
Bonne Terre ranks as the sixth poorest place in the Show Me State.
It ranks as having the 3rd highest incidence of poverty and the 5highest unemployment rate.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$41,941 median income · 20.8% poverty · #3 lowest income in Missouri
Located in
Butler County, Missouri
Poplar Bluff places as the seventh poorest city in Missouri.
The city of over 16,254 ranks as having the 15th highest incidence of poverty in the state. However, it has a very low cost of living which helps to pay the bills each month.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$46,204 median income · 23.6% poverty · #9 lowest income in Missouri
Located in
Phelps County, Missouri
Rolla ranks as the eighth poorest city in Missouri.
The big issue for the town is the unemployment rate which ranks as one of the highest in the state.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$47,524 median income · 24.2% poverty · #10 lowest income in Missouri
Located in
St. Louis County, Missouri
Ferguson couldn’t stay out of the top ten poorest places in Missouri; it ranks number 9.
While the median income is the 10th lowest, there are a substantial number of people that live below the poverty line. Overall, Ferguson ranks as having the 10th most people living in poverty of all the places we analyzed in Missouri.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers | Compare
$50,071 median income · 28.2% poverty · #19 lowest income in Missouri
Located in
Adair County, Missouri
And rounding out the top ten poorest cities in Missouri is Kirksville.
The city of 17,563 people ranks in the bottom 20% for both median income and poverty rate in the Show Me State.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
The receipts
Compare the top ten
Pick a metric. The bars rescale. The red line is Missouri’s statewide median.
Missouri statewide median: $70,702
Missouri statewide median: 12.6%
Missouri statewide median: 4.0%
On the map
Where poverty hits hardest in Missouri
Saturday Night Science
How we determined the poorest places in Missouri for 2026
The first thing that comes to most people’s minds when they think about determining the poorest places is to simply the poverty rate. That is, the number of people living below a federally established level of income for a household of a certain size.
However, we don’t think that one statistic wholly encompasses what it means to be one of the “poorest places”. So we used Saturday Night Science to look at this set of criteria from the newly released 2020-2024 American Community Survey:
- Poverty Level
- Median Household Income
After we collected the data for all 131 places with more than 5,000 people in Missouri, we ranked each place from 1 to 131 for each of the criteria, with 1 being the poorest.
We then averaged all the rankings for a place into a “Poor Score” with the place having the lowest overall Poor Score, Caruthersville, crowned the “Poorest Place In Missouri For 2026”. The median Missouri home is 48 years old — old enough that it pays to compare home warranty plans before something expensive breaks.
The full plate
Detailed list of the poorest places to live in Missouri
Click any column to sort. Search by city name.
| Rank | City | Poor Score | Population | Median income | Poverty | Unemployment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Caruthersville | 1.50 | 5,326 | $34,652 | 31.4% | 9.0% |
| 2 | Berkeley | 4.00 | 8,123 | $44,265 | 35.1% | 5.7% |
| 3 | Nevada | 5.00 | 7,925 | $42,813 | 27.8% | 5.7% |
| 4 | Jennings | 5.00 | 12,918 | $38,984 | 25.2% | 8.9% |
| 5 | West Plains | 5.00 | 12,441 | $44,002 | 28.1% | 4.2% |
| 6 | Bonne Terre | 5.50 | 6,683 | $46,179 | 28.3% | 4.5% |
| 7 | Poplar Bluff | 9.00 | 16,254 | $41,941 | 20.8% | 4.9% |
| 8 | Rolla | 10.00 | 20,287 | $46,204 | 23.6% | 4.6% |
| 9 | Ferguson | 10.00 | 18,213 | $47,524 | 24.2% | 5.9% |
| 10 | Kirksville | 11.50 | 17,563 | $50,071 | 28.2% | 4.0% |
| 11 | Lebanon | 12.00 | 15,270 | $48,359 | 21.7% | 6.9% |
| 12 | Bellefontaine Neighbors | 13.00 | 10,498 | $49,170 | 21.4% | 5.9% |
| 13 | Carthage | 15.00 | 15,574 | $51,328 | 27.2% | 3.2% |
| 14 | Moberly | 16.00 | 13,526 | $44,145 | 18.4% | 6.5% |
| 15 | Sedalia | 20.50 | 22,003 | $50,990 | 19.4% | 5.2% |
| 16 | Bolivar | 20.50 | 11,170 | $49,622 | 18.8% | 4.7% |
| 17 | Springfield | 20.50 | 169,954 | $49,311 | 18.4% | 4.3% |
| 18 | Maryville | 21.00 | 10,428 | $53,352 | 24.4% | 2.7% |
| 19 | Branson | 22.50 | 12,817 | $51,978 | 20.2% | 5.8% |
| 20 | Trenton | 23.00 | 5,536 | $50,015 | 18.1% | 4.1% |
| 21 | Aurora | 23.50 | 7,397 | $49,848 | 18.1% | 7.1% |
| 22 | Perryville | 25.00 | 8,536 | $51,897 | 19.0% | 6.8% |
| 23 | Mexico | 26.50 | 11,477 | $50,873 | 17.8% | 7.3% |
| 24 | Kennett | 26.75 | 10,196 | $52,500 | 19.1% | 5.4% |
| 25 | Hannibal | 27.00 | 16,771 | $53,721 | 19.5% | 5.2% |
| 26 | Cape Girardeau | 27.00 | 40,344 | $55,658 | 20.8% | 2.6% |
| 27 | St. Louis | 29.50 | 288,512 | $56,160 | 20.6% | 5.0% |
| 28 | Dexter | 31.50 | 7,891 | $51,701 | 17.0% | 1.4% |
| 29 | Grandview | 32.50 | 26,527 | $53,447 | 17.9% | 6.2% |
| 30 | Joplin | 33.50 | 52,593 | $52,097 | 16.9% | 5.3% |
| 31 | Monett | 33.50 | 9,873 | $49,390 | 15.2% | 3.9% |
| 32 | Clinton | 36.50 | 9,065 | $51,250 | 15.2% | 4.7% |
| 33 | Marshall | 37.00 | 13,739 | $54,437 | 17.1% | 4.1% |
| 34 | Ste. Genevieve | 37.00 | 5,010 | $48,097 | 12.8% | 5.3% |
| 35 | Pevely | 37.00 | 6,055 | $56,000 | 17.9% | 1.8% |
| 36 | Chillicothe | 39.50 | 8,923 | $54,493 | 16.8% | 3.6% |
| 37 | St. Robert | 40.00 | 5,356 | $62,641 | 19.2% | 4.3% |
| 38 | Farmington | 40.00 | 18,282 | $53,729 | 15.9% | 4.1% |
| 39 | Webb City | 40.00 | 13,221 | $65,469 | 20.5% | 4.3% |
| 40 | St. Joseph | 41.00 | 71,236 | $57,956 | 17.7% | 4.3% |
| 41 | Fulton | 41.50 | 12,617 | $51,429 | 13.9% | 9.5% |
| 42 | St. John | 42.50 | 6,527 | $53,755 | 15.4% | 6.3% |
| 43 | Waynesville | 43.00 | 5,442 | $56,836 | 16.5% | 5.1% |
| 44 | Hazelwood | 43.00 | 25,114 | $55,908 | 15.9% | 10.4% |
| 45 | Columbia | 43.50 | 128,548 | $66,498 | 19.3% | 4.0% |
| 46 | Park Hills | 44.00 | 8,678 | $52,563 | 14.4% | 5.9% |
| 47 | Warrensburg | 44.50 | 19,582 | $57,067 | 16.2% | 6.0% |
| 48 | St. Ann | 45.50 | 12,811 | $52,323 | 13.0% | 4.9% |
| 49 | De Soto | 45.75 | 6,470 | $52,500 | 13.1% | 4.4% |
| 50 | Richmond | 46.00 | 5,959 | $59,556 | 16.3% | 3.6% |
| 51 | Marshfield | 48.00 | 7,696 | $67,642 | 18.1% | 3.4% |
| 52 | Neosho | 48.00 | 13,224 | $57,891 | 15.2% | 4.5% |
| 53 | Independence | 48.50 | 121,740 | $60,339 | 15.8% | 5.6% |
| 54 | Republic | 49.50 | 19,829 | $65,729 | 17.7% | 1.9% |
| 55 | Boonville | 50.50 | 7,689 | $56,429 | 14.3% | 5.8% |
| 56 | Cameron | 51.00 | 8,519 | $61,791 | 15.7% | 5.4% |
| 57 | Warrenton | 53.00 | 9,066 | $61,031 | 14.6% | 4.7% |
| 58 | Sikeston | 53.50 | 16,320 | $58,915 | 14.2% | 3.5% |
| 59 | Festus | 56.00 | 13,201 | $73,532 | 17.1% | 6.6% |
| 60 | Kansas City | 61.50 | 510,612 | $69,166 | 14.6% | 4.4% |
| 61 | Macon | 61.50 | 5,466 | $61,642 | 10.5% | 1.8% |
| 62 | Excelsior Springs | 61.50 | 10,484 | $72,609 | 15.2% | 5.0% |
| 63 | Sullivan | 64.00 | 6,310 | $63,370 | 11.4% | 5.9% |
| 64 | Overland | 65.50 | 15,695 | $61,773 | 9.7% | 6.4% |
| 65 | Jefferson City | 65.50 | 42,488 | $66,371 | 12.0% | 3.2% |
| 66 | Florissant | 66.50 | 51,773 | $65,318 | 10.1% | 5.1% |
| 67 | Raytown | 67.00 | 29,445 | $68,840 | 12.5% | 5.6% |
| 68 | Bridgeton | 69.50 | 11,369 | $72,005 | 11.5% | 3.2% |
| 69 | Maplewood | 69.50 | 8,156 | $65,125 | 8.7% | 2.0% |
| 70 | Ozark | 70.00 | 22,417 | $74,182 | 12.6% | 4.3% |
| 71 | University City | 70.00 | 34,685 | $80,694 | 14.5% | 3.8% |
| 72 | Troy | 70.50 | 13,947 | $79,012 | 13.6% | 2.3% |
| 73 | Valley Park | 70.50 | 6,795 | $67,898 | 9.8% | 4.7% |
| 74 | Harrisonville | 72.00 | 9,970 | $62,473 | 7.2% | 6.2% |
| 75 | Belton | 73.00 | 25,008 | $69,226 | 9.7% | 4.8% |
| 76 | Gladstone | 76.00 | 27,207 | $79,271 | 11.0% | 3.3% |
| 77 | Oak Grove | 78.00 | 8,538 | $75,102 | 8.6% | 6.5% |
| 78 | Union | 78.50 | 12,781 | $73,435 | 8.1% | 3.7% |
| 79 | Jackson | 79.00 | 15,659 | $77,105 | 8.6% | 1.8% |
| 80 | Shrewsbury | 79.00 | 6,316 | $80,757 | 10.0% | 3.4% |
| 81 | Pacific | 80.00 | 7,475 | $62,860 | 5.5% | 1.8% |
| 82 | Arnold | 81.00 | 20,956 | $78,370 | 8.2% | 2.8% |
| 83 | Willard | 82.50 | 6,488 | $84,600 | 9.7% | 2.3% |
| 84 | Grain Valley | 84.00 | 16,271 | $89,649 | 9.7% | 1.8% |
| 85 | Carl Junction | 84.00 | 8,339 | $82,879 | 8.4% | 0.6% |
| 86 | Washington | 84.00 | 15,130 | $79,173 | 7.9% | 3.8% |
| 87 | Savannah | 85.50 | 5,053 | $62,535 | 4.4% | 2.4% |
| 88 | Nixa | 88.50 | 24,836 | $83,385 | 7.1% | 3.2% |
| 89 | St. Charles | 88.50 | 71,508 | $85,937 | 7.3% | 2.9% |
| 90 | Wright City | 90.00 | 5,240 | $80,152 | 5.8% | 4.0% |
| 91 | Blue Springs | 91.50 | 59,965 | $88,920 | 7.0% | 3.5% |
| 92 | Liberty | 91.50 | 30,689 | $88,542 | 7.0% | 4.5% |
| 93 | Black Jack | 93.50 | 6,589 | $78,331 | 5.0% | 6.0% |
| 94 | Manchester | 96.50 | 18,160 | $97,801 | 6.4% | 4.1% |
| 95 | St. Peters | 96.50 | 59,092 | $91,637 | 5.6% | 2.3% |
| 96 | Pleasant Hill | 97.50 | 8,847 | $95,602 | 6.0% | 5.2% |
| 97 | Herculaneum | 97.50 | 5,071 | $93,438 | 5.6% | 1.2% |
| 98 | Eureka | 97.50 | 13,081 | $108,394 | 7.9% | 3.4% |
| 99 | Odessa | 98.00 | 5,620 | $100,022 | 6.1% | 0.0% |
| 100 | Richmond Heights | 99.50 | 9,153 | $94,460 | 5.5% | 1.9% |
Source: U.S. Census ACS 2020-2024. 131 cities with more than 5,000 residents.
Summary
The poorest cities in Missouri for 2026
Like we said earlier, when we set out to identify the poorest places in Missouri, we weren’t sure what we’d encounter, but it ended up being some of the best places to live in Missouri.
When you look at the data, the cities and places mentioned above meet the criteria for being at the very bottom of the income ladder for everyone that lives there. Not sold on Missouri? Take the two-minute Find Your Place quiz and see which state actually fits you.
