Dunklin County, MO

County Profile

27,493 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Dunklin County, MO.

Several figures AreaProfile publishes are measured by county and nowhere finer — death rates by intent among them. On this page those describe the geography they are printed on, which is not true of the city and ZIP pages that inherit them.

44out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 4% of 1,225 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity1232nd of 1,255 counties18
Schools838th of 973 counties21
Growth1039th of 1,226 counties30
Housing affordabilityTop 22% of 1,255 counties100
ClimateTop 39% of 1,254 counties71
Physical resilience1031st of 1,255 counties32
AccessTop 19% of 1,255 counties94
Economic stability1190th of 1,255 counties23
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published profiles: unemployment is 5.3% and the Opportunity signal places Dunklin County in the bottom 2%.

Physical-risk exposure is above the national median, driven mainly by earthquake, tornado and drought.

A major airport is 15 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
27,493
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$47,849
Bottom 11% nationally
Density
51/sq mi
541.9 sq mi of land
Median age
39.7
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Dunklin County
Missouri
Metro area
Kennett, MO
Nearest major airport
BYH
15 mi · Arkansas Intl
Median home value
$97,600
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 5.3% is lower than 15% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment fell 2.1% over the past year, to 11,220 employed residents.

Median household income of $47,849 is below 89% of measured US locations.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$4,146$47,849Bottom 11%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,398$26,244Bottom 11%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate22.0%Top 12%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute25.3 minBottom 47%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher13.2%Bottom 7%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment11,220Bottom 6%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-0.1%Bottom 45%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-2.1%Bottom 17%June 2026
Labor force11,846Bottom 6%June 2026
Labor force participation53.2%Bottom 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.4%Bottom 21%June 2026
Unemployment rate5.3%Top 15%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/066.22.9
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 5.3% in June 2026. A break in the line is a month the Bureau of Labor Statistics did not publish for this area — it is left empty rather than estimated.
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202448k42k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $47,849 in the 2024 ACS 5-Year. Consecutive releases share four years of sample, so AreaProfile shows them as a record of successive estimates and does not compute a year-over-year change from them.

25% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 31% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 12.4 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
21
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
12.4
across all schools here
Math proficiency
24.5%
Bottom 6% in Missouri
Reading proficiency
31.5%
Bottom 3% in Missouri
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
KENNETT HIGHKENNETT 3949314.9
MALDEN LOWER ELEM.MALDEN R-I42412.127%35%
SOUTH ELEM.KENNETT 3942013.136%39%
H. BYRON MASTERSON ELEM.KENNETT 3941711.6
KENNETT MIDDLEKENNETT 3939213.122%27%
MALDEN HIGHMALDEN R-I38310.98%32%
CAMPBELL ELEM.CAMPBELL R-II31212.529%27%
SENATH-HORNERSVILLE ELEM SCHSENATH-HORNERSVILLE C-829213.353%49%
HOLCOMB ELEM.HOLCOMB R-III23511.222%42%
CAMPBELL HIGHCAMPBELL R-II23512.435%25%
SENATH-HORNERSVILLE MIDDLE SCHSENATH-HORNERSVILLE C-821111.119%34%
SENATH-HORNERSVILLE HIGH SCHOOSENATH-HORNERSVILLE C-820512.8

99.7% of students here are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. That describes the circumstances families arrive with rather than how the schools perform, which is why AreaProfile shows it and does not score it.

Public schools only, from the NCES Common Core of Data. Schools are placed by ZIP code, so this is which schools are in this place rather than which one a particular address is zoned for — district boundaries do not follow municipal ones, and enrollment zones change. Fully virtual schools are excluded: they enroll students from across the state while reporting one administrative address, and counting them here would describe a school population this place does not have. The assessment covers grades 3 through 8, so a high school shows no proficiency figure — a dash in those columns means the test was not given at that school, not that it performed badly. Proficiency is measured against Missouri’s own standard, so it compares cleanly within the state and only broadly against other states; AreaProfile therefore ranks it within state. The directory is current, while the proficiency figures are from the last school year with national coverage before the pandemic interrupted testing.

Housing & affordability

How it’s calculated →

Median rent of $648 takes 16% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 2.0 times median household income here, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.

Rent as a share of income
16.3%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
2.0×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$648
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$97,600
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income2.04Bottom 12%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate62.3%Bottom 10%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±3913,447Top 48%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$30$648Bottom 8%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$5,381$97,600Bottom 6%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income16.3%Bottom 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate16.3%Top 41%2024 ACS 5-Year

Both affordability measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with, so the comparison is like for like. They describe housing cost against local earnings and are not a cost-of-living index — transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not included, and a place can look affordable here and still be expensive to live in for reasons this does not capture.

Growth & development

How it’s calculated →
Development Momentum
30/ 100
Ranks 1039 of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is decreasing, measured from 2022 to 2025.

An AreaProfile calculation combining permit volume per resident, its direction over one and three years, population change and employment growth. Permit volume alone is not the measure.

Population has fallen 4% since 2020, reaching 27,002 in 2024.

Permitting has turned downward after moving the other way the year before.

New construction is predominantly single-family: only 0% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 1.0 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
28
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
1.0
Bottom 16% nationally
Year over year
+4%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202428k27k
Census Population Estimates Program, July 1 of each year. These annual estimates are designed for year-over-year comparison, unlike the ACS five-year figure shown as this profile's population.
Housing units permitted per year
20222023202420253026
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was close to 2022 (−4%).

Weather & climate

6 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 91°F and January a low of 31°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 43.0 inches.

20°40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station BLYTHEVILLE MUNI AP, 19.6 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.9"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation43.0"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low31°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high91°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months61991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing42°F1991-2020 Normals

Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. They describe what a typical year looks like rather than what the weather is doing today.

Physical risk

32 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are earthquake, tornado and drought.

EarthquakeElevated
Ice stormElevated
DroughtElevated
Winter weatherModerate
TornadoHigh
Strong windModerate
Cold waveModerate
LandslideModerate

Low or minimal exposure: heat wave, lightning, hurricane, inland flooding, hail, wildfire.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA National Risk Index county record. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.

These are deaths, not offences. AreaProfile does not publish reported crime, and this is not a substitute for it — it says nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Dunklin County records 5.4 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, near the middle of counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 15.5 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 11.8 per 100,000 residents in Dunklin County.

Homicide
5.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
15.5
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
11.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
16.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths

Firearm deaths count every intent together, and nationally the majority are suicides rather than homicides. The two columns overlap and should not be added.

Age-adjusted rates from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC for Dunklin County as a whole — these rates are not published below county level. A county can hold both a dense city centre and a suburb whose experience of it is nothing alike, so this describes the county around Dunklin County rather than Dunklin County itself. That is why AreaProfile shows these figures and does not put them in the Area Score. Where fewer than ten deaths were recorded the count is suppressed at source, and a rate built on single figures moves sharply between releases. What this measure has that reported crime does not: a death certificate is filed whether or not the local police agency submitted a return that year, so the figures stay comparable between places and over time.

What this profile does not cover

Three things people look for are missing from every AreaProfile page, and each is missing for a reason rather than by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them and the weighting is documented on the methodology page.

Reported crime
The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer is the only source for reported offences with national coverage and a published method, and it requires an API key AreaProfile does not hold. Arrest counts, news volume and commercial “safety scores” are not substituted in the meantime. What is published above under Safety is a different measurement — deaths rather than offences, from death certificates rather than police returns — and it covers no property crime at all.
Taxes
No tax dataset has met the source admission test for coverage, transparent methodology and update cadence. Nothing here is individualized tax advice.
Full cost of living
No public source publishes one with national coverage and a documented method. Housing affordability above is computed from published rent, price and income, and excludes transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes — commuting cost in particular tends to offset suburban housing savings.

Access

3 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 15 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Arkansas IntlBYH15 mi11,602 ft
Millington/MemphisNQA56 mi8,001 ft
Frederick W Smith Intl/MemphisMEM77 mi11,120 ft

Airport identity, position and runway data come from the FAA. “Major airport” is an AreaProfile classification — a public-use civil airport with a paved runway of at least 8,000 feet — not an FAA hub designation. Distances are straight-line, not driving distance.

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Area Score
44
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Data & methodology

Used forSourceSource periodUpdated
AccessFederal Aviation Administration
Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service
NASR current cycle28-day NASR cycle
Physical riskFederal Emergency Management Agency
National Risk Index
National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0)Periodic dataset versions (v1.20.0 current)
ClimateNOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly)
1991-2020 NormalsEvery ten years (next release follows the 2001–2030 period)
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Local Area Unemployment Statistics
June 2026Monthly
DemographicsU.S. Census Bureau
Population Estimates Program
July 1, 2024 estimateAnnual (vintage released each spring)
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month
Demographics, Housing, Income, JobsU.S. Census Bureau
American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File)
2024 ACS 5-YearAnnual (5-year estimates released each December)
safetyU.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics
Provisional county-level mortality by intent
April, 2025 to March, 2026Quarterly, with a rolling twelve-month window alongside complete calendar years
schoolsU.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics
Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments
2019-20 school year; 2024-25 school yearDirectory annually; assessment results as EDFacts releases them

Profile recalculated August 30, 2026. Recalculation is not the same as new source data — each figure above shows the period its source actually covers. Read the full methodology or browse every source.

Cities in Dunklin County, MO