Randolph County, MO

County Profile

24,365 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Randolph 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.

64out of 100
Area Score
Top 45% of 1,225 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity799th of 1,255 counties49
SchoolsTop 33% of 973 counties64
GrowthTop 32% of 1,226 counties59
Housing affordabilityTop 23% of 1,255 counties100
Climate697th of 1,254 counties66
Physical resilienceTop 23% of 1,255 counties79
Access1239th of 1,255 counties1
Economic stability967th of 1,255 counties43
The quick read

Development activity is both elevated and accelerating — 105 housing units permitted over the past twelve months, up 708% on the prior year.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published profiles, placing Randolph County in the top 23% for physical resilience.

The nearest major airport is 119 miles away, which is farther than most measured US locations.

At a glance

Population
24,365
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$53,033
Bottom 19% nationally
Density
50/sq mi
482.7 sq mi of land
Median age
40.0
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Randolph County
Missouri
Metro area
Moberly, MO
Nearest major airport
MCI
119 mi · Kansas City Intl
Median home value
$159,300
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.7% is lower than 70% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment grew 0.8% over the past year, to 10,609 employed residents.

Median household income of $53,033 is below 81% of measured US locations.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$6,062$53,033Bottom 19%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,598$28,481Bottom 18%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate13.9%Top 47%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute22.8 minBottom 30%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher18.4%Bottom 29%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment10,609Bottom 5%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-2.1%Bottom 21%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)0.8%Top 18%June 2026
Labor force11,015Bottom 5%June 2026
Labor force participation56.1%Bottom 37%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.5%Bottom 16%June 2026
Unemployment rate3.7%Bottom 30%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/064.21.9
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 3.7% 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
202120222023202455k51k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $53,033 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.

42% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 42% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 11.2 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
16
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
11.2
across all schools here
Math proficiency
41.8%
Top 17% in Missouri
Reading proficiency
41.7%
Bottom 23% in Missouri
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
MOBERLY SR. HIGHMOBERLY65515.2
MOBERLY MIDDLEMOBERLY44011.352%42%
GRATZ BROWN ELEM.MOBERLY3989.928%27%
WESTRAN ELEM.WESTRAN R-I28010.047%44%
SOUTH PARK ELEM.MOBERLY22912.1
NORTH PARK ELEM.MOBERLY21412.6
WESTRAN HIGHWESTRAN R-I1849.7
EARLY CHILDHOOD LEARNING CNTRMOBERLY16615.1
NORTHEAST HIGHNORTHEAST RANDOLPH CO. R-IV1649.645%55%
NORTHEAST ELEM.NORTHEAST RANDOLPH CO. R-IV15811.352%64%
WESTRAN MIDDLEWESTRAN R-I1299.955%55%
HIGBEE HIGHHIGBEE R-VIII1249.5

54.2% 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 $760 takes 17% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.0 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
17.2%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.0×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$760
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$159,300
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.00Top 48%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate71.4%Bottom 35%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±3610,862Bottom 46%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$53$760Bottom 25%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$7,534$159,300Bottom 37%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income17.2%Top 47%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate14.9%Top 47%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
59/ 100
Top 32% of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing, 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 2% since 2020, reaching 24,077 in 2024.

Permitting has turned upward 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 4.3 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
105
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
4.3
Top 35% nationally
Year over year
+708%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202425k24k
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
20222023202420258925
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2022 (+197%).

Weather & climate

6 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 87°F and January a low of 19°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 42.7 inches, including 15.1 inches of snow.

10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station MOBERLY, 3.3 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND5.2"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation42.7"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall15.1"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low19°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high87°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months61991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing49°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

79 / 100
Physical resilience

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

EarthquakeModerate

Low or minimal exposure: heat wave, landslide, tornado, cold wave, lightning, drought, hail, wildfire, ice storm, inland flooding, strong wind, hurricane, winter weather.

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.

Randolph County records 4.9 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 16.6 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 8.6 per 100,000 residents in Randolph County.

Homicide
4.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
16.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
8.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
18.1
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 Randolph 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 Randolph County rather than Randolph 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

No airport meeting the AreaProfile major-airport definition lies within 100 miles; the nearest is 119 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Kansas City IntlMCI119 mi10,801 ft
St Louis Lambert IntlSTL123 mi11,020 ft
Rosecrans MemlSTJ131 mi8,061 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
64
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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 Randolph County, MO