Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri

Area Profile

15,432 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Fort Leonard Wood, in Pulaski County.

Area Score unavailable

Missing required signal: growth. AreaProfile withholds a score rather than inferring the missing dimensions.

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity3268th of 3,904 cities measured39
SchoolsTop 22% of 2,668 cities measured73
Housing affordabilityTop 46% of 4,223 cities measured83
ClimateTop 45% of 4,223 cities measured71
Physical resilienceTop 48% of 4,182 cities measured61
Access4090th of 4,226 cities measured47
Economic stabilityTop 42% of 4,226 cities measured64
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published city profiles: unemployment is 4.5% and the Opportunity signal places Fort Leonard Wood in the bottom 16%.

In the public schools here, 56% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 16.8 students for every teacher.

Rent takes 22% of median household income here, below the 30% threshold conventionally called cost-burdened.

At a glance

Population
15,432
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$67,772
Top 49% nationally
Density
670/sq mi
23.0 sq mi of land
Median age
20.5
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Pulaski County
Missouri
Metro area
Fort Leonard Wood, MO
Nearest major airport
SGF
78 mi · Springfield-Branson Ntl
Median home value

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.5% is lower than 43% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 1.7% over the past year, to 18,405 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$6,063$67,772Top 49%of 29,5732024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,707$22,659Bottom 14%of 31,4202024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate7.2%Bottom 34%of 31,9002024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute10.9 minBottom 2%of 31,5432024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher25.5%Top 38%of 31,9192024 ACS 5-Year
Employment18,405Bottom 22%of 3,904June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-3.0%Bottom 11%of 3,903June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.7%Bottom 25%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force19,269Bottom 22%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force participation82.1%Top 3%of 31,9332024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.3%Bottom 30%of 3,904June 2026
Unemployment rate4.5%Top 43%of 3,904June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202469k62k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $67,772 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.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes city-level labor data only for places of 25,000 or more. This is the figure for Pulaski County, MO, which contains this city.

56% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 55% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 16.8 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
4
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
16.8
across all schools here
Math proficiency
55.8%
Top 8% in Missouri
Reading proficiency
55.3%
Top 30% in Missouri
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
PARTRIDGE ELEM.WAYNESVILLE R-VI37518.844%44%
WOOD ELEM.WAYNESVILLE R-VI29516.456%58%
WILLIAMS EARLY CHILDHOOD CTRWAYNESVILLE R-VI29417.3
THAYER ELEM.WAYNESVILLE R-VI24214.274%68%

44.2% 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 $1,250 takes 22% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

Rent as a share of income
22.1%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,250
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Homeownership rate0.0%Bottom 1%of 31,8432024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±2932,507Top 19%of 32,3302024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$54$1,250Top 30%of 23,4322024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income22.1%Top 29%of 23,2012024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate26.0%Top 16%of 32,0012024 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 →

No building-permit activity is published for this location by the Census Building Permits Survey.

Weather & climate

7 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 21°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 44.0 inches.

10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station SALEM 10 W, 23.7 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND5.3"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation44.0"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low21°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high87°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months71991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing44°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

61 / 100
Physical resilience

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

Ice stormModerate
LandslideModerate
Winter weatherModerate
EarthquakeElevated
TornadoModerate

Low or minimal exposure: heat wave, cold wave, lightning, strong wind, wildfire, inland flooding, hail, drought, hurricane.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. City values are the population-weighted mean of the counties the city overlaps, using AreaProfile place-to-county land-area weights. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.

These are deaths, not offences — they say nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Pulaski County records 4.0 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 15.0 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 20.4 per 100,000 residents in Pulaski County.

Homicide
4.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
15.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
20.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
17.4
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 Pulaski 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 Fort Leonard Wood rather than Fort Leonard Wood 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
Offences reported to police are published by department rather than by town, and only where a department reported every month of the year. No municipal department reports for this place — many smaller communities are policed by the county — so there is no figure to show. A partial year is never scaled up to look complete, and arrest counts or news volume are never substituted for it.
Taxes
Taxes are not published: no source covers them nationally with a method open enough to check. Cost of living now is — the index above is the Bureau of Economic Analysis price parity for this area — but it is a price level for all consumption rather than a budget for a household, its spread is driven mostly by housing, and it excludes taxes. Housing affordability is computed separately from rent, price and income, because that answers a narrower and more actionable question. Nothing here is individualised tax advice.
Anything about a specific address
Every figure describes an area, not a street or a house. School attendance zones, insurance pricing and the character of a neighbourhood all vary within the places measured here.

Access

1 major airport lies within 100 miles, the nearest 78 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Springfield-Branson NtlSGF78 mi8,000 ft
St Louis Lambert IntlSTL117 mi11,020 ft
St Louis RgnlALN137 mi8,099 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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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
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.

ZIP codes in Fort Leonard Wood

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
6547315,438$67,690