Kennett, Missouri

Area Profile

10,196 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Kennett, in Dunklin County.

49out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 11% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity3738th of 3,904 published cities26
Schools2002nd of 2,668 published cities32
Growth1841st of 2,973 published cities44
Housing affordabilityTop 8% of 4,223 published cities100
ClimateTop 46% of 4,223 published cities71
Physical resilience3194th of 4,182 published cities30
Access2302nd of 4,226 published cities91
Economic stability3985th of 4,226 published cities29
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published city profiles: unemployment is 5.3% and the Opportunity signal places Kennett in the bottom 4%.

Housing is more affordable relative to local incomes than in most published city profiles: rent takes 15% of median household income and the median home is 2.1 times it.

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

At a glance

Population
10,196
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$52,500
Bottom 27% nationally
Density
1,456/sq mi
7.0 sq mi of land
Median age
41.4
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Dunklin County
Missouri
Metro area
Kennett, MO
Nearest major airport
BYH
20 mi · Arkansas Intl
Median home value
$112,000
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 5.3% is lower than 16% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

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

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$13,654$52,500Bottom 27%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,239$26,543Bottom 25%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate19.1%Top 25%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute22.0 minBottom 25%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher15.6%Bottom 36%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment11,220Bottom 5%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-0.1%Top 50%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-2.1%Bottom 16%June 2026
Labor force11,846Bottom 5%June 2026
Labor force participation51.7%Bottom 25%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.4%Bottom 21%June 2026
Unemployment rate5.3%Top 16%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202453k50k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $52,500 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 Dunklin County, MO, which contains this city.

29% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 33% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 13.3 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
7
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
13.3
across all schools here
Math proficiency
29.2%
Bottom 24% in Missouri
Reading proficiency
33.3%
Bottom 16% in Missouri
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
KENNETT HIGHKENNETT 3949314.9
SOUTH ELEM.KENNETT 3942013.136%39%
H. BYRON MASTERSON ELEM.KENNETT 3941711.6
KENNETT MIDDLEKENNETT 3939213.122%27%
EARLY CHILDHOOD CTR.KENNETT 398517.0
DIAGNOSTIC CTR.KENNETT 390
KENNETT CAREER TECH. CTR.KENNETT 390

99.8% 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 $651 takes 15% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 2.1 times median household income here, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.

Rent as a share of income
14.9%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
2.1×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$651
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$112,000
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income2.13Bottom 27%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate57.9%Bottom 17%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±2324,888Top 12%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$123$651Bottom 11%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$15,892$112,000Bottom 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income14.9%Bottom 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate13.2%Top 39%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
44/ 100
Ranks 1841 of 2,973 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 3% since 2020, reaching 10,137 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 2.6 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
27
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
2.6
Top 46% nationally
Year over year
+4%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202410k10k
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
20222023202420252725
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, 24.0 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

30 / 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 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. 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 Kennett rather than Kennett 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 20 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Arkansas IntlBYH20 mi11,602 ft
Millington/MemphisNQA62 mi8,001 ft
Frederick W Smith Intl/MemphisMEM83 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
49
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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.

ZIP codes in Kennett

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
6385711,930$55,18849