64506St. Joseph, Missouri

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 64506.

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
OpportunityTop 30% of 6,210 ZIP areas measured65
Schools2458th of 4,422 ZIP areas measured47
Housing affordabilityTop 26% of 6,685 ZIP areas measured93
Climate4409th of 6,789 ZIP areas measured65
Physical resilienceTop 14% of 6,709 ZIP areas measured87
AccessTop 32% of 6,791 ZIP areas measured97
Economic stability5400th of 6,742 ZIP areas measured41
The quick read

Unemployment is 4.2% and median household income $65,573, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published ZIP profiles.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published ZIP profiles, placing 64506 in the top 14% for physical resilience.

A major airport is 6 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
21,461
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$65,573
Bottom 40% nationally
Density
2,141/sq mi
10.0 sq mi of land
Median age
40.6
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
St. Joseph
Missouri
Metro area
St. Joseph, MO-KS
Nearest major airport
STJ
6 mi · Rosecrans Meml
Median home value
$240,300
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.2% is lower than 60% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

Employment grew 0.4% over the past year, to 31,284 employed residents.

33% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 70% of measured US ZIP areas.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$4,992$65,573Bottom 40%of 31,2952024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,805$39,274Top 41%of 32,8222024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate13.0%Top 39%of 32,9702024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute18.1 minBottom 8%of 32,8872024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher32.6%Top 30%of 33,1932024 ACS 5-Year
Employment31,284Bottom 33%of 6,544June 2026
Employment change (3 years)3.0%Top 14%of 6,542June 2026
Employment change (year over year)0.4%Top 23%of 6,544June 2026
Labor force32,650Bottom 32%of 6,544June 2026
Labor force participation55.5%Bottom 32%of 33,2522024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$57,160Bottom 10%of 6,0722025 OEWS
Median annual wage$47,350Bottom 22%of 6,0722025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.3%Bottom 31%of 6,544June 2026
Unemployment rate4.2%Bottom 40%of 6,544June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202466k56k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $65,573 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.
Largest occupations — St. Joseph, MO-KS
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Home Health and Personal Care Aides1,760$31,250
General and Operations Managers1,510$74,570
Registered Nurses1,490$77,240
Miscellaneous Assemblers and Fabricators1,360$54,400
Cashiers1,330$29,920
Retail Salespersons1,310$31,770

Occupational employment and wages are published for metropolitan areas rather than for individual cities or ZIP areas, so these describe the wider labor market this location sits in. 2025 OEWS, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish labor-force data for ZIP areas. This is the figure for St. Joseph, MO, the city containing this ZIP code.

30% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 46% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 13.0 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
8
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
13.0
across all schools here
Math proficiency
29.6%
Bottom 32% in Missouri
Reading proficiency
46.0%
Bottom 48% in Missouri
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
BODE MIDDLEST. JOSEPH48811.927%47%
COLEMAN ELEM.ST. JOSEPH38812.521%37%
FIELD ELEM.ST. JOSEPH33616.043%55%
HILLYARD TECHNICAL CTR.ST. JOSEPH0
WESTERN RECEPT/DIAG CORR CENTRDEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS0
ALT. RESOURCE CTR.ST. JOSEPH0
WESTERN REGION TREATMENT CENTRDEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS0
BUCHANAN CO. ACADEMYST. JOSEPH0

62.9% 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 →

Prices for everything a household buys run about 12% below the national average, on the Bureau of Economic Analysis index. Housing drives most of that difference.

Median rent of $896 takes 16% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.7 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Cost of living
87.6

Prices here run about 12% below the national average. The spread between places is driven mostly by housing — goods vary far less — and this excludes taxes.

Rent as a share of income
16.4%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.7×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$896
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$240,300
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Cost of living index87.6Bottom 3%of 6,0712023
Home price to income3.66Top 35%of 30,4042024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate60.8%Bottom 17%of 32,9102024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±4129,863Top 17%of 33,7722024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$42$896Bottom 37%of 26,6182024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$8,059$240,300Top 44%of 30,9412024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income16.4%Bottom 41%of 26,4702024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate9.8%Bottom 45%of 33,0282024 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

6 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 88°F and January a low of 17°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 34.8 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 44, in the Good band, and no day in the year passed 100.

10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station ST JOSEPH ROSECRANS AP, 6.5 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.9"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index58.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation34.8"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low17°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high88°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months61991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10002024 calendar year
Median air quality index44.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing50°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
44
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
58
90th percentile index
Days above 100
0
unhealthy for sensitive groups

A comfortable median and a bad tail are different problems. Wildfire smoke and summer ozone show up in the worst tenth of days, not in the middle of the year.

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. Air quality is measured rather than modelled, by EPA monitors, and published by county only where a monitor sits — roughly half the counties AreaProfile publishes have one, and the rest show nothing rather than an estimate. Air masses are regional, so a county reading describes the air over a place reasonably well, but it is still the county reading.

Physical risk

87 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are tornado, heat wave and hail.

TornadoModerate
HailModerate
Heat waveModerate
LightningModerate
DroughtModerate

Low or minimal exposure: cold wave, strong wind, landslide, winter weather, ice storm, inland flooding, wildfire, earthquake.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. ZIP values are the land-area-weighted mean of the counties the ZIP Code Tabulation Area intersects. Expected annual loss is not allocated below county level. 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.

Buchanan County records 2.6 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 16.9 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 20.5 per 100,000 residents in Buchanan County.

Homicide
2.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
16.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
20.5
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
19.3
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 Buchanan 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 64506 rather than 64506 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

3 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 6 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Rosecrans MemlSTJ6 mi8,061 ft
Kansas City IntlMCI34 mi10,801 ft
Topeka RgnlFOE74 mi12,803 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)
HousingU.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis
Regional price parities and county personal income
2023Annually, each December
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
2025 OEWSAnnual (spring release)
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)
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
ClimateU.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Air Quality System
Daily Air Quality Index by county
2024 calendar yearAnnually, once a calendar year is complete

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.

64506 vs St. Joseph

How this ZIP area compares with St. Joseph as a whole. Both figures come from the same ACS release, so the comparison is like for like.

64506
St. Joseph
Median household income
$65,573
vs
$57,956
Per capita income
$39,274
vs
$32,547
Population density
2,141/sq mi
vs
1,618/sq mi
Median home value
$240,300
vs
$154,200
Median gross rent
$896
vs
$898
Homeownership rate
60.8%
vs
62.8%
Bachelor's degree or higher
32.6%
vs
23.0%
Poverty rate
13.0%
vs
17.7%
Median age
40.6
vs
38.1

Some demographic statistics use Census ZIP Code Tabulation Areas, which approximate but do not exactly match USPS ZIP delivery geography. See the methodology for how AreaProfile maps between them.