Best Places64834, MO Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood inside ZIP code 64834, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Costs and crime both read low, and the nearest big city is a drive away. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.

See the map of best neighborhoods

64834 ranks 7,264th of 33,110 U.S. zip codes on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on affordable childcare by a wide margin, and air quality ranks lowest.

#7,264
of 33,110 zip codes
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 33,110 zip codes
Your rank
Set your priorities to see your rank

The best neighborhoods in 64834

Map of the best neighborhoods in the 64834 area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
Colorblind friendly off
Popular priorities:

BestNeighborhood is the only ranking that scores 40 measures of daily life neighborhood by neighborhood and lets you re-weight every one of them yourself.

64834's strengths and weaknesses

Top 1%Affordable childcare
Top 5%A strong job market
Top 10%Civic engagement
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare 64834 with other zip codes.

Where 64834 ranks high

  • Cheap childcare$381 a month, better than 99% of zip codes
  • Local economyBetter than 96% of zip codes
  • Voter turnoutBetter than 92% of zip codes
  • Crime safetyBetter than 88% of zip codes
  • Educational attainmentBetter than 83% of zip codes

Where 64834 ranks low

  • Air qualityBetter than only 13% of zip codes
  • Big-city accessBetter than only 22% of zip codes
  • Internet speedBetter than only 24% of zip codes
  • Heat safetyBetter than only 30% of zip codes
  • QuietBetter than only 32% of zip codes

What it costs to buy a home in 64834

A household needs to earn about $59,000 a year to comfortably buy the median 64834 home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $83,062, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$59,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$1,384
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $226,273 home
Median rent
$1,181
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$1,154
Property tax$155
Homeowners insurance$75

Assumes a 20% down payment, a 6.6% 30-year fixed rate, and a 28% share of income going to the payment. The rate is the 2026-07-23 30-year fixed average, series MORTGAGE30US from the St. Louis Fed, which publishes Freddie Mac's weekly survey. Against the median home value, property tax uses 64834's effective rate of 0.82%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.

Renting versus buying

At today's prices, buying tends to cost more than renting for about the first 6 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.

Cumulative cost of renting versus owning the median home, first 10 years. Illustrative estimate.

Who lives in 64834

64834 runs younger than the country.

Median age
38
younger than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
14%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.7
near the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1828%
18 to 3420%
35 to 4919%
50 to 6419%
65 and older14%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for 64834.


Who works in 64834, and how

Work in 64834 centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.

Work from home
9%
below the national average
Unemployment
0.7%
below the national average
Job growth
+8.8%
/y 2019-2023, faster than the national pace

Largest industries

Manufacturing19%
Health care & social16%
Retail trade11%
Education10%
Public administration5%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 89%
  • Work from home 9%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 2%

Life in 64834

64834 has more restaurants and bars per resident than 87% of zip codes. That concentrates in some parts of 64834 and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
97
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 94.9 per 10,000 residents, more than 87% of zip codes
Coffee shops
15
about 14.7 per 10,000 residents, more than 89% of zip codes

What the weather is like in 64834, month by month

64834 sees roughly 76 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 92 degrees. January highs sit near 47, with lows near 27. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, September, and October.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January47°35°27°
April71°58°48°
July92°81°71°
October73°61°51°

Flying in and out of 64834

The nearest airport, Joplin Regional, is about 3 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Kansas City International, about 148 miles away.

Nearest airport
JLN
Joplin Regional, about 3 miles
Airport size
Nonhub
334th-busiest in the US, 2 nonstop destinations
Average drive
8 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around 64834

Schools across 64834 average a B+, better than 70% of zip codes.

Top elementary schools

Top middle schools

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every 64834 school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


64834 measure by measure

Cards are ordered by how much each measure matters to you, so the ones you weighted highest come first. Expand to see every measure. Percentages compare 64834 against the other 33,109 zip codes.


Common questions about living in 64834

Is 64834 a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, 64834 ranks 7,264th of 33,110 zip codes. It scores highest on affordable childcare, a strong job market, and civic engagement, and lowest on air quality and distance from a big city. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is 64834 expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $226,273. The overall cost of living runs about 20% below the national average. Set against a $83,062 median income, cost of living beats 81% of zip codes.

Is 64834 safe?

Yes, 64834 is safer than 88% of zip codes. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $239 per resident a year.


Compare 64834 with other zip codes


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to 64834. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in 64834 represents the same real quantity as a 60 anywhere else, and the ranking is a weighted average of those absolutes. The map colors come from a national scale calibrated against a population weighted random sample of 5,000 neighborhoods. That absolute scoring is what no other places-to-live ranking does: it puts a single neighborhood, a town, a metro, and a state on one scale, so the same 40 measures answer both which metro to move to and which street inside it to buy on. Read the full methodology.

64834 detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for 64834: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in 64834: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of 64834: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in 64834: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

64834 detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey: income, home value, rent, vacancy, commute time and mode, educational attainment, home age, age structure, household type, industry, and race.
  2. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  3. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  4. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  5. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  6. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  7. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  8. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  9. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  10. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  11. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  12. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.