Best PlacesBenton City, MO Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Benton City, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Benton City ranks 30,436th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on affordable childcare by a wide margin, and air quality ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Benton City
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.
Benton City's strengths and weaknesses
Where Benton City ranks high
- Cheap childcare$399 a month, better than 99% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 86% of towns
- Local economyBetter than 85% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 81% of towns
- Short commute21.8 minutes each way, better than 81% of towns
Where Benton City ranks low
- Air qualityBetter than only 1% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 5% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than only 7% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 14% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 16% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Benton City
A household needs to earn about $43,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Benton City home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $82,982, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.
Where the monthly payment goes
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 Benton City's effective rate of 0.75%, 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 8 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Benton City
Benton City runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Benton City.
Who works in Benton City, and how
Work in Benton City centers on agriculture & forestry and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 78%
- Work from home 18%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Benton City
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Benton City.
What the weather is like in Benton City, month by month
Benton City sees roughly 77 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 86 degrees. January highs sit near 37, with lows near 22. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 37° | 29° | 22° |
| April | 65° | 52° | 43° |
| July | 86° | 76° | 67° |
| October | 68° | 56° | 46° |
Flying in and out of Benton City
The nearest airport, Columbia Regional, is about 33 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is St Louis Lambert International, about 80 miles away.
The best schools in and around Benton City
Schools across Benton City average a C+, better than 41% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Community Elem.B · 50% proficient
- Hawthorne Elem.C · 32% proficient
- Wellsville-middletown Elem.C− · 28% proficient
Top middle schools
- Mexico MiddleC · 34% proficient
Top high schools
- Wellsville-middletown HsC · 32% proficient
- Mexico HighC− · 28% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Benton City school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Benton City 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 Benton City against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Benton City
Is Benton City a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Benton City ranks 30,436th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on affordable childcare, what local pay buys, and a strong job market, and lowest on air quality and tree cover. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Benton City expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $165,581. The overall cost of living runs about 22% below the national average. Set against a $82,982 median income, cost of living beats 86% of towns.
Is Benton City safe?
Benton City is safer than 16% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $565 per resident a year.
Compare Benton City with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Benton City. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Benton City 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.
Benton City detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Benton City: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Benton City: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Benton City: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Benton City: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Benton City detail on related sites:
- CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
- ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
- CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.
Federal and public data:
- 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.
- NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
- FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
- Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
- FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
- U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
- FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
- CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
- National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
- FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
- Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.
Your priorities
Move a slider to say how much a measure matters. Zero turns it off.