Best PlacesHenry County, MO Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in Henry County, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. This page is for people who live here or already know they want to. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.

See the map of best neighborhoods

Henry County ranks 2,133rd of 3,144 U.S. counties on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on affordable childcare by a wide margin, and the weather ranks lowest.

#2,133
of 3,144 counties
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 3,144 counties
Your rank
Set your priorities to see your rank

The best neighborhoods in Henry County

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Henry County 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.

Henry County's strengths and weaknesses

Top 3%Affordable childcare
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Henry County with other counties.

Where Henry County ranks high

  • Cheap childcare$416 a month, better than 98% of counties
  • Disaster safetyBetter than 88% of counties
  • Local economyBetter than 88% of counties
  • Voter turnoutBetter than 80% of counties
  • Short commute21.7 minutes each way, better than 68% of counties

Where Henry County ranks low

  • Nice weatherabout 55 pleasant days a year, better than only 2% of counties
  • Housing crash safetyBetter than only 13% of counties
  • Health outlookBetter than only 16% of counties
  • Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 25% of counties
  • Household income$60,576 median, better than only 27% of counties

What it costs to buy a home in Henry County

A household needs to earn about $44,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Henry County home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $60,576, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$44,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$1,023
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $171,113 home
Median rent
$791
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$872
Property tax$93
Homeowners insurance$57

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 Henry County's effective rate of 0.65%, 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 7 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 Henry County

Henry County runs older than the country.

Median age
44
older than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
23%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.4
below the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1822%
18 to 3418%
35 to 4918%
50 to 6419%
65 and older23%

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


Who works in Henry County, and how

Work in Henry County centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.

Work from home
9%
below the national average
Unemployment
3.7%
below the national average
Job growth
+3.8%
/y 2019-2023, faster than the national pace

Largest industries

Health care & social19%
Retail trade14%
Construction12%
Manufacturing9%
Education8%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 87%
  • Work from home 9%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 4%

Life in Henry County

Henry County has more parkland per resident than 75% of counties. That concentrates in some parts of Henry County and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
97
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 44.2 per 10,000 residents, more than 46% of counties
Coffee shops
10
about 4.6 per 10,000 residents, more than 42% of counties
Parkland
160 acres
about 7.3 acres per 1,000 residents, more than 75% of counties

Is Henry County growing, and who is moving in?

Henry County has grown about 2% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Kansas City, MO.

Population growth
+2%
over the decade, vs about 6% nationally
Population
22,575
up from 22,048
Population by year. Source: U.S. Census Population Estimates Program.

Where new residents come from

Kansas City, MO519 / yr
St. Clair County, MO183 / yr
Bloomington, IN85 / yr
Harrison County, MO83 / yr
Benton County, MO75 / yr

Where people leaving Henry County go

Kansas City, MO243 / yr
Springfield, MO168 / yr
Hickory County, MO162 / yr
Jacksonville, FL135 / yr
Grimes County, TX91 / yr

Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.


What the weather is like in Henry County, month by month

Henry County sees roughly 55 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 89 degrees. January highs sit near 42, with lows near 24. 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
January42°32°24°
April68°56°45°
July89°78°69°
October71°58°48°

Flying in and out of Henry County

Kansas City International sits about 82 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 5.7 million passengers in 2025, with 104 nonstop destinations.

Nearest airport
MCI
Kansas City International, about 82 miles
Airport size
Medium hub
40th-busiest in the US, 104 nonstop destinations
Average drive
117 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Henry County

Schools across Henry County average a C, better than 35% of counties.

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 Henry County school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Henry County 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 Henry County against the other 3,143 counties.


Who Henry County suits

Families

Schools land around the 35th percentile.

See the families priority ↑

Remote workers

9% already work from home.

See the remote-work priority ↑

Retirees

Health care access beats 60%.

See the retirees priority ↑


Common questions about living in Henry County

Is Henry County a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Henry County ranks 2,133rd of 3,144 counties. It scores highest on affordable childcare, low disaster risk, and a strong job market, and lowest on the weather and an overheated housing market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Henry County expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $171,113. The overall cost of living runs about 21% below the national average. Set against a $60,576 median income, cost of living beats 42% of counties.

Is Henry County safe?

Henry County is safer than 51% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $409 per resident a year.

What is the weather like in Henry County?

July highs average about 89 degrees, and January highs near 42 with lows near 24. That works out to about 55 pleasant days a year, more than 2% of counties.

Is Henry County good for families?

Schools beat 35% of counties, crime safety beats 51%, and childcare runs $416 a month.


Compare Henry County with other counties


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Henry County. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Henry County 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.

Henry County detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

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

Henry County 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. U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
  3. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  4. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  5. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  6. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  7. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  8. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  9. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  10. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  11. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  12. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  13. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.