Best PlacesJasper County, MO Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in Jasper 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

Jasper County ranks 1,901st of 3,144 U.S. counties on the BestNeighborhood index. It does not top any single list, but it lands above the national middle on affordable childcare and cell coverage. The weaker spots are noise, air quality, and car insurance costs.

#1,901
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 Jasper County

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Jasper 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.

The best areas in Jasper County

The parts of Jasper County, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the county.

#1

Oronogo

It is quieter, fewer homes sit empty, and local pay stretches further.

WorseBetter
54th nationally
#2

Carl Junction

More adults hold degrees and incomes run higher.

WorseBetter
49th nationally
#3

Webb City

More households have young kids.

WorseBetter
40th nationally
#4

Duquesne

Commutes are shorter, though crime runs higher.

WorseBetter
25th nationally
#5

Carthage

Fewer residents vote and health care is harder to reach.

WorseBetter
19th nationally
#6

Joplin

Streets are more walkable, though tree cover is thinner.

WorseBetter
18th nationally

Scores across Jasper County run from about the 1st to the 83rd percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.


Jasper County's strengths and weaknesses

Top 1%Affordable childcare

Jasper County lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Affordable childcare is the standout, in the top 1% of counties. Cell coverage and short commutes follow.

The drawbacks are real but narrow. Noise, air quality, and car insurance costs hold the score down. That varies block to block rather than evenly, and the map below shows where.

Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Jasper County with other counties.

Where Jasper County ranks high

  • Cheap childcare$381 a month, better than 99% of counties
  • Cell coverageBetter than 85% of counties
  • Short commute19.6 minutes each way, better than 81% of counties
  • WalkabilityBetter than 75% of counties
  • Low vacancyBetter than 73% of counties

Where Jasper County ranks low

  • QuietBetter than only 6% of counties
  • Air qualityBetter than only 14% of counties
  • Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 25% of counties
  • Heat safetyBetter than only 27% of counties
  • Voter turnoutBetter than only 28% of counties

What it costs to buy a home in Jasper County

A household needs to earn about $46,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Jasper County home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $64,204, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$46,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$1,069
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $178,085 home
Median rent
$986
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$908
Property tax$102
Homeowners insurance$59

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 Jasper County's effective rate of 0.69%, 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 Jasper County

Jasper County runs younger than the country.

Median age
38
younger than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
16%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.5
near the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1824%
18 to 3423%
35 to 4919%
50 to 6418%
65 and older16%

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


Who works in Jasper County, and how

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

Work from home
10%
below the national average
Unemployment
3.7%
below the national average
Job growth
+3.1%
/y 2019-2023, faster than the national pace

Largest industries

Health care & social16%
Manufacturing15%
Retail trade13%
Education9%
Hospitality & food7%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 87%
  • Work from home 10%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 4%

Life in Jasper County

Jasper County has more restaurants and bars per resident than 76% of counties and more parkland per resident than 88% of counties. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Jasper County and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
843
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 68.7 per 10,000 residents, more than 76% of counties
Coffee shops
100
about 8.1 per 10,000 residents, more than 73% of counties
Parkland
1,262 acres
about 10.3 acres per 1,000 residents, more than 88% of counties
Open past 10pm
~83
food and drink venues open late, about 6.8 per 10,000 residents, more than 50% of counties
Living on campus
1,083
students living in college or university housing

Is Jasper County growing, and who is moving in?

Jasper County has grown about 7% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from the rest of the Joplin, MO metro.

Population growth
+7%
over the decade, vs about 6% nationally
Population
126,479
up from 117,742
Population by year. Source: U.S. Census Population Estimates Program.

Where new residents come from

The rest of the Joplin, MO metro1,273 / yr
Kansas City, MO747 / yr
Fayetteville, AR287 / yr
Springfield, MO257 / yr
Orleans County, VT251 / yr

Where people leaving Jasper County go

The rest of the Joplin, MO metro1,957 / yr
Kansas City, MO623 / yr
Charlotte, NC513 / yr
Crawford County, KS334 / yr
Springfield, MO248 / yr

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


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

Jasper County sees roughly 75 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 Jasper County

The nearest airport, Joplin Regional, is about 3 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Kansas City International, about 150 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 Jasper County

Schools across Jasper County average a C+, better than 49% 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 Jasper County school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Jasper 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 Jasper County against the other 3,143 counties.


Who Jasper County suits

Families

Schools land around the 49th percentile.

See the families priority ↑

Remote workers

10% already work from home.

See the remote-work priority ↑

Retirees

Set weather, quiet, and health care weights on the map to test the fit.

See the retirees priority ↑


Common questions about living in Jasper County

Is Jasper County a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Jasper County ranks 1,901st of 3,144 counties. It scores highest on affordable childcare, cell coverage, and short commutes, and lowest on noise and air quality. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Jasper County expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $178,085. The overall cost of living runs about 22% below the national average. Set against a $64,204 median income, cost of living beats 54% of counties.

Is Jasper County safe?

Jasper County is safer than 41% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $457 per resident a year.

What is the weather like in Jasper County?

July highs average about 92 degrees, and January highs near 47 with lows near 27. That works out to about 75 pleasant days a year, more than 30% of counties.

What are the best neighborhoods in Jasper County?

Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Oronogo, Carl Junction, and Webb City. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.

Is Jasper County good for families?

Schools beat 49% of counties, crime safety beats 41%, and childcare runs $381 a month.

Is Jasper County good for remote workers?

Cost of living against local pay beats 54% of counties, though advertised internet speeds beat only 36% of counties. About 10% of workers already work from home.


Compare Jasper County with other counties


Sources and methodology

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

Jasper County detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

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

Jasper 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.