Best PlacesQueen City, MO Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Queen 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.
Queen City ranks 43,420th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on affordable childcare by a wide margin, and crime is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Queen 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.
Queen City's strengths and weaknesses
Where Queen City ranks high
- Cheap childcare$410 a month, better than 98% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 84% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 78% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than 73% of towns
- BikingBetter than 71% of towns
Where Queen City ranks low
- Crime safetyBetter than only 8% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 9% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 13% of towns
- Household income$55,400 median, better than only 20% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Queen City
A household needs to earn about $25,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Queen City home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $55,400, 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 Queen City'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 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 Queen City
Queen City runs older than the country, and households here run larger than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Queen City.
Who works in Queen City, and how
Work in Queen City centers on health care & social and education. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 94%
- Work from home 3%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Queen City
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Queen City.
What the weather is like in Queen City, month by month
Queen City sees roughly 79 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 35, with lows near 19. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 35° | 26° | 19° |
| April | 65° | 52° | 41° |
| July | 87° | 76° | 66° |
| October | 68° | 55° | 45° |
Flying in and out of Queen City
The nearest airport, Kirksville Regional, is about 22 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Kansas City International, about 138 miles away.
The best schools in and around Queen City
Schools across Queen City average a C+, better than 47% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Schuyler Co. Elem.C · 32% proficient
Top high schools
- Schuyler Co. HighC+ · 40% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Queen City school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Queen 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 Queen City against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Queen City
Is Queen City a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Queen City ranks 43,420th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on affordable childcare, civic engagement, and walkability, and lowest on crime and the cost of living against local pay. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Queen City expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $96,602. The overall cost of living runs about 3% below the national average. Set against a $55,400 median income, cost of living beats 9% of towns.
Is Queen City safe?
Queen City is safer than 8% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $733 per resident a year.
Compare Queen City with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Queen City. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Queen 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.
Queen City detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Queen City: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Queen City: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Queen City: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Queen City: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Queen 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.