Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town of 20,994, settled in 1945.
Arnold gives you more for your money than most places: a typical home costs about $273K, 3.4 years of the St. Louis metro’s $80K median household income. It grades B+ overall, 62nd among Missouri's 247 graded towns. The low prices come with trade-offs. FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk higher than 70% of U.S. communities, with inland flooding at the top. On the plus side, the median household earns $78K. 10% of the land in Arnold is conserved, against 2.1% in Missouri’s towns and 4.3% across U.S. towns. Only 15 of Missouri’s 419 towns score lower on history. Strawberry Creek Nature Area, at 114 acres with 1.4 miles of trail, is the biggest park or preserve.
Where Arnold beats most towns.
| School | Grades | Students |
|---|---|---|
| Rockport Heights Elem. | K–5 | 386 |
| Fox Elem. | K–5 | 355 |
| Sherwood Elem. | K–5 | 347 |
10% of the town is conserved land, across 5 parks and preserves.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Missouri), ordered by how far Arnold is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 19,141 in 1980, 20,858 in 2020. The archive holds 7 old photos and papers going back to 2004 and 6 maps from 1912 on.
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Arnold. Close and well known come first.
Big draw23 mi State parkCahokia
Big draw17 mi Stadium & arenaThe Dome at America's Center
17 mi Stadium & arenaBusch Stadium
18 mi Theme parkMid America Adventure
17 mi National ParkGateway Arch National Park2.2M visitors a year
23 mi LandmarkMonks MoundCahokia: Thank You (24 Millions ) views, CC BY 2.0 · The Dome at America's Center: Paul Sableman, CC BY 2.0 · Busch Stadium: Lee Ann Ratledge, CC BY 4.0 · Mid America Adventure: Chris Hagerman from New Port Richey, FL, US, CC BY 2.0 · Gateway Arch National Park: Daniel Schwen, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Monks Mound: Skubasteve834, CC BY-SA 3.0
Who provides power, water and the rest in Arnold, and how to reach them.
EPA SDWIS (Oct 9, 2026) · HIFLD + EIA-861 2025 · Census 2020 ZCTAs · NCES 2024–25 · registration: vote.gov, updated Nov 18, 2024.
Ordered by what stands out in Arnold.
Arnold fares better on crime within Missouri than nationally and trades workers with St. Louis and other neighbors, but it has a long record of flood insurance claims.
Trails total 6.5 miles in 5 parks and preserves. In Arnold, the trail network density is 0.6 miles per square mile, where Missouri’s towns sit at 0.3 and U.S. towns at 0.4. Parks and preserves in the town: 5, covering 381 acres.
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Strawberry Creek Nature Area | 1.4 mi | 114 |
| 2. Arnold City Park | 1.1 mi | 56 |
| 3. Pomme Creek Park | 0.3 mi | 104 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Of its 8 schools, two are listed below, each with the reason. The Fox C-6 school district runs its public schools. The 4 public schools in Arnold teach 1,658 students between them.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fox MiddleLargest public middle schoolGrades 6–8 | Grades 6–8 | 570 | C+ |
| Fox SR. HighLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 1,660 | C |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within MO on state tests and graduation
982 flood insurance claims have been filed here, and 54 properties have flooded more than once.
Expected losses in Arnold break down as 48% from inland flooding and 15% from earthquakes. This Missouri town has had 982 paid flood insurance claims since 1978. Households in the town have drawn federal disaster aid in 9 declared disasters, most recently in 2025.
FEMA disaster declarations and aid · FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
For Arnold, the peak summer temperature is 89°F.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Arnold has about as many jobs (10,015) as working residents, but only 765 people both live and work here.
Arnold: 8.2% of residents live below the poverty line. Just 7% of the town’s working residents have a job in town. Between 2013 and 2023, jobs in the town rose by 1,310, to 10,015. For Arnold, the average trip to work is 27 minutes.
| Arnold | Missouri towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average trip to work | 27 minutes | 22 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Below the poverty line | 8.2% | 14% | 9.6% |
| Work from home | 8.1% | 9% | 11% |
| Working residents who work in town | 7.4% | 13% | 8% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
The age mix tracks Missouri closely: no broad group is more than 4 points off. For residents in Arnold, the share who are under 18 is 21%. The bachelor’s-degree share among adults 25 and older is 25%, against 32% across Missouri.
| Arnold | Missouri towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 18 | 21% | 23% | 22% |
| Aged 65 or older | 20% | 17% | 18% |
| Bachelor’s degree or more, 25+ | 25% | 22% | 29% |
52% women, 48% men
That’s an even split within the survey’s margin of ±2.3 points. Across Missouri, 50.7% of residents are women.
| Arnold | MO | U.S. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10 | 11.9% | 11.9% | 11.6% |
| 10 to 17 | 8.8% | 10.4% | 10.3% |
| 18 to 24 | 5.4% | 9.1% | 9.1% |
| 25 to 34 | 18.5% | 13.2% | 13.7% |
| 35 to 44 | 10.3% | 12.8% | 13.2% |
| 45 to 54 | 10.8% | 11.6% | 12.2% |
| 55 to 64 | 14.9% | 13% | 12.7% |
| 65 to 74 | 12.2% | 10.6% | 10.2% |
| 75 and older | 7.2% | 7.3% | 7% |
| No diploma | 9.3% | 8.1% | 10.4% |
| High school | 32.7% | 30.2% | 26% |
| Some college | 21.4% | 20.8% | 19.1% |
| Associate’s | 11.3% | 8.4% | 8.8% |
| Bachelor’s | 17.3% | 19.8% | 21.6% |
| Graduate | 8.1% | 12.6% | 14.1% |
U.S. Census Bureau · ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates
In Arnold, 39% of adults have obesity, and 11% worry about having enough food. Among adults locally, 30% feel lonely.
| Arnold | Missouri towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feel lonely (CDC PLACES) | 30% | 32% | 33% |
| Obesity (CDC PLACES) | 39% | 38% | 35% |
| Food insecurity (CDC PLACES) | 11% | 15% | 14% |
| Get no exercise (CDC PLACES) | 27% | 30% | 25% |
| What stands out | Arnold | MO |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer older adults who have lost all their teeth | 11.1% | 15.8% |
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 10.8% | 13.7% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Values rose 3.6% in the 12 months to September 2026. In Arnold, 80% of households are owner-occupiers. Just over three fifths of the homes sold in Arnold went for more than their asking price.
| Arnold | Missouri towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households that own their home | 80% | 64% | 73% |
| Median rent | $1,112 a month | $970 a month | $1,185 a month |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
At 18.2 crimes per 1,000 residents a year, it reports less crime than 64% of Missouri’s graded towns. Reported crimes fell from 410 to 183 over the last three FBI years, a drop beyond ordinary year-to-year swings.
Arnold’s rate of thefts and burglaries stands at 8 per 1,000 residents. In Arnold, the violent crime rate is 0.7 per 1,000 residents.
| Arnold | Missouri towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Violent crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 0.7 per 1,000 residents | 2.3 | 1.6 |
| Property crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 8 per 1,000 residents | 12.5 | 9.9 |
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
5 within 15 miles of the center of Arnold
About 4 of every 100 Arnold residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across Missouri.
City in Missouri, United States
Arnold is a city in northeastern Jefferson County, Missouri, situated near the confluence of the Meramec and Mississippi rivers. A suburb of St. Louis, the city lies within the Greater St. Louis metropolitan statistical area. The population was 20,858 at the 2020 United States census, which makes it the most populous community in the county.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
One town shares a border with Arnold.
Imperial reports no FBI crime data of its own. Compare Arnold with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
By most measures, yes. Arnold grades B+ overall, better than 74% of U.S. towns and #62 of 247 in Missouri. It grades B− for health, B− for safety and B+ for schools. Hazard risk is its weak spot, with a C−.
Not for the area. Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades A−.
2 notable people were born here, including Frank J. Grass and Mike Wells.
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