Cotton Hill TownshipMO
A town of 4,700, settled in 1871.
Is Cotton Hill Township a good place to live?
Cotton Hill Township grades D overall, 232nd of 247 graded towns in Missouri, mostly because of health and incomes. On CDC health estimates it is near the bottom nationally. The median household income is $47K, and 25% of residents live below the poverty line. One bright spot: homes are within reach, about $92K for a typical one, or 1.9 years of the Kennett area’s $48K median household income. 25% of residents live below the poverty line in Cotton Hill Township, above both Missouri’s towns (14%) and U.S. towns (9.6%). Only 24 of Missouri’s 419 towns score lower on hazard risk. Cotton Hill Township's schools rank behind 88% of the state's.
Cotton Hill Township has shrunk 19% since 2010
5,755 counted in 2010 and 4,975 in 2020; an estimated 4,700 in 2025.
The decline has continued: down 5.8% since 2020, after 13.6% in the decade before.
U.S. Census 2010 & 2020 counts · Census Bureau estimate, July 1, 2025
How Cotton Hill Township grades
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Missouri), ordered by how far Cotton Hill Township is from typical.
Its grades run from A for cost of living (better than 86% of comparable towns) to D− for health (better than 1%), so the D overall blends very different results.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Moving to Cotton Hill Township: who provides what
Who provides power, water and the rest in Cotton Hill Township, 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.
The data
Ordered by what stands out in Cotton Hill Township.
Cotton Hill Township carries more natural-hazard risk than most of Missouri (mostly earthquakes), but it has poverty well above the Missouri rate.
Compared with most of Missouri and the rest of the country, more of Cotton Hill Township’s adults report frequent physical distress
20% of adults report frequent physical distress in Cotton Hill Township. Cotton Hill Township beats the Missouri average on 1 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 20. 31% of adults say their health is fair or poor in Cotton Hill Township.
| Cotton Hill Township | Missouri towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frequent physical distress (CDC PLACES) | 20% | 15% | 14% |
| Get no exercise (CDC PLACES) | 44% | 30% | 25% |
| High blood pressure (CDC PLACES) | 47% | 37% | 35% |
| Fair or poor health (CDC PLACES) | 31% | 22% | 19% |
| What stands out | Cotton Hill Township | MO |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer binge drinkers | 12.9% | 16.3% |
| More older adults who have lost all their teeth | 29.3% | 15.8% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Cotton Hill Township’s grade for schools is a D
Its public schools are run by the Malden R-I school district. Its two schools are below. The largest public high school is Malden High, with 383 students.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Malden Lower Elem.Largest public elementary schoolGrades PK–5 | Grades PK–5 | 424 | C− |
| Malden HighLargest public high schoolGrades 6–12 | Grades 6–12 | 383 | D |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within MO on state tests and graduation
Earthquakes leads a very high hazard risk in Cotton Hill Township
FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk higher than 96% of Missouri towns, with expected losses of about $1,256 per resident a year; that rating is what its D for hazard risk is built on.
The FEMA risk score in Cotton Hill Township is 86 of 100. Since 1998, 2 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Cotton Hill Township.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Conserved land covers 0.2% of Cotton Hill Township
16 miles of trail in 4 parks and preserves.
| Cotton Hill Township | Missouri towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conserved land | 0.2% | 2.1% | 4.3% |
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.5 miles per square mile | 0.3 | 0.4 |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Martin Luther King Jr Park | — | 11 |
| 2. Malden City Park | — | 8 |
| 3. Tammy Wynette Park | — | 8 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
With 0.7 jobs for every working resident, most of Cotton Hill Township’s workers commute out
About one in 5 of Cotton Hill Township’s working residents works in town. Since 2013, Cotton Hill Township has lost 272 jobs, to 1,259 in 2023. The top destinations are Malden (19%), Dexter (11%) and Poplar Bluff (6%).
| Cotton Hill Township | Missouri towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Working residents who work in town | 20% | 13% | 8% |
| Median household income | $47,000 | $62,000 | $80,000 |
| Average trip to work | 22 minutes | 22 minutes | 25 minutes |
Where working residents work
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Mild winters and hot summers in Cotton Hill Township
Cotton Hill Township has mild winters and warm summers, with plenty of rain. Cotton Hill Township’s July high is 90°F.
Typical low → high °F
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Everything we know about Cotton Hill Township
Colleges nearby
None within 15 miles of Cotton Hill Township; the nearest are
About 2 of every 100 Cotton Hill Township residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across Missouri.
About Cotton Hill Township
Township in Missouri, U.S.
Cotton Hill Township is a township in Dunklin County, in the U.S. state of Missouri. Cotton Hill Township was established in 1845, and named for a trading center within its borders.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
Cotton Hill Township’s neighbors
4 towns share a border with Cotton Hill Township.
| Town | MO rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cotton Hill Township | #232 | D | A | — | D | D− |
| Union Township | #226 | D | A− | — | C | D− |
| Freeborn Township | — | — | A+ | — | D | D− |
| Malden | #239 | D | A− | — | D | D− |
| Liberty Township | #116 | B− | A− | — | A− | D |
Freeborn Township has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade. Cotton Hill Township, Union Township, Freeborn Township, Malden and Liberty Township report no FBI crime data of their own. Compare Cotton Hill Township with a neighbor →
Questions about Cotton Hill Township
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Is Cotton Hill Township, MO a good place to live?
Cotton Hill Township grades D overall, better than 7% of U.S. towns and #232 of 247 in Missouri. It grades D− for health and D for schools. Health is its weak spot, with a D−.
Is Cotton Hill Township, MO expensive?
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.