Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Fredericktown gives you more for your money than most places: a typical home costs about $178K, 3.3 years of the county’s $54K median household income. It grades C− overall, 188th of 247 graded towns in Missouri. The low prices come with trade-offs. The median household income is $49K, and 17% of residents live below the poverty line, and FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk higher than 87% of U.S. communities, with inland flooding at the top. On the plus side, it is more walkable than 79% of U.S. towns. 27% of working residents work locally in Fredericktown, above both the Missouri town median (13%) and the median of U.S. towns (8%). Its National Register listings include Fredericktown Missouri Pacific Railroad Depot and Madison County Courthouse.
Where Fredericktown beats most towns.
Fredericktown Missouri Pacific Railroad Depot
Census counts: 917 in 1890, 4,429 in 2020. The archive holds 11 old photos and papers going back to 1875 and 3 maps from 1947 on.
5 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Missouri), ordered by how far Fredericktown is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Who provides power, water and the rest in Fredericktown, 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 Fredericktown.
Fredericktown is healthier than towns with similar incomes and fares better on crime within Missouri than nationally, but it carries more natural-hazard risk than most of Missouri (mostly inland flooding).
Against the 5,551 U.S. towns with household incomes like Fredericktown’s, it is less healthy than 57%, so its C− isn’t only a matter of income.
Fredericktown beats the Missouri average on 0 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 6. 19% of Fredericktown adults smoke cigarettes.
| Fredericktown | Missouri towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Smoke cigarettes (CDC PLACES) | 19% | 17% | 14% |
| Get no exercise (CDC PLACES) | 33% | 30% | 25% |
| Frequent physical distress (CDC PLACES) | 16% | 15% | 14% |
| Fair or poor health (CDC PLACES) | 24% | 22% | 19% |
| What stands out | Fredericktown | MO |
|---|---|---|
| More adults with COPD | 10.1% | 8% |
| More older adults who have lost all their teeth | 19.4% | 15.8% |
| More smokers | 19.4% | 16% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Its public schools are run by the Fredericktown R-I school district. Two of its 4 schools are below, each with why it’s listed. The largest public high school is Fredericktown High, with 611 students.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fredericktown Elem.Largest public elementary schoolGrades PK–2 | Grades PK–2 | 446 | – |
| Fredericktown HighLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 611 | B− |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within MO on state tests and graduation
FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk higher than 97% of Missouri towns; that rating is what its D for hazard risk is built on. 119 flood insurance claims have been filed here, and 14 properties have flooded more than once.
Since 1981, 119 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Fredericktown. Among 247 Missouri towns, just 8 have a higher FEMA risk score than Fredericktown.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
The typical Fredericktown home is worth about $179,000, up 4.3% in a year, 33% below the Missouri typical home. The median rent in Fredericktown is $846 a month.
| Fredericktown | Missouri towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households that own their home | 60% | 64% | 73% |
| Median rent | $846 a month | $972 a month | $1,185 a month |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
At 25.8 crimes per 1,000 residents a year, it reports more crime than 54% of Missouri’s graded towns.
Fredericktown’s violent crime rate is 0.6 per 1,000 residents.
| Fredericktown | Missouri towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Violent crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 0.6 per 1,000 residents | 2.3 | 1.6 |
| Property crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 16.9 per 1,000 residents | 12.4 | 9.9 |
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
Fredericktown has chilly winters and warm summers. July afternoons reach 88°, January nights drop to 22° and about 9 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
The average commute for its 1,767 working residents takes 16.8 minutes, against 23.5 across Missouri.
About one in 4 of Fredericktown’s working residents works in town. Since 2013, Fredericktown has lost 123 jobs, to 2,246 in 2023. The top destinations are Farmington (11%), Cape Girardeau (4%) and Perryville (3%).
| Fredericktown | Missouri towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average trip to work | 17 minutes | 22 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Median household income | $49,000 | $62,000 | $80,000 |
| Work from home | 8.4% | 9% | 11% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
0.5 miles of trail in 2 parks and preserves.
| Fredericktown | Missouri towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.1 miles per square mile | 0.3 | 0.4 |
| Conserved land | 1.3% | 2.1% | 4.3% |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Memorial Park | — | 15 |
| 2. City Lake Park | — | 10 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
None within 15 miles of Fredericktown; the nearest are
About 2 of every 100 Fredericktown residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across Missouri.
3,985 counted in 2010 and 4,429 in 2020; an estimated 4,584 in 2025.
U.S. Census 2010 & 2020 counts · Census Bureau estimate, July 1, 2025
5 places in Fredericktown on the National Register of Historic Places.
4 notable people were born in Fredericktown.
City in Missouri, United States
Fredericktown is a city in and the county seat of Madison County, Missouri, United States, in the northeastern foothills of the St. Francois Mountains. The population was 4,429 at the 2020 census, up from 3,985 in 2010. The city is surrounded on three sides (east, west, and south) by the easternmost parcel of the Mark Twain National Forest.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
2 towns share a border with Fredericktown.
| Town | MO rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fredericktown | #188 | C− | A− | C | C+ | C− |
| Cobalt | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Junction City | — | — | — | — | — | — |
Cobalt and Junction City aren’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Fredericktown with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Fredericktown grades C− overall, better than 20% of U.S. towns and #188 of 247 in Missouri. It grades C− for health, C for safety and C+ for schools. Jobs & income is its weak spot, with a D.
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−.
4 notable people were born here, including Jordan E. Cravens and Johnny Schulte.
