Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town of 11,296, settled in 1856. 54% more nonprofits per person than the typical Missouri town.
Trash & recyclingFew places in the country grade higher. Kearney earns an A, 7th among Missouri's 247 graded towns. Its schools outperform 93% of the state's, the median household earns $104K, and residents are healthier than 76% of U.S. towns on CDC estimates. Its lowest mark, a B−, is in cost of living. On civic life, just 11 of Missouri’s 390 towns do better. 3.6% of residents live below the poverty line in Kearney, below both the Missouri town median (14%) and the median of U.S. towns (9.6%). Kearney has 3 places on the National Register of Historic Places, among them James Brothers' House and Farm and Claybrook House.
Where Kearney beats most towns.
| School | Grades | Students |
|---|---|---|
| Dogwood Elem. | K–5 | 463 |
| Southview Elem. | K–5 | 455 |
| Hawthorne Elem. | K–5 | 264 |
8,381 counted in 2010 and 10,404 in 2020; an estimated 11,296 in 2025.
Growth hasn’t slowed: 8.6% since 2020, after 24.1% in the decade before.
U.S. Census 2010 & 2020 counts · Census Bureau estimate, July 1, 2025
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Missouri), ordered by how far Kearney is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 396 in 1870, 10,404 in 2020. The archive holds 3 old photos and papers going back to 2010 and 3 maps from 1942 on.
3 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Who provides power, water and the rest in Kearney, 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 Kearney.
Kearney fares better on crime within Missouri than nationally and has less food insecurity than most of Missouri, but it has property taxes 1.5 times the Missouri norm.
Its public schools are run by the Kearney R-I school district. Three of its 9 schools are below, each with why it’s listed.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kearney MiddleLargest public middle schoolGrades 6–7 | Grades 6–7 | 591 | A |
| Kearney HighLargest public high schoolGrades 10–12 | Grades 10–12 | 814 | A |
| LensTop results in townGrades 4–5 | Grades 4–5 | 60 | A+ |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within MO on state tests and graduation
The median property tax bill is $2,940, against $1,948 across Missouri, another input to its cost-of-living grade.
The typical Kearney home is worth about $401,000, up 2.7% in a year, 51% above the Missouri typical home. Kearney’s median rent is $1,251 a month.
| Kearney | Missouri towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households that own their home | 75% | 64% | 73% |
| Median rent | $1,251 a month | $970 a month | $1,185 a month |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Its widest gap with Missouri is food insecurity: 8.4% of its 7,550 adults worry about having enough food, against 13.7% statewide.
33% of adults sleep under 7 hours in Kearney. Kearney beats the Missouri average on 15 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 0. 12% of adults report frequent physical distress in Kearney.
| Kearney | Missouri towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 33% | 38% | 36% |
| Frequent physical distress (CDC PLACES) | 12% | 15% | 14% |
| Fair or poor health (CDC PLACES) | 15% | 22% | 19% |
| Get no exercise (CDC PLACES) | 22% | 30% | 25% |
| What stands out | Kearney | MO |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 8.4% | 13.7% |
| Fewer adults facing a utility shut-off | 6% | 9% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Most working residents leave Kearney for work: only 11% work in town. Jobs based in Kearney grew to 2,991 in 2023, 444 more than in 2013. 15% of Kearney workers work from home.
| Kearney | Missouri towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $104,000 | $62,000 | $80,000 |
| Work from home | 15% | 9% | 11% |
| Average trip to work | 24 minutes | 22 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Working residents who work in town | 11% | 13% | 8% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Kearney has chilly winters and warm summers. July afternoons reach 88°, January nights drop to 19° and about 19 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
At 13.3 crimes per 1,000 residents a year, it reports less crime than 81% of Missouri’s graded towns. Reported crimes fell from 117 to 60 over the last three FBI years, a drop beyond ordinary year-to-year swings.
The property crime rate in Kearney is 4.4 per 1,000 residents.
| Kearney | Missouri towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Property crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 4.4 per 1,000 residents | 12.5 | 9.9 |
| Violent crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 0.9 per 1,000 residents | 2.3 | 1.6 |
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
2.9 miles of trail in 3 parks and preserves. The biggest park or preserve is Jesse James Park, at 131 acres.
| Kearney | Missouri towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.2 miles per square mile | 0.3 | 0.4 |
| Conserved land | 2% | 2.1% | 4.3% |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Jesse James Park | 0.2 mi | 131 |
| 2. Mack Porter Park | — | 31 |
| 3. Lions Park | — | 2 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
No broad age group is more than 4 points off the Missouri average. Kearney has grown 8.6% since 2020, to 11,296 residents in the Census Bureau’s 2025 estimate. 37% of adults 25 and older have a bachelor’s degree or more, vs 32% across Missouri.
| Kearney | Missouri towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bachelor’s degree or more, 25+ | 37% | 22% | 29% |
| Under 18 | 24% | 23% | 22% |
52% women, 48% men
That’s an even split within the survey’s margin of ±2.5 points. Across Missouri, 50.7% of residents are women. Among residents 18 to 24, 78% are men (MO 51%).
| Kearney | MO | U.S. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10 | 11.8% | 11.9% | 11.6% |
| 10 to 17 | 11.9% | 10.4% | 10.3% |
| 18 to 24 | 5.1% | 9.1% | 9.1% |
| 25 to 34 | 14% | 13.2% | 13.7% |
| 35 to 44 | 15% | 12.8% | 13.2% |
| 45 to 54 | 14.4% | 11.6% | 12.2% |
| 55 to 64 | 9.8% | 13% | 12.7% |
| 65 to 74 | 10.6% | 10.6% | 10.2% |
| 75 and older | 7.5% | 7.3% | 7% |
| No diploma | 3.5% | 8.1% | 10.4% |
| High school | 24.7% | 30.2% | 26% |
| Some college | 25.2% | 20.8% | 19.1% |
| Associate’s | 9.8% | 8.4% | 8.8% |
| Bachelor’s | 22.5% | 19.8% | 21.6% |
| Graduate | 14.4% | 12.6% | 14.1% |
Census population estimates, 2025 · U.S. Census Bureau · ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates
Expected storm and flood damage is higher than in 50% of U.S. communities.
FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Kearney. Close and well known come first.
Big draw22 mi Stadium & arenaArrowhead Stadium
15 mi Park & preserveSubTropolis
22 mi Stadium & arenaKauffman Stadium
14 mi Theme parkWorlds of Fun
20 mi Stadium & arenaCPKC Stadium
21 mi Stadium & arenaT-Mobile CenterArrowhead Stadium: Ichabod, CC BY-SA 3.0 · SubTropolis: ErgoSum88, Public domain · Kauffman Stadium: Mysteryman28, Public domain · Worlds of Fun: Tkexb173 at en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0 · CPKC Stadium: elisfkc2, CC BY-SA 2.0 · T-Mobile Center: Michael Barera, CC BY-SA 4.0
1 within 15 miles of the center of Kearney
About 4 of every 100 Kearney residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across Missouri.
Where Kearney’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
3 places in Kearney on the National Register of Historic Places.
3 notable people were born in Kearney.
City in Clay County, Missouri, United States
Kearney is a city in Clay County, Missouri, United States. As of the 2020 census, Kearney had a population of 10,404. The city was the birthplace of Jesse James, and there is an annual festival in the third weekend of September to recognize the outlaw. It is part of the Kansas City metropolitan area.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
One town shares a border with Kearney.
Mosby isn’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Kearney with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Yes, by almost any measure. Kearney grades A overall, better than 94% of U.S. towns and #7 of 247 in Missouri. It grades A− for health, B for safety and A for schools.
That is 4.8 years of the area's median household income ($83,460 across the Kansas City, MO-KS metro area). Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades B−.
3 notable people were born here, including Allie Hess and Dan Kratzer.
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