Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Kennett grades D overall, 229th of 247 graded towns in Missouri, mostly because of health and safety. Residents are less healthy than 97% of U.S. towns on CDC estimates. It reports more crime per resident than 92% of U.S. towns, including 39 violent crimes reported to the FBI in 2025. What it does well: a typical home costs about $116K, 2.4 years of the Kennett area’s $48K median household income. 38% of working residents work locally in Kennett, against 13% in Missouri’s towns and 8% across U.S. towns. On hazard risk, just 27 of Missouri’s 419 towns do worse. Kennett has 2 places on the National Register of Historic Places, among them Kennett City Hall and Masonic Lodge.
Where Kennett beats most towns, and one thing worth knowing.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Missouri), ordered by how far Kennett is from typical.
Its grades run from A for cost of living (better than 88% of comparable towns) to D− for health (better than 3%), so the D overall blends very different results.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 171 in 1880, 10,515 in 2020. The archive holds 6 old photos and papers going back to 1908 and 4 maps from 1934 on.
2 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Who provides power, water and the rest in Kennett, 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 Kennett.
Kennett has more 90° days than almost anywhere else in Missouri and has homes that are cheap against local pay, but it carries more natural-hazard risk than most of Missouri (mostly earthquakes).
Kennett: 22% of adults smoke cigarettes. Among 247 Missouri towns, just 9 have a higher share of adults who have obesity than Kennett. CDC measures, 32 in all: Kennett beats Missouri on 1 and trails on 21.
| Kennett | Missouri towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Get no exercise (CDC PLACES) | 42% | 30% | 25% |
| Frequent physical distress (CDC PLACES) | 19% | 15% | 14% |
| Obesity (CDC PLACES) | 46% | 38% | 35% |
| Smoke cigarettes (CDC PLACES) | 22% | 17% | 14% |
| What stands out | Kennett | MO |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer binge drinkers | 13.4% | 16.3% |
| More adults facing food insecurity | 22.3% | 13.7% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
At 2.4 years of the Kennett area’s $48K median household income, the typical home (about $116K) costs less against local pay than in 83% of Missouri towns; that ratio is one input to that grade. At about $116K, home values are up 4% in five years, against a rise of 26% across Missouri.
58% of households own their home in Kennett. Values rose 11% in the 12 months to September 2026. Its midpoint rent comes in at $651 a month.
| Kennett | Missouri towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $651 a month | $972 a month | $1,185 a month |
| Households that own their home | 58% | 64% | 73% |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Reported crimes fell from 421 to 324 over the last three FBI years, a drop beyond ordinary year-to-year swings.
In Kennett, the violent offense rate is 3.9 per 1,000 residents. The town’s property crime rate stands at 28.4 per 1,000 residents.
| Kennett | Missouri towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Property crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 28.4 per 1,000 residents | 12.4 | 9.9 |
| Violent crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 3.9 per 1,000 residents | 2.2 | 1.6 |
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
Walkers can cover 4.0 miles of trail in 5 parks and preserves. The biggest park or preserve is Indian Field Baseball Park, at 30 acres. The trail density in Kennett is 0.6 miles per square mile.
| Kennett | Missouri towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.6 miles per square mile | 0.3 | 0.4 |
| Conserved land | 1.4% | 2.1% | 4.3% |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Indian Field Baseball Park | — | 30 |
| 2. R.H. Jones Memorial Park | — | 13 |
| 3. Delmo Park | — | 7 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk higher than 94% of Missouri towns, with expected losses of about $340 per resident a year; that rating is what its D for hazard risk is built on.
For Kennett, the risk rating from FEMA is 84 of 100. Federal aid has come to Kennett households in 7 declared disasters; the latest was in 2025. Expected losses in Kennett break down as 64% from earthquakes and 14% from inland flooding. Since 1979, 10 flood insurance claims have been paid out here.
FEMA disaster declarations and aid · FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
The Blytheville weather station, 23 miles away, records that about 58 days a year reach 90°, the highest of 1,353 Missouri places with climate records.
The seasons in Kennett: mild winters, warm summers, with plenty of rain. July afternoons reach 90°, January nights drop to 29° and about 3 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
The mean commuting time for Kennett comes to 20 minutes. This Missouri town had 3,889 jobs in 2023, down 752 from 2013. The share of residents in Kennett who live below the poverty line: 19%. The top destinations are Senath (3%), Paragould (3%) and Caruthersville (2%).
| Kennett | Missouri towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Below the poverty line | 19% | 14% | 9.6% |
| Average trip to work | 20 minutes | 22 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Median household income | $53,000 | $62,000 | $80,000 |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
None within 15 miles of Kennett; the nearest are
About 2 of every 100 Kennett residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across Missouri.
13 notable people were born in Kennett.
City in Missouri, U.S.
Kennett is a city in and the county seat of Dunklin County, Missouri, United States. The city is located in the southeast corner (or "Bootheel") of Missouri, 4 miles (6.4 km) east of Arkansas and 20 miles (32 km) from the Mississippi River. It had a population of 10,515 at the 2020 census. Kennett is the largest city in the Bootheel, a mostly agricultural area.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Kennett grades D overall, better than 8% of U.S. towns and #229 of 247 in Missouri. It grades D− for health, D for safety and C for schools. Health 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.
13 notable people were born here, including Sheryl Crow and Paul Caruthers Jones.
