Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
For a city of 107,514, Lee's Summit does well: it grades B, 81st among Missouri's 247 graded towns. Its public schools beat 87% of Missouri towns on state tests and graduation and the median household earns $103K. The trade-off: the typical home is worth about $394K, 4.7 years of the Kansas City metro’s $83K median household income. Its National Register listings include Longview Farm and Saint Paul's Episcopal Church. 10% of the land in Lee's Summit is conserved, above both the Missouri town median (2.1%) and the median of U.S. towns (4.3%). Only 19 of Missouri’s 419 towns score higher on the outdoors.
Where Lee's Summit beats most towns.
Census counts: 693 in 1880, 101,108 in 2020. The archive holds 12 old photos and papers going back to 2006 and 6 maps from 1934 on.
20 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Missouri), ordered by how far Lee's Summit is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Lee's Summit. Close and well known come first.
Big draw10 mi Stadium & arenaArrowhead Stadium
10 mi Stadium & arenaKauffman Stadium
17 mi Park & preserveSubTropolis
19 mi Theme parkWorlds of Fun
17 mi Stadium & arenaCPKC Stadium
16 mi Stadium & arenaT-Mobile CenterArrowhead Stadium: Ichabod, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Kauffman Stadium: Mysteryman28, Public domain · SubTropolis: ErgoSum88, 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
Who provides power, water and the rest in Lee's Summit, 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 Lee's Summit.
Lee's Summit fares better on crime within Missouri than nationally, trades workers with Kansas City and other neighbors and has less tooth loss than most of Missouri.
Its public schools are run by the Lee'S Summit R-Vii school district. Three of its 34 schools are below, each with why it’s listed.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| East Trails Middle SchoolLargest public middle schoolGrades 6–8 | Grades 6–8 | 1,051 | – |
| Lee's Summit West HighLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 1,999 | A+ |
| Chapel Lakes Elem.Top results in townGrades K–5 | Grades K–5 | 600 | A+ |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within MO on state tests and graduation
The median property tax bill is $3,869, against $1,948 across Missouri, another input to its cost-of-living grade.
Lee's Summit’s median rent is $1,422 a month, against $970 a month in Missouri’s towns and $1,185 a month across U.S. towns. The typical Lee's Summit home is worth about $394,000, up 3.2% in a year, 48% above the Missouri typical home.
| Lee's Summit | Missouri towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,422 a month | $970 a month | $1,185 a month |
| Households that own their home | 73% | 64% | 73% |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
38 miles of trail in 44 parks and preserves. Fleming Park, at 1,788 acres with 3.8 miles of trail, is the biggest park or preserve.
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Longview Lake Park | 10.5 mi | 1,403 |
| 2. Legacy Park | 6.7 mi | 680 |
| 3. Fleming Park | 3.8 mi | 1,788 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Its widest gap with Missouri is tooth loss: 8.7% of those 65+ have lost all their teeth, against 15.8% statewide.
Lee's Summit beats the Missouri average on 20 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 0. 32% of Lee's Summit adults sleep under 7 hours.
| Lee's Summit | Missouri towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 32% | 38% | 36% |
| Frequent physical distress (CDC PLACES) | 12% | 15% | 14% |
| Binge drink (CDC PLACES) | 19% | 16% | 16% |
| Smoke cigarettes (CDC PLACES) | 12% | 17% | 14% |
| What stands out | Lee's Summit | MO |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer older adults who have lost all their teeth | 8.7% | 15.8% |
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 9.4% | 13.7% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
At 27 crimes per 1,000 residents a year, it reports more crime than 55% of Missouri’s graded towns. Reported crimes fell from 2,443 to 2,218 over the last three FBI years, a drop beyond ordinary year-to-year swings.
The property crime rate in Lee's Summit is 19.5 per 1,000 residents.
| Lee's Summit | Missouri towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Property crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 19.5 per 1,000 residents | 12.4 | 9.9 |
| Violent crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 1.1 per 1,000 residents | 2.3 | 1.6 |
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
Lee's Summit has chilly winters and warm summers. July afternoons reach 88°, January nights drop to 20° and about 9 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Lee's Summit has about as many jobs (42,204) as working residents, but only 9,829 people both live and work here.
About one in 5 of Lee's Summit’s working residents works in town. 21% of workers work from home in Lee's Summit. Since 2013, Lee's Summit has added 6,524 jobs, to 42,204 in 2023.
| Lee's Summit | Missouri towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Work from home | 21% | 9% | 11% |
| Median household income | $103,000 | $62,000 | $80,000 |
| Working residents who work in town | 20% | 13% | 8% |
| Below the poverty line | 5.7% | 14% | 9.6% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Expected storm and flood damage is lower than in 62% of U.S. communities. Since 1982, 70 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Lee's Summit.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
12 within 15 miles of the center of Lee's Summit
About 4 of every 100 Lee's Summit residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across Missouri.
91,364 counted in 2010 and 101,108 in 2020; an estimated 107,514 in 2025.
Growth hasn’t slowed: 6.3% since 2020, after 10.7% in the decade before.
U.S. Census 2010 & 2020 counts · Census Bureau estimate, July 1, 2025
20 places in Lee's Summit on the National Register of Historic Places.
20 notable people were born in Lee's Summit.
City in the United States
Lee's Summit is a city in Jackson and Cass counties in Missouri, United States. It is part of the Kansas City metropolitan area and is a suburb of Kansas City, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) to the southeast. As of the 2020 census, the population was 101,108, making Lee's Summit the sixth most populous city in both Missouri and the Kansas City metropolitan area. It is part of the Wooded Osage Plains region, characterized by rolling topography. In 1865, the town was incorporated as Strother, remaining so until it was renamed Lee’s Summit three years later. Lee's Summit began as an agricultural community and persisted as such until the mid-twentieth century. Upon the conclusion of World War I…
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
6 towns share a border with Lee's Summit.
Independence next door grades lower for schools (C+ to Lee's Summit’s A) and higher for cost of living (B+ to C−).
| Town | MO rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lee's Summit | #81 | B | C− | C | A | A− |
| Independence | #202 | C− | B+ | D | C+ | C− |
| Kansas City | #200 | C− | C+ | D− | C+ | C+ |
| Unity Village | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Lake Winnebago | — | — | D | — | A− | A− |
| Greenwood | #6 | A | C+ | A | A | A− |
| Lake Lotawana | #57 | B+ | D | B+ | A | A− |
Lake Winnebago has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade. Lake Winnebago reports no FBI crime data of its own. Unity Village isn’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Lee's Summit with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
By most measures, yes. Lee's Summit grades B overall, better than 64% of U.S. towns and #81 of 247 in Missouri. It grades A− for health, C for safety and A for schools. Cost of living is its weak spot, with a C−.
Yes. Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades C−.
20 notable people were born here, including Pat Metheny and KC Lightfoot.
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