Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town of 2,586, settled in 1788.
New Madrid earns a D, 238th of 247 graded towns in Missouri, mostly because of health and safety. Residents are less healthy than 90% of U.S. towns on CDC estimates. Its crime rate is higher than 88% of U.S. towns, with 21 violent crimes reported to the FBI in 2025. What it does well: 2% of its land is conserved. New Madrid’s violent crime rate is 8.2 per 1,000 residents, against 2.2 in Missouri’s towns and 1.6 across U.S. towns. On hazard risk, just 8 of Missouri’s 419 towns do worse. Hunter-Dawson House is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Where New Madrid beats most towns, and one thing worth knowing.
Its founding year, 1788, comes before those of 98% of the Missouri towns we grade with a known year.
Census counts: 610 in 1860, 2,787 in 2020. The archive holds 17 old photos and papers going back to 1826 and 4 maps from 1939 on.
1 place on the National Register of Historic Places.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Missouri), ordered by how far New Madrid is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Who provides power, water and the rest in New Madrid, 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 New Madrid.
New Madrid has homes that are cheap against local pay, but it carries more natural-hazard risk than most of Missouri (mostly earthquakes) and is a long drive from an emergency room.
At 2.2 years of the county’s $52K median household income, the typical home (about $114K) costs less against local pay than in 87% of Missouri towns; that ratio is one input to its B+ for cost of living.
The typical New Madrid home is worth about $114,000, up 3.5% in a year, 57% below the Missouri typical home. New Madrid’s median rent is $786 a month.
| New Madrid | Missouri towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households that own their home | 60% | 64% | 73% |
| Median rent | $786 a month | $972 a month | $1,185 a month |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Its public schools are run by the New Madrid Co. R-I school district. One of its 2 schools is below, with why it’s listed.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Madrid ElementaryLargest public elementary schoolGrades PK–5 | Grades PK–5 | 250 | C |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within MO on state tests and graduation
The nearest emergency room, Missouri Delta Medical Center, is 21 miles away in a straight line.
36% of New Madrid adults get no exercise outside work. New Madrid beats the Missouri average on 2 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 14. 43% of New Madrid adults have high blood pressure.
| New Madrid | Missouri towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Get no exercise (CDC PLACES) | 36% | 30% | 25% |
| High blood pressure (CDC PLACES) | 43% | 37% | 35% |
| Diabetes (CDC PLACES) | 15% | 12% | 12% |
| Binge drink (CDC PLACES) | 13% | 16% | 16% |
| What stands out | New Madrid | MO |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer binge drinkers | 13.4% | 16.3% |
| More adults treating high blood pressure | 80.5% | 77.2% |
| More adults facing food insecurity | 18.3% | 13.7% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
New Madrid reports more crime per resident than most U.S. towns we grade: about 88% report less. The property crime rate in New Madrid is 15.3 per 1,000 residents.
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk higher than 99% of Missouri towns, with expected losses of about $1,951 per resident a year; that rating is what its D for hazard risk is built on.
Among 247 Missouri towns, just 3 have a higher FEMA risk score than New Madrid. Since 1979, 44 flood insurance claims have been paid out in New Madrid.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
| New Madrid | Missouri towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conserved land | 2.1% | 2.1% | 4.3% |
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.4 miles per square mile | 0.3 | 0.4 |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Hunter-Dawson State Historic Site | — | 5 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
New Madrid has mild winters and warm summers, with plenty of rain. July afternoons reach 90°, January nights drop to 28° and about 7 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
New Madrid has about as many jobs (1,265) as working residents, but only 291 people both live and work here. The average commute takes 16.8 minutes, against 23.5 across Missouri.
About one in 4 of New Madrid’s working residents works in town. Jobs based in New Madrid fell to 1,265 in 2023, 170 fewer than in 2013. The top destinations are Sikeston (13%), Marston (5%) and Cape Girardeau (4%).
| New Madrid | Missouri towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Working residents who work in town | 27% | 13% | 8% |
| Average trip to work | 17 minutes | 22 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Median household income | $58,000 | $62,000 | $80,000 |
| Below the poverty line | 12% | 14% | 9.6% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
None within 15 miles of New Madrid; the nearest are
About 2 of every 100 New Madrid residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across Missouri.
3,116 counted in 2010 and 2,787 in 2020; an estimated 2,586 in 2025.
The decline has continued: down 7.1% since 2020, after 10.6% in the decade before.
U.S. Census 2010 & 2020 counts · Census Bureau estimate, July 1, 2025
4 notable people were born in New Madrid.
City in Missouri, U.S.
New Madrid ( MAD-rid; Spanish: Nueva Madrid) is a city in and the county seat of New Madrid County, Missouri, United States. The population was 2,787 at the 2020 census. The city is located 42 miles (68 km) southwest of Cairo, Illinois, and north of an exclave of Fulton County, Kentucky, across the Mississippi River. The town is on the north side of the Kentucky Bend in the Mississippi River, which is also known as "New Madrid Bend" or "Madrid Bend." The river curves in an oxbow around an exclave of Fulton County, Kentucky. Scientists expect the river eventually to cut across the neck of the peninsula and make a more direct channel, leaving the Kentucky territory as an island. New Madrid wa…
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
New Madrid grades D overall, better than 5% of U.S. towns and #238 of 247 in Missouri. It grades D for health, D for safety and C− for schools. Hazard risk 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 B+.
4 notable people were born here, including Arnold Wiley and William Dawson.
