WardsvilleMO
A town of 1,667, settled in 1881. Public schools that outperform most of Missouri.
Is Wardsville a good place to live?
The best of Wardsville’s subject grades are an A+ for schools and an A for incomes and civic life; the weakest is a D for walkability. 33% of residents are under 18 in Wardsville, against 23% in Missouri’s towns and 22% across U.S. towns. On walkability, just 23 of Missouri’s 419 towns do worse. The biggest park or preserve is Pikes Camp Access, at 138 acres. Wardsville has 2 places on the National Register. Wardsville has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade.
What makes Wardsville stand out
Where Wardsville beats most towns.
| School | Grades | Students |
|---|---|---|
| Blair Oaks Intermediate | 3–5 | 228 |
| Blair Oaks Elem. | PK–2 | 224 |
| St. Stanislaus School | PK–8 | 176 |
Community nonprofits per 1,000 residents
Typical home value
97% of working residents leave Wardsville for work
Where Wardsville’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
How Wardsville grades
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Missouri), ordered by how far Wardsville is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Moving to Wardsville: who provides what
Who provides power, water and the rest in Wardsville, 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.
The data
Ordered by what stands out in Wardsville.
Wardsville’s schools rank ahead of 97% of Missouri districts
Its public schools are run by Blair Oaks R-II. Three of its 5 schools are below, each with why it’s listed. The largest public high school is Blair Oaks High, with 421 students.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blair Oaks Middle SchoolLargest public middle schoolGrades 6–8 | Grades 6–8 | 290 | A |
| Blair Oaks HighLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 421 | A+ |
| Blair Oaks Elem.Top results in townGrades PK–2 | Grades PK–2 | 224 | A+ |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within MO on state tests and graduation
A typical Wardsville home is worth about $365K
The typical Wardsville home is worth about $365,000, up 6.3% in a year, 38% above the Missouri typical home. 84% of Wardsville households own their home, where Missouri’s towns sit at 64% and U.S. towns at 73%. Wardsville’s median rent is $885 a month.
| Wardsville | Missouri towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households that own their home | 84% | 64% | 73% |
| Median rent | $885 a month | $971 a month | $1,185 a month |
Typical home value
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
More than half of Wardsville’s working residents commute to Jefferson City
Most working residents leave Wardsville for work: only 3% work in town. The median household income in Wardsville is $121,000. Since 2013, Wardsville has lost 1,351 jobs, to 418 in 2023.
| Wardsville | Missouri towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $121,000 | $62,000 | $80,000 |
| Below the poverty line | 2.5% | 14% | 9.6% |
| Working residents who work in town | 3.2% | 13% | 8% |
| Average trip to work | 22 minutes | 22 minutes | 25 minutes |
Where working residents work
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
On CDC estimates, Wardsville is healthier than 73% of U.S. towns
Wardsville beats the Missouri average on 12 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 0. 19% of Wardsville adults binge drink.
| Wardsville | Missouri towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Binge drink (CDC PLACES) | 19% | 16% | 16% |
| Diabetes (CDC PLACES) | 9.3% | 12% | 12% |
| Fair or poor health (CDC PLACES) | 16% | 22% | 19% |
| Food insecurity (CDC PLACES) | 8.4% | 15% | 14% |
| What stands out | Wardsville | MO |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 8.4% | 13.7% |
| Fewer older adults who have lost all their teeth | 9.8% | 15.8% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
More children than Missouri overall
42% of adults 25 and older hold a bachelor’s degree or more in Wardsville. Wardsville has grown 4% since 2020, to 1,667 residents in the Census Bureau’s 2025 estimate. 16% of residents are 65 or older in Wardsville.
| Wardsville | Missouri towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bachelor’s degree or more, 25+ | 42% | 22% | 29% |
| Median age | 36.2 years | 38.5 years | 40.5 years |
| Aged 65 or older | 16% | 17% | 18% |
Ages · share of residents
Education · adults 25 and older
Women and men · all residents
Somewhere between 35% and 69% women
The Census survey reached too few of Wardsville’s residents to say more: its margin here is ±16.6 points. Across Missouri, 50.7% of residents are women.
| Wardsville | MO | U.S. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10 | 18.1% | 11.9% | 11.6% |
| 10 to 17 | 14.9% | 10.4% | 10.3% |
| 18 to 24 | 5.7% | 9.1% | 9.1% |
| 25 to 34 | 9.9% | 13.2% | 13.7% |
| 35 to 44 | 14.1% | 12.8% | 13.2% |
| 45 to 54 | 12.2% | 11.6% | 12.2% |
| 55 to 64 | 9.6% | 13% | 12.7% |
| 65 to 74 | 7.5% | 10.6% | 10.2% |
| 75 and older | 8% | 7.3% | 7% |
| No diploma | 3.7% | 8.1% | 10.4% |
| High school | 24.4% | 30.2% | 26% |
| Some college | 17.4% | 20.8% | 19.1% |
| Associate’s | 12.6% | 8.4% | 8.8% |
| Bachelor’s | 28.4% | 19.8% | 21.6% |
| Graduate | 13.5% | 12.6% | 14.1% |
Census population estimates, 2025 · U.S. Census Bureau · ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates · in a town of 1,700, single groups can be off by several points
Wardsville has four seasons and hot summers
Wardsville has chilly winters and warm summers. July afternoons reach 89°, January nights drop to 23° and about 9 inches of snow falls in a winter.
Typical low → high °F
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Inland flooding leads a high hazard risk in Wardsville
Expected storm and flood damage is higher than in 67% of U.S. communities.
FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Pikes Camp Access | — | 138 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Everything we know about Wardsville
Colleges nearby
1 within 15 miles of the center of Wardsville
About 3 of every 100 Wardsville residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across Missouri.
About Wardsville
Village in Cole County, Missouri, United States
Wardsville is a village in Cole County, Missouri, United States. The population was 1,599 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Jefferson City, Missouri Metropolitan Statistical Area.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
- Area
- 3.5 sq mi
- Elevation
- 781 ft
Questions about Wardsville
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Is Wardsville, MO a good place to live?
Public schools that outperform most of Missouri.
Is Wardsville, MO expensive?
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+.