Cardwell, MO population, income and ZIP codes

Cardwell city is a very small community in Missouri, with 846 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #405 of 1,082 ranked by population — larger than 62% of them. The median age here is 23.7 years against 39.1 nationally, a distinctly younger profile, typical of places with students, military posts or a fast-growing family population. At this population the ACS sample is small, so the margin of error around every dollar figure below is wide — treat the numbers as a band, not a point, and expect them to move between annual releases without the place itself changing.

Households in Cardwell city earn a median of $17,917 a year, 77.2% below the national figure of $78,538 and 68% below the $55,543 median for the 374 Missouri cities we cover. Household income here is measured before tax and pooled across everyone at the address, which is why it reads higher than typical individual earnings in the same area. Poverty reaches 58.9% of residents here, well above the 12.4% national rate, which is the single clearest signal in this dataset that median income here is carried by a narrow band of households.

The typical owner-occupied home in Cardwell city is valued at $44,700, 85.3% below the national figure and 71% below the $152,400 peer median, while median gross rent runs $764 a month, 45.7% below the national figure, or roughly $9,168 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 51.2% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is severely stretched — a median-income renter clears the cost-burden line by a wide margin before utilities beyond the gross-rent definition. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 2.5×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is easier here than in the average US market. 44% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, a renter-majority market, so rent figures matter more here than the home-value line. The rent line includes utilities paid by the tenant, a definition worth remembering when comparing it against a landlord's quoted rate.

Cardwell city is the unusual combination of expensive to rent and cheap to buy: rent takes 51.2% of median income while homes cost only 2.5× it. Where that pattern shows up, the gap is normally down to down-payment and credit barriers rather than price. A median age of 23.7 means a large student or early-career population; income medians in places like this understate household resources, since many residents are supported from outside the address.

Every value on this page is published directly by the Census for this area — nothing is modelled or interpolated. Small-area estimates still carry wider margins of error than state or national figures, so check the linked ACS tables before relying on them for lending, appraisal or legal work.