Missouri City Surprisingly Among Top 20 Poorest Places in America

I've heard it said that perception is reality. That's apparently not true after all after my perception of how well a city in Missouri is doing is the opposite in reality when it's just been ranked among the top 20 poorest places in America.

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This is a new breakdown just shared by 24/7 Wall St of the 26 poorest large cities in America. My expectation was that you might see a large metro like St. Louis make a list like this, but that's not what I discovered.

Which city in Missouri was ranked among the top 26 poorest in America?

Answer - Springfield, Missouri ranked 15th poorest in America.

The breakdown of why Springfield made this infamous list included a stunning statistic. Yes, their median household income of $57,822 isn't sky-high, but it was one particular number that I found hard to believe:

Households with incomes under $10,000: 9,491

That is unbelievable to me. So there are more than 9,000 households in Springfield, Missouri with an income of less than $10,000? I am stunned. How anyone survives on that kind of money I'll never know.

I know that crime has become a major issue for the Springfield area, but my view of that part of Missouri is that it's a growth region. Perhaps the growth is too fast for the economy to keep up? I can only speculate.

Neither St. Louis or Kansas City is listed among the poorest cities in America. Really had no doubt that KC would not appear, but thought St. Louis just might. Nope. It was Springfield that ended up on the list no city wants to be on.