Welcome to Missouri: Leading from the Center

What is Missouri all about?

You won’t glean an understanding of the Show-Me State by looking at a map alone. Yes, it’s smack in the middle of the lower 48 states, but there’s so much more to Missouri than that choice location.

Nearly 6.14 million people call this state home, and they are here because it offers highly diverse business sectors with excellent earnings potential, it delivers an exceptional quality of life, it’s considerably more affordable than the nation at large, it has rush “hours” that in reality are measured in minutes, it’s teeming with superior collegiate and work-force training opportunities, and it has an outdoors life that speaks to those who want to hunt, fish, hike, bike, climb, swim or fire up the boat on the lake.

Let’s take a look at two metrics that, while somewhat contradictory when viewed side by side, reveal a great deal about the Missouri Value Proposition:

– Per-capita income in Missouri, according to 2019 Census figures, was $30,810—nearly 10 percent below the national average of $34,103.

– Retail sales per capita, though, were $15,036 per capita here, compared to $13,443 nationwide, meaning Missourians had more spending cash—11.8 percent more, to be precise.

Make less, spend more. How is that possible?

Well, it starts with dramatically lower housing prices here. Simply put, you get more home for your dollar. A lot more. But the other things you need in life—food, utilities, health care and transportation—all cost less, as well. (You can read about that dynamic in greater detail on Page 32.)

A diverse economy helps insulate the state from wild swings, and according to the Federal Reserve Bank, this region is usually among the last to experience the pain of a recession, and among the first to shake off a downturn. It is, then, more stable than economies in most other states.

That diverse economy manifests itself with strengths in aerospace manufacturing, in agricultural exports and food processing and production, in vehicle production (with 15 vehicle makers here, Missouri ranks No. 7 among the states) and in professional services that can be delivered nationwide—including high-priced coastal population centers—far more affordably to clients because of the lower cost structures for companies here.

All of that, and more, added up to a statewide gross domestic product of $328.4 billion in 2019. 

Across its 68,700 square miles, Missouri is part Midwest farmland, part urban dynamic with its St. Louis-Kansas City-Springfield axes, part woodland and even part antebellum South, with its bootheel-region cotton production and cultural affinity for neighboring Kentucky, Tennessee and Arkansas.

Considering all of those factors, and many others, you might ask once again: What is Missouri all about?

The best of everything, as it turns out. But especially, it’s about excellence and leading from the center.