St. Louis Authority

St. Louis is a middle-income mid-sized city of 288,512.

St. Louis is one of those American cities that exists, administratively speaking, in a category largely of its own invention: it is an independent city, meaning it belongs to no county, which is a distinction shared by only a handful of places in the United States and which has shaped its governance, its finances, and its identity in ways that continue to generate civic debate. According to Census ACS 5-Year 2024 data, the city's population stands at 288,512, a figure that sits in quiet tension with the 301,578 often cited at the county level, reflecting the particular arithmetic of how St. Louis counts itself.

Demographics and Age Structure

The median age in St. Louis is 36.8 years, according to Census ACS 5-Year 2024 data, which places the city in a broadly working-age profile. Children under 18 account for 52,870 residents, or roughly 18.3 percent of the population, a share the derived Census data characterizes as family-oriented. The 18-to-34 cohort numbers 81,731, and the 35-to-64 group accounts for the largest single band of residents at approximately 109,200.

The city's racial composition, per Census ACS 5-Year 2023, includes 133,985 white residents and 126,357 Black residents, figures that sit close enough together to make St. Louis one of the more evenly divided large cities in the Midwest by that measure. The Asian population stands at 10,016, and 15,005 residents identify as Hispanic or Latino. Total households number 144,450, of which 60,848 are family households.

Housing Affordability

The home price-to-income ratio in St. Louis is 3.5, derived from Census income and housing data, a figure the source characterizes as moderate affordability. Renters, who make up a substantial share of the city's households, spend a median of 20.9 percent of income on rent, which the same derived dataset classifies as affordable by conventional thresholds, though that aggregate figure naturally obscures variation across neighborhoods and income levels.

Broadband Access

According to FCC Broadband Data Collection figures as of June 2025, broadband availability in St. Louis is, by the numbers, essentially complete. One hundred percent of the city's 188,606 housing units have access to service meeting the 25/3 Mbps threshold, and the same full coverage applies at the 100/20 and 250/25 Mbps tiers. Coverage at the 1,000/100 Mbps tier reaches 94.4 percent of units. These are availability figures, which describe what infrastructure passes a given address, not subscription rates.

Climate and Air Quality

The nearest NOAA weather station to St. Louis, the ST LOUIS SCIENCE CENTER station located 1.1 miles from the city center, records an average annual temperature of 60.1 degrees Fahrenheit and annual precipitation of 48.4 inches, according to NOAA ACIS data.

Air quality in 2024, per EPA AQI Annual Summary data, showed 366 monitored days. Of those, 139 were classified as good and 217 as moderate. Nine days fell into the unhealthy-for-sensitive-groups category, and one day was recorded as unhealthy. No very unhealthy or hazardous days were recorded. The maximum AQI recorded during the year was 156. The moderate-day count, which represents more than half the year, reflects the city's position in a region where ground-level ozone and particulate matter remain persistent considerations, particularly in warmer months.

Higher Education

St. Louis carries a notable concentration of higher education institutions. According to NCES IPEDS 2022 data matched to the city, seven colleges and universities operate within St. Louis. The most selective among them, by the College Scorecard's measures, is Washington University in St. Louis, which reported an average SAT score of 1,530, an admission rate of 12.06 percent, and an enrollment of 7,857 students. Tuition at Washington University runs $65,790 for both in-state and out-of-state students. The institution's completion rate stands at 94 percent, according to College Scorecard data.

Religious and Civic Organizations

The IRS Exempt Organizations Business Master File records 811 churches in St. Louis, a count arrived at by matching IRS BMF entries to the city. That figure, for a city of roughly 288,000 people, works out to roughly one registered religious organization for every 355 residents, which is a density that reflects both the city's age and the particular role that neighborhood parishes and congregations have historically played in St. Louis's social geography.

The IRS BMF also identifies the Saint Louis LGBTQ Chamber of Commerce as the city's registered chamber of commerce entity, matched via the canonical IRS registry.

Banking and Financial Infrastructure

FDIC branch data identifies multiple bank branches operating within or immediately adjacent to the city, including a Commerce Bank location at 1600 S Lindbergh Blvd and a PNC Bank branch listed as the Maplewood Branch. The FDIC Institutions and Branches dataset is the source for these records.

Attractions

The city has 72 recorded attractions in the reference dataset. Among those nearest the city center are the Sachs Museum at 0.7 miles and HealthWorks! Kids' Museum St. Louis at 0.9 miles, along with Saint Louis institutions that extend outward from there. The count of 72 reflects entries in the underlying dataset and is not a comprehensive cultural inventory.

Missouri Licensure Context

For professionals relocating to or practicing in St. Louis, Missouri's licensure reciprocity framework is relevant background. Under Mo. Rev. Stat. § 324.009, any person holding a valid current license issued by another state, a U.S. territory, the District of Columbia, or a military branch, and who has been licensed for at least one year in that jurisdiction, may apply to the relevant Missouri oversight body for a license in the same occupation at the same practice level. The oversight body is required to act on such an application within six months and, per the statute, must waive examination, educational, or experience requirements that would otherwise apply. The statute also specifies that nothing in this provision prevents the oversight body from denying a license for reasons applicable to that profession generally, and that applicants remain responsible for fees, bonds, and insurance requirements regardless of reciprocity status.

Data Notes

Population figures in this entry reflect Census ACS 5-Year 2024 place-level estimates, which may differ from figures derived at the county or metropolitan statistical area level. The city's independent-city status means that St. Louis city and St. Louis County are separate jurisdictions; county-level figures, such as the 1,004,125 population figure associated with St. Louis County, are not additive with city figures.

Further Reading

• Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates — https://data.census.gov
• NCES, Common Core of Data — https://nces.ed.gov/ccd/
• FEMA, Disaster Declarations — https://www.fema.gov/disaster/declarations