14,721 people (2024 Census estimate, +2.3% since 2020)
753 square miles of land · 20 people per square mile
“Highest” and “lowest” are just order, not grades: a high rank for poverty or hazard losses means more of it. Each figure's source is in its section below.
3 active community water systems list Dent County in the area they serve, reporting 6,265 people served in all (a system that crosses county lines counts its whole population).
| SALEM PWS groundwater · local government · MO4010721 | 4,736 served |
| DENT COUNTY PWSD 1 groundwater · local government · MO4024196 | 1,122 served |
| BUNKER PWS groundwater · local government · MO4010883 | 407 served |
Source: U.S. EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS), active community systems, . Look up any system's violations and test results with EPA's search using its ID.
About 26 people were held in Dent County's jail, in Vera's latest figure (2019), or 299 per 100,000 residents ages 15–64. In 2014 it was about 30.
Source: Vera Institute of Justice, Incarceration Trends (built from federal Bureau of Justice Statistics jail surveys). Counties without their own jail, or that share one, may show no figure.
5 school districts have their office in Dent County. School taxes are usually the largest part of a property tax bill.
Spent $17.6 million — $13.7 million to run schools, about $9,379 per student, plus $3.7 million on buildings and equipment. Money in: $5.9 million local (mostly property tax), $7.5 million state, $3.4 million federal. Long-term debt: $3.1 million.
Spent $4.5 million — $3.6 million to run schools, about $13,026 per student, plus $176,000 on buildings and equipment. Money in: $1.4 million local (mostly property tax), $2.1 million state, $1.5 million federal.
Spent $2.9 million — $2.1 million to run schools, about $9,684 per student, plus $271,000 on buildings and equipment. Money in: $1.1 million local (mostly property tax), $1.8 million state, $879,000 federal.
Spent $3 million — $2.1 million to run schools, about $13,600 per student, plus $371,000 on buildings and equipment. Money in: $881,000 local (mostly property tax), $1.9 million state, $1 million federal.
Spent $2.2 million — $1.6 million to run schools, about $12,046 per student, plus $158,000 on buildings and equipment. Money in: $840,000 local (mostly property tax), $1.3 million state, $682,000 federal. Long-term debt: $52,000.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2023 Annual Survey of School System Finances. Districts are listed by the county of their main office; some serve neighboring counties too.
Source: County Health Rankings & Roadmaps 2025 (University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute), which gathers federal data (CDC, Census, and others); measures cover different recent years. Blank lines aren't reported for small counties.
Overall risk: Relatively Low compared with other U.S. counties. FEMA estimates natural hazards cost Dent County about $16.3 million a year on average in buildings, crops and lives. Ability to bounce back (community resilience): Very Low; social vulnerability: Relatively Moderate.
Source: FEMA National Risk Index (December 2025), expected annual loss. Ratings compare counties nationwide; they're estimates, not predictions.
76 bridges in Dent County: 16 in good condition, 54 fair, and 6 poor (7.9%). “Poor” means a main part — the deck, the beams, or the supports — is rated 4 or lower on the federal 0–9 scale. It doesn't mean unsafe to drive; unsafe bridges are closed.
| MO 19 S over SPRING CR · built 1930 | 5,164 vehicles a day |
| MO 32 E over HUZZAH CR · built 1931 | 1,204 vehicles a day |
| MO 19 S over GLADDEN CR · built 1924 | 896 vehicles a day |
| RT B E over DRY FK MERAMEC RVR · built 1936 | 569 vehicles a day |
| RT B E over DRY CREEK · built 1939 | 569 vehicles a day |
| EAST 2ND STREET over CREEK · built 1925 | 200 vehicles a day |
Source: Federal Highway Administration, National Bridge Inventory (2025 submission). Includes state, county and city bridges.
Federal grants paid for $3.3 million of work in Dent County in fiscal 2025, about $232 per resident — to the county, cities, schools, hospitals, nonprofits and others.
Source: USAspending.gov, grants by place of performance, fiscal 2025 (Oct. 2024 to Sept. 2025). Search it by county to see each award.
From Grants.gov: posted grants listing county governments as eligible, soonest deadline first; research-only and overseas programs left out; list updated 2026-10-13, refreshed weekly. 62 are open in all. Cities, towns, school districts and nonprofits have their own lists there.
Registration deadlines, early voting and polling places for Missouri are on the federal site vote.gov, which links to the state's official election office.
The budget, property tax rates, audits, local officials and offices for Dent County come from the county's own records, which we haven't gathered — not gathered, never hidden. See what a full county site looks like, or ask to have Dent County built: brayden.ozark@gmail.com.
More of Missouri: the state government and every county in Missouri.
Nearby counties: Phelps County (24 mi) · Crawford County (27 mi) · Shannon County (32 mi) · Reynolds County (33 mi) · Texas County (33 mi) · Washington County (40 mi).