10,715 people (2024 Census estimate, +0.4% since 2020)
630 square miles of land · 17 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.
5 active community water systems list Ripley County in the area they serve, reporting 8,456 people served in all (a system that crosses county lines counts its whole population).
| RIPLEY COUNTY PWSD 2 groundwater · local government · MO4024523 | 2,780 served |
| RIPLEY COUNTY PWSD 1 EAST groundwater · local government · MO4024521 | 2,265 served |
| DONIPHAN PWS groundwater · local government · MO4010221 | 2,000 served |
| RIPLEY COUNTY PWSD 1 WEST groundwater · local government · MO4024522 | 940 served |
| NAYLOR PWS groundwater · local government · MO4010557 | 471 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 15 people were held in Ripley County's jail, in Vera's latest figure (2017), or 211 per 100,000 residents ages 15–64. In 2012 it was about 20.
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.
4 school districts have their office in Ripley County. School taxes are usually the largest part of a property tax bill.
Spent $20.5 million — $16 million to run schools, about $10,278 per student, plus $4 million on buildings and equipment. Money in: $3.4 million local (mostly property tax), $10.9 million state, $7.9 million federal.
Spent $4.2 million — $4.1 million to run schools, about $10,697 per student, plus $82,000 on buildings and equipment. Money in: $748,000 local (mostly property tax), $2.9 million state, $1.1 million federal.
Spent $2 million — $1.9 million to run schools, about $15,236 per student, plus $38,000 on buildings and equipment. Money in: $522,000 local (mostly property tax), $980,000 state, $448,000 federal.
Spent $1.7 million — $1.4 million to run schools, about $11,207 per student, plus $191,000 on buildings and equipment. Money in: $331,000 local (mostly property tax), $999,000 state, $506,000 federal.
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 Ripley County about $14.4 million a year on average in buildings, crops and lives. Ability to bounce back (community resilience): Very Low; social vulnerability: Relatively High.
Source: FEMA National Risk Index (December 2025), expected annual loss. Ratings compare counties nationwide; they're estimates, not predictions.
117 bridges in Ripley County: 40 in good condition, 70 fair, and 7 poor (6.0%). “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 142 E over LOGAN CR · built 1933 | 1,046 vehicles a day |
| MO 142 E over DTCH NO 2 · built 1949 | 1,042 vehicles a day |
| MO 142 E over HARRIS CR · built 1933 | 1,033 vehicles a day |
| RT W S over DTCH NO 3 · built 1954 | 254 vehicles a day |
| RT KK E over LIT BLACK RVR · built 1959 | 193 vehicles a day |
| A-3 over HURRICANE CR · built 1930 | 50 vehicles a day |
Source: Federal Highway Administration, National Bridge Inventory (2025 submission). Includes state, county and city bridges.
Federal grants paid for $4.1 million of work in Ripley County in fiscal 2025, about $387 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 Ripley 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 Ripley County built: brayden.ozark@gmail.com.
More of Missouri: the state government and every county in Missouri.
Nearby counties: Carter County (21 mi) · Randolph County, AR (23 mi) · Butler County (26 mi) · Oregon County (29 mi) · Clay County, AR (32 mi) · Wayne County (39 mi).