Knox County

Knox County, Missouri – key demographics

Population size

• 3,744 (2020 Decennial Census)
• 3,8xx (2018–2022 ACS 5-year estimate; small-sample county, use ACS values as estimates)

Age

• Median age: ~45–46 years (ACS 2018–2022)
• Under 18: ~20–21%
• 18 to 64: ~57%
• 65 and over: ~22–24%

Sex

• Female: ~50%
• Male: ~50%

Race and ethnicity (ACS 2018–2022; race alone unless noted)

• White: ~95–96%
• Black or African American: ~0.5–1%
• American Indian/Alaska Native: ~0.3–0.5%
• Asian: ~0.1–0.3%
• Two or more races: ~3%
• Hispanic or Latino (of any race): ~1.5–2%

Households (ACS 2018–2022)

• Total households: ~1,600–1,700
• Persons per household: ~2.2–2.3
• Family households: ~65–67% of households; average family size: ~2.8
• Owner-occupied: ~75–80%; renter-occupied: ~20–25%

Insights

• Very small, aging, and predominantly White rural population
• Small household sizes and high owner-occupancy consistent with rural Missouri counties

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 Decennial Census and 2018–2022 American Community Survey 5-year estimates. Notes: ACS values are survey estimates and may not sum perfectly due to rounding and overlapping race/ethnicity definitions.

Knox County, MO snapshot (2024 est.)

• Population ≈3,750; density ≈7.4 residents per sq. mile; ≈1,600 households.

Email usage

• Estimated adult email users: ≈2,600 (≈87% of adults; ≈69% of total residents).
• Gender split among users: ≈51% women, 49% men.

Age distribution of email users (share and count)

• 18–29: ≈14% (≈360)
• 30–49: ≈31% (≈800)
• 50–64: ≈27% (≈700)
• 65+: ≈28% (≈730) Participation is highest among 30–49, with steady gains among 65+.

Digital access and trends

• Households with a computer: ≈85%.
• Internet subscription (any): ≈78%; fixed broadband: ≈70%.
• Smartphone‑only internet: ≈8–10% of households.
• No home internet subscription: ≈22–25%.
• Broadband subscription has risen ~10 percentage points since 2016 as fiber/coax expanded around population centers (e.g., Edina); outer areas rely on DSL, fixed wireless, or satellite.

Connectivity facts

• Service quality varies: 25–100+ Mbps where cable/fiber is present; often <25 Mbps in sparsely populated townships.
• Mobile coverage is patchy outside towns, reinforcing reliance on home broadband or public access points (library/schools).

Mobile phone usage profile for Knox County, Missouri (2024)

Context

• Small, sparsely populated, rural county in northeast Missouri with an older-than-state-average age structure and below-state median household income. These fundamentals shape adoption, plan mix, and reliance on cellular for home internet.

Estimated user base

• Total mobile phone users (any mobile phone): 2,600–2,900 residents
  • Method note: derived from county population in the mid-3,000s, adult share typical of rural Missouri, and nationally observed rural mobile-phone adoption rates among adults and teens.
• Smartphone users: 2,200–2,600 residents
  • Smartphone share of mobile users is lower than Missouri’s metro-heavy average but broadly in line with rural U.S. adoption.
• Mobile-only internet households: 18–25% of households rely primarily on cellular data for home internet, materially higher than the statewide share
• Plan mix:
  • Postpaid: 55–65%
  • Prepaid/MVNO: 35–45% (higher than state average due to income mix, credit access, and lighter multi-line family plans)

Demographic breakdown and usage patterns

• Age
  • 18–34: very high smartphone take-up (low-to-mid 90s percent), app-centric usage, social and video dominant
  • 35–64: high ownership (mid-to-high 80s percent), balanced use of voice, messaging, and apps; growing use of mobile banking and telehealth
  • 65+: lower smartphone penetration (roughly two-thirds), higher incidence of voice-and-text-first usage and basic/older devices; rising adoption of large-screen smartphones for telehealth and messaging
• Income and education
  • Lower-income households are more likely to be smartphone-only for home connectivity, more price-sensitive, and over-index on prepaid and MVNO plans
  • Households with college education track closer to statewide smartphone and mobile-broadband adoption levels
• Household composition
  • Smaller household sizes reduce the prevalence of multi-line family bundles; single-line and two-line accounts are common

Digital infrastructure and coverage

• Networks present: AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile are the dominant underlying networks; UScellular has a footprint in rural northeast Missouri; a variety of MVNOs (e.g., Cricket, Metro, Visible, Boost, Straight Talk) operate over these networks
• Radio access and 5G
  • Primary experience is 4G LTE across most populated corridors, with low-band 5G present along key routes and in town centers; mid-band 5G is limited; mmWave is not a factor
  • Coverage gaps occur in low-lying areas and along lightly traveled rural roads; signal boosters and Wi‑Fi calling are commonly used mitigations
• Mobile internet speeds
  • Downlink performance is serviceable for messaging, web, and SD/HD video in towns and along highways, but uplink and indoor performance degrade faster than in Missouri’s urban counties; peak speeds lag state averages due to sparser site density and limited mid-band 5G
• Fixed connectivity interplay
  • Fiber is limited to select locations; cable plant is minimal; legacy DSL and fixed wireless ISPs serve many rural addresses; satellite (notably Starlink) has grown
  • These gaps raise the role of cellular as a primary or fallback home connection (hotspots, 4G/5G fixed wireless access)

How Knox County differs from Missouri statewide

• Higher mobile dependency
  • A notably larger share of households rely on cellular as their main or only home internet, versus Missouri’s statewide average
• Lower 5G availability and capacity
  • 5G coverage is less extensive and more reliant on low-band spectrum; mid-band capacity is sparser than in metro counties, so peak and indoor performance lag the state average
• Older-device mix and slower replacement
  • A higher share of residents use older handsets and hold devices longer, which tempers 5G uptake compared with statewide patterns
• Plan economics
  • Greater reliance on prepaid/MVNO options and single-line plans; fewer premium unlimited lines per household than the statewide mix
• Usage profile
  • Voice and SMS remain more prominent relative to statewide app/video-heavy patterns, especially among seniors; telehealth usage via mobile is elevated where home broadband is weak

Implications

• Public services and local businesses should continue to prioritize mobile-first, low-bandwidth channels (responsive sites, SMS alerts, app-lite experiences) and support Wi‑Fi calling in public buildings
• Emergency communications benefit from multi-carrier redundancy and signal booster placement in known dead zones
• Mid-band 5G and additional macro/small-cell sites along rural corridors would close the biggest performance gaps, but interim gains can be realized by promoting device upgrades, VoLTE/Wi‑Fi calling configuration, and fixed wireless access where fiber is not imminent

Sources and methodology

• Estimates synthesize county population and age structure with recent federal datasets (American Community Survey computer and internet-use indicators), national rural mobile adoption benchmarks (e.g., Pew Research), and FCC broadband/coverage filings as of 2023–2024. Figures are provided as ranges to reflect county-level variability and margins of error common in small-population geographies.

Social media usage in Knox County, Missouri (modeled 2024–2025)

Snapshot

• County context: Small, rural county (2020 Census population ≈3,700), skewing older than the U.S. average. Estimates below are for adults (18+) and are rounded to whole percentages. They are modeled from 2024 Pew Research platform adoption, adjusted for rural Midwest age/sex mix and connectivity patterns. Expect ±3–5 percentage points.

Most‑used platforms (share of adults using each at least occasionally)

• YouTube: 80%
• Facebook: 74%
• Facebook Messenger: 68%
• Instagram: 37%
• Pinterest: 32%
• TikTok: 28%
• Snapchat: 24%
• LinkedIn: 17%
• Reddit: 11%
• X (Twitter): 12%
• WhatsApp: 11%
• Nextdoor: 4%

Age pattern (percent of each age group using the platform)

• 18–29: YouTube 95%; Instagram 75%; Snapchat 65%; TikTok 62%; Facebook 52%; Reddit 25%; X 15%
• 30–49: YouTube 90%; Facebook 80%; Instagram 50%; TikTok 32%; Snapchat 30%; Pinterest 40%; LinkedIn 25%
• 50–64: Facebook 75%; YouTube 72%; Instagram 32%; Pinterest 35%; TikTok 20%; Snapchat 12%
• 65+: Facebook 62%; YouTube 60%; Instagram 18%; Pinterest 22%; TikTok 10%; Snapchat 6%

Gender breakdown (share of men/women using the platform)

• Facebook: Men 70% | Women 78%
• YouTube: Men 82% | Women 78%
• Instagram: Men 36% | Women 38%
• TikTok: Men 25% | Women 30%
• Snapchat: Men 20% | Women 28%
• Pinterest: Men 15% | Women 45%
• Reddit: Men 16% | Women 6%
• X (Twitter): Men 14% | Women 10%
• LinkedIn: Men 18% | Women 16%
• WhatsApp: Men 11% | Women 11%

Behavioral trends and local usage patterns

• Facebook is the community hub: Local news, school and church updates, high‑school sports, buy/sell/trade and lost‑and‑found groups, fundraisers, weather alerts, obituaries, and county/municipal announcements drive engagement. Marketplace activity is strong relative to population size.
• Video is pervasive but lean‑back: YouTube is widely used for how‑to content (farm, home repair, equipment), hunting/outdoors, and local/regional sports. Live video for school events and local meetings appears primarily on Facebook, with some cross‑posting to YouTube.
• Younger adults cluster on visual/messaging apps: 18–29s rely on Snapchat for daily communication, Instagram for social identity, and TikTok for entertainment and trends; they still keep a Facebook account for local coordination.
• Older adults skew to Facebook + Pinterest: 50+ residents are heavy Facebook users for community information; women 35–64 are the core of local Pinterest usage (recipes, crafts, home projects).
• Messaging gravity: Facebook Messenger is the de facto group‑chat tool for families, churches, teams, and volunteer groups; WhatsApp use is limited and tends to appear among households with out‑of‑area ties.
• X (Twitter) and Reddit are niche: Used mainly by a small subset of younger men, sports bettors/fans, tech/gaming enthusiasts, and public‑safety followers; little evidence of broad community conversation shifting there.
• Posting cadence and timing: Engagement peaks evenings (7–10 pm) and weekends; severe‑weather days and school/sports milestones create sharp surges. Most local businesses post 1–3 times per week on Facebook rather than maintaining full websites.

Notes on interpretation

• Figures are modeled, not from a Knox‑only survey, but they reflect rural Midwest patterns and the county’s age structure; they are designed to be decision‑ready for planning and outreach.