The Missouri Department of Commerce and Insurance (DCI) received numerous requests for more information about how many homes were uninsured in the affected zip codes following the May 16 EF3 tornado that tore a path a mile wide and nearly 23 miles long in St. Louis. There is no such data available. The department does, however, collect information from the insurance industry about the policies issued within the state.
While the data is a rough estimate based on figures derived from the American Community Survey (ACS) produced by the U.S. Census Bureau (2023)*, and the Missouri Department of Commerce and Insurance annual zip-code data collection (2024)**, it provides some insight into how many homes or renters may be uninsured in the impacted areas.
“During my visit to St. Louis on Tuesday, I received multiple requests not only about data for the number of insured homes and renters we had in the impacted area but also about the number of uninsured,” said DCI Department Director Angela Nelson. “While information about uninsureds isn’t available, the department wanted to provide assistance to policymakers assessing community needs. We were able to make a rough estimate of how many potentially uninsured homes and renters we may have by matching the ACS data with our department’s zip code collection data. While this number is certainly not exact; it is fluid and subject to change, it does provide a general picture of what we may be dealing with in terms of uninsured losses.”
The most heavily uninsured areas are in North County zip codes 63115, 63107, and 63113. This includes both homeowners and renters. DCI estimates that approximately 90% of the renters in these zip codes could be uninsured, while the number of uninsured homes could be around 67%.
Significant uninsured areas are in the more densely populated zip codes of the North Riverfront area of 63147, the Central West End neighborhood of 63108, and the West End/Skinker DeBaliviere and DeBaliviere Place neighborhoods of 63112. Approximately 63% of renters in these areas could be uninsured, while around 49% of homeowners could be uninsured.
The zip codes of Richmond Heights 63117; the St. Louis neighborhood associated with 63110 that includes Forest Park, Shaw, The Hill, Central West End, and Cheltenham; and Clayton’s 63105 neighborhood have lower uninsured numbers of renters and homeowners, but they’re still concerning. Fewer than 10% of renters could be uninsured in these zip codes, and nearly 19% of homeowners could be uninsured.
DCI will be issuing a bulletin that requests health insurers to cover the costs of emergency prescription drug refills. This bulletin is being issued to further aid in the effectuation of Governor Mike Kehoe’s Executive Order 25-24, issued on May 20, 2025.
*The U.S. Census Bureau produces the American Community Survey data as part of its annual survey. The ACS data used in our analysis is a five-year rolling estimate, meaning that it is not a precise value. The American Community Survey uses Zip Code Tabulation Areas (ZCTAs), not U.S.P.S. ZIP codes. While the ZCTAs try to get as close to the actual ZIP code as possible, there could be variances between the two. The last ACS completed was for 2023, while the data collected by MO DCI is from 2024, so there is a difference in the last year of collection.
**Missouri’s data collection includes only carriers with greater than 500 annual exposures, which only covers about 88% of the homeowner’s market.