The Missouri Town that Disappeared – Suddenly Has Population of 0

Riddle me this, Batman. How do you explain a Missouri town that still exists, but now has seemingly disappeared as the population has now evaporated to a grand total of zero? There's only place in Missouri that can make that claim.

I came upon this Missouri population mystery as I was looking at new data for 2025 as shared by World Population Review. The point of their ranking is to show the largest cities and towns in Missouri this year, but it wasn't Kansas City at #1 that I found interesting. It was the Missouri place at the very bottom of their ranking at #1063 that got my attention. It's a small village in Holt County, Missouri that looks like this if you're driving through.

This is a small village known as Corning, Missouri. Farmer Publishing says Corning is now unincorporated, but used to have a population of more than 300 in the late 1800's. Now, World Population Review says no one calls Corning home which I find peculiar. Current population is zero?

What happened to little Corning, Missouri?

I did my own digging and I question if the population is really zero. A census recap from the 2020 count showed 3 people in Corning, Missouri. It's certainly possible that those 3 residents either moved or passed on in the past 4 or 5 years, but it still looks to me like there might be some occupied homes in the area.

At the moment, Corning, Missouri stands as the only town/village/place that officially has no population. Every place deserves the right to brag about something even if it's literally nothing.