Southerner here.

Southerners are certainly friendlier than most of the rest of the US. The Midwest (including Missouri where you’re looking) and Intermountain West are also generally known for friendliness in my experience. You could kind of lump the three regions together and call them the Heartland.

However, I’ll add: After traveling and living around the world, it’s glaringly obvious that Americans (including Heartlanders) aren’t very polite compared to the Irish, Brits, Aussies, Kiwis, Canadians, Singaporeans, Taiwanese, Japanese (the gold standard), etc., etc.

Put another way, the average Heartlander and American is nowhere as conscientious about using “please” and “thank you,” and about greeting customer service staff with “hello,” as people in some other countries.

And, there is a distinct difference between friendly and polite.

Also, the costs for things such as groceries, auto insurance, domestic flights, etc. have become stupidly expensive for the most part. Our TSA is security theater performed by some of our society’s trashiest and most poorly educated. The quality of customer service has taken a nosedive - in part due poor treatment of staff by companies and, again, by customers.

Just some things to warn you about. If you can work through those hurdles, the US still has a lot of benefits.