Douglas County, KS

County Profile

120,302 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Douglas County, KS.

Several figures AreaProfile publishes are measured by county and nowhere finer — death rates by intent among them. On this page those describe the geography they are printed on, which is not true of the city and ZIP pages that inherit them.

66out of 100
Area Score
Top 33% of 1,225 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity645th of 1,255 counties55
SchoolsTop 29% of 973 counties67
Growth884th of 1,226 counties38
Housing affordability930th of 1,255 counties82
Climate861st of 1,254 counties62
Physical resilienceTop 15% of 1,255 counties85
AccessTop 28% of 1,255 counties90
Economic stabilityTop 34% of 1,255 counties72
The quick read

Unemployment is 4.1% and median household income $69,746, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published profiles.

Residential permitting has slowed: 273 units authorized over the past twelve months, 23% below the prior year.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published profiles, placing Douglas County in the top 15% for physical resilience.

At a glance

Population
120,302
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$69,746
Top 38% nationally
Density
264/sq mi
455.8 sq mi of land
Median age
31.6
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Douglas County
Kansas
Metro area
Lawrence, KS
Nearest major airport
FOE
20 mi · Topeka Rgnl
Median home value
$309,400
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.1% is lower than 54% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment fell 1.6% over the past year, to 65,968 employed residents.

53% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 98% of measured US locations.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$2,954$69,746Top 38%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,375$40,695Top 23%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate14.7%Top 41%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute22.5 minBottom 28%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher53.2%Top 2%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment65,968Top 37%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-0.5%Bottom 40%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.6%Bottom 29%June 2026
Labor force68,824Top 37%June 2026
Labor force participation69.0%Top 5%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)0.1%Top 48%June 2026
Unemployment rate4.1%Bottom 46%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/064.11.9
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 4.1% in June 2026. A break in the line is a month the Bureau of Labor Statistics did not publish for this area — it is left empty rather than estimated.
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202470k63k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $69,746 in the 2024 ACS 5-Year. Consecutive releases share four years of sample, so AreaProfile shows them as a record of successive estimates and does not compute a year-over-year change from them.
Largest occupations — Lawrence, KS
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Fast Food and Counter Workers2,880$28,320
Retail Salespersons1,430$31,320
Cashiers1,310$29,270
Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive1,230$42,630
Waiters and Waitresses1,190$37,230
Customer Service Representatives1,090$37,800

Occupational employment and wages are published for metropolitan areas rather than for individual cities or ZIP areas, so these describe the wider labor market this location sits in. 2025 OEWS, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

31% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 43% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 15.0 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
25
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
15.0
across all schools here
Math proficiency
31.3%
Top 36% in Kansas
Reading proficiency
43.1%
Top 18% in Kansas
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Lawrence Free State HighLawrence1,77416.6
Lawrence HighLawrence1,45414.7
Eudora Elementary SchoolEudora65013.532%50%
Lawrence West Middle SchoolLawrence64814.722%27%
Lawrence Southwest Middle SchoolLawrence64115.622%27%
Langston Hughes ElemLawrence56019.367%72%
Eudora High SchoolEudora55814.7
Billy Mills Middle SchoolLawrence49415.017%27%
Sunflower ElementaryLawrence44413.542%57%
Baldwin High SchoolBaldwin City43714.1
Schwegler ElemLawrence43414.021%42%
Deerfield ElemLawrence43315.537%59%

39.5% of students here are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. That describes the circumstances families arrive with rather than how the schools perform, which is why AreaProfile shows it and does not score it.

Public schools only, from the NCES Common Core of Data. Schools are placed by ZIP code, so this is which schools are in this place rather than which one a particular address is zoned for — district boundaries do not follow municipal ones, and enrollment zones change. Fully virtual schools are excluded: they enroll students from across the state while reporting one administrative address, and counting them here would describe a school population this place does not have. The assessment covers grades 3 through 8, so a high school shows no proficiency figure — a dash in those columns means the test was not given at that school, not that it performed badly. Proficiency is measured against Kansas’s own standard, so it compares cleanly within the state and only broadly against other states; AreaProfile therefore ranks it within state. The directory is current, while the proficiency figures are from the last school year with national coverage before the pandemic interrupted testing.

Housing & affordability

How it’s calculated →

Median rent of $1,099 takes 19% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 4.4 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
18.9%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
4.4×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,099
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$309,400
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income4.44Top 14%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate50.1%Bottom 2%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±6753,675Top 16%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$33$1,099Top 23%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$10,713$309,400Top 18%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income18.9%Top 29%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate6.1%Bottom 10%2024 ACS 5-Year

Both affordability measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with, so the comparison is like for like. They describe housing cost against local earnings and are not a cost-of-living index — transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not included, and a place can look affordable here and still be expensive to live in for reasons this does not capture.

Growth & development

How it’s calculated →
Development Momentum
38/ 100
Ranks 884 of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing — 2 consecutive years, measured from 2022 to 2025.

An AreaProfile calculation combining permit volume per resident, its direction over one and three years, population change and employment growth. Permit volume alone is not the measure.

Population has grown 3% since 2020, reaching 121,989 in 2024.

Population is still rising, but more slowly than in the preceding year.

New construction is predominantly single-family: only 18% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 2.3 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
273
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
2.3
Bottom 40% nationally
Year over year
−23%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
18.3%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
20202021202220232024122k119k
Census Population Estimates Program, July 1 of each year. These annual estimates are designed for year-over-year comparison, unlike the ACS five-year figure shown as this profile's population.
Housing units permitted per year
2022202320242025386223
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2022 (−5%).

Weather & climate

6 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 91°F and January a low of 18°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 35.6 inches.

10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station LAWRENCE MUNI AP, 8.8 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.8"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation35.6"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low18°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high91°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months61991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing50°F1991-2020 Normals

Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. They describe what a typical year looks like rather than what the weather is doing today.

Physical risk

85 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are tornado, hail and strong wind.

Winter weatherModerate
TornadoModerate
HailElevated
Strong windModerate
Heat waveModerate

Low or minimal exposure: ice storm, lightning, inland flooding, cold wave, landslide, wildfire, drought, earthquake.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA National Risk Index county record. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.

These are deaths, not offences. AreaProfile does not publish reported crime, and this is not a substitute for it — it says nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Douglas County records 2.3 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, lower than most counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 11.6 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 10.8 per 100,000 residents in Douglas County.

Homicide
2.3
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
11.6
per 100,000 residents
Drug overdose
10.8
per 100,000 residents
Suicide
18.2
per 100,000 residents

Firearm deaths count every intent together, and nationally the majority are suicides rather than homicides. The two columns overlap and should not be added.

Age-adjusted rates from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC for Douglas County as a whole — these rates are not published below county level. A county can hold both a dense city centre and a suburb whose experience of it is nothing alike, so this describes the county around Douglas County rather than Douglas County itself. That is why AreaProfile shows these figures and does not put them in the Area Score. Where fewer than ten deaths were recorded the count is suppressed at source, and a rate built on single figures moves sharply between releases. What this measure has that reported crime does not: a death certificate is filed whether or not the local police agency submitted a return that year, so the figures stay comparable between places and over time.

What this profile does not cover

Three things people look for are missing from every AreaProfile page, and each is missing for a reason rather than by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them and the weighting is documented on the methodology page.

Reported crime
The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer is the only source for reported offences with national coverage and a published method, and it requires an API key AreaProfile does not hold. Arrest counts, news volume and commercial “safety scores” are not substituted in the meantime. What is published above under Safety is a different measurement — deaths rather than offences, from death certificates rather than police returns — and it covers no property crime at all.
Taxes
No tax dataset has met the source admission test for coverage, transparent methodology and update cadence. Nothing here is individualized tax advice.
Full cost of living
No public source publishes one with national coverage and a documented method. Housing affordability above is computed from published rent, price and income, and excludes transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes — commuting cost in particular tends to offset suburban housing savings.

Access

3 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 20 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Topeka RgnlFOE20 mi12,803 ft
Kansas City IntlMCI42 mi10,801 ft
Rosecrans MemlSTJ64 mi8,061 ft

Airport identity, position and runway data come from the FAA. “Major airport” is an AreaProfile classification — a public-use civil airport with a paved runway of at least 8,000 feet — not an FAA hub designation. Distances are straight-line, not driving distance.

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Area Score
66
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Data & methodology

Used forSourceSource periodUpdated
AccessFederal Aviation Administration
Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service
NASR current cycle28-day NASR cycle
Physical riskFederal Emergency Management Agency
National Risk Index
National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0)Periodic dataset versions (v1.20.0 current)
ClimateNOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly)
1991-2020 NormalsEvery ten years (next release follows the 2001–2030 period)
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Local Area Unemployment Statistics
June 2026Monthly
DemographicsU.S. Census Bureau
Population Estimates Program
July 1, 2024 estimateAnnual (vintage released each spring)
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month
Demographics, Housing, Income, JobsU.S. Census Bureau
American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File)
2024 ACS 5-YearAnnual (5-year estimates released each December)
safetyU.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics
Provisional county-level mortality by intent
April, 2025 to March, 2026Quarterly, with a rolling twelve-month window alongside complete calendar years
schoolsU.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics
Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments
2019-20 school year; 2024-25 school yearDirectory annually; assessment results as EDFacts releases them

Profile recalculated August 30, 2026. Recalculation is not the same as new source data — each figure above shows the period its source actually covers. Read the full methodology or browse every source.

Cities in Douglas County, KS