Ellis County, KS

County Profile

28,920 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Ellis 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.

60out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 44% of 1,225 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity640th of 1,255 counties measured55
SchoolsTop 16% of 973 counties measured78
Growth1087th of 1,226 counties measured28
Housing affordabilityTop 43% of 1,255 counties measured95
Climate966th of 1,254 counties measured60
Physical resilienceTop 41% of 1,255 counties measured68
Access1241st of 1,255 counties measured0
Economic stabilityTop 47% of 1,255 counties measured64
The quick read

Unemployment is 3.5% and median household income $63,084, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published profiles.

Residential permitting has slowed: 56 units authorized over the past twelve months, 43% below the prior year.

The nearest major airport is 134 miles away, which is farther than most measured US locations.

At a glance

Population
28,920
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$63,084
Bottom 45% nationally
Density
32/sq mi
899.9 sq mi of land
Median age
33.2
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Ellis County
Kansas
Metro area
Hays, KS
Nearest major airport
ICT
134 mi · Wichita Dwight D Eisenhower Ntl
Median home value
$216,300
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.5% is lower than 79% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment fell 1.9% over the past year, to 16,402 employed residents.

39% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 90% of measured US locations.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$5,107$63,084Bottom 45%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$5,295$37,483Top 37%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Per-capita personal income$57,729Top 45%of 1,2062023
Poverty rate18.3%Top 22%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute13.8 minBottom 1%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher38.9%Top 10%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Employment16,402Bottom 15%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-1.1%Bottom 31%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.9%Bottom 22%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force17,002Bottom 15%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force participation72.0%Top 1%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)0.2%Top 40%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate3.5%Bottom 21%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/063.51.4
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 3.5% 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
202120222023202463k55k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $63,084 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.

36% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 45% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 14.6 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
10
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
14.6
across all schools here
Math proficiency
36.3%
Top 23% in Kansas
Reading proficiency
45.4%
Top 9% in Kansas
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Hays HighHays1,01716.4
Hays Middle SchoolHays72616.527%37%
Roosevelt ElemHays42015.037%45%
Kathryn O'Loughlin McCarthy ElemHays37114.366%71%
Woodrow Wilson ElemHays36414.645%52%
Lincoln ElemHays27416.122%32%
Washington ElemEllis18215.244%71%
Ellis Jr/Sr HighEllis1619.515%35%
Victoria ElementaryVictoria15311.844%38%
Victoria Junior-Senior High SchoolVictoria1107.910%10%

41.4% 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 $943 takes 18% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.4 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
17.9%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.4×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$943
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$216,300
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income3.43Top 33%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate63.2%Bottom 12%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±3113,287Top 48%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$68$943Top 38%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$12,126$216,300Top 39%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income17.9%Top 39%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate7.8%Bottom 18%of 3,2222024 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
28/ 100
Ranks 1087 of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing, 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 been broadly flat since 2020, at 29,007 in 2024.

Permitting has turned upward after moving the other way the year before.

New construction is predominantly single-family: only 0% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 1.9 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
56
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
1.9
Bottom 33% nationally
Year over year
−43%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202429k29k
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
20222023202420259934
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2022 (+71%).

Weather & climate

6 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 93°F and January a low of 19°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 24.8 inches.

10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station RUSSELL MUNI AP, 27.5 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.0"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation24.8"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low19°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high93°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months61991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing49°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

68 / 100
Physical resilience

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

HailElevated
Winter weatherModerate
Ice stormElevated
Strong windElevated
DroughtModerate
TornadoElevated
Heat waveModerate

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

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 — they say nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Ellis County records 3.5 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, near the middle of counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 20.8 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 0.0 per 100,000 residents in Ellis County.

Homicide
3.5
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
20.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
0.0
per 100,000 residents
Suicide
23.5
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths

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 Ellis 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 Ellis County rather than Ellis 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
Offences reported to police are published by department rather than by town, and only where a department reported every month of the year. No municipal department reports for this place — many smaller communities are policed by the county — so there is no figure to show. A partial year is never scaled up to look complete, and arrest counts or news volume are never substituted for it.
Taxes
Taxes are not published: no source covers them nationally with a method open enough to check. Cost of living now is — the index above is the Bureau of Economic Analysis price parity for this area — but it is a price level for all consumption rather than a budget for a household, its spread is driven mostly by housing, and it excludes taxes. Housing affordability is computed separately from rent, price and income, because that answers a narrower and more actionable question. Nothing here is individualised tax advice.
Anything about a specific address
Every figure describes an area, not a street or a house. School attendance zones, insurance pricing and the character of a neighbourhood all vary within the places measured here.

Access

No airport meeting the AreaProfile major-airport definition lies within 100 miles; the nearest is 134 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Wichita Dwight D Eisenhower NtlICT134 mi10,302 ft
Beech FactoryBEC142 mi8,001 ft
North Platte Rgnl/Lee Bird FldLBF169 mi8,001 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
60
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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)
IncomeU.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis
Regional price parities and county personal income
2023Annually, each December
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Local Area Unemployment Statistics
June 2026Monthly
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month
DemographicsU.S. Census Bureau
Population Estimates Program
July 1, 2024 estimateAnnual (vintage released each spring)
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 Ellis County, KS