Wyandotte County, KS

County Profile

167,654 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Wyandotte 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.

58out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 35% of 1,225 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity1046th of 1,255 counties measured37
Schools922nd of 973 counties measured12
GrowthTop 37% of 1,226 counties measured57
Housing affordability629th of 1,255 counties measured93
Climate708th of 1,254 counties measured66
Physical resilienceTop 27% of 1,255 counties measured76
AccessTop 14% of 1,255 counties measured95
Economic stabilityTop 50% of 1,255 counties measured62
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published profiles: unemployment is 4.7% and the Opportunity signal places Wyandotte County in the bottom 17%.

In the public schools here, 13% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 15.5 students for every teacher.

A major airport is 13 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
167,654
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$63,631
Bottom 46% nationally
Density
1,106/sq mi
151.6 sq mi of land
Median age
34.3
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Wyandotte County
Kansas
Metro area
Kansas City, MO-KS
Nearest major airport
MCI
13 mi · Kansas City Intl
Median home value
$172,300
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.7% is lower than 31% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment fell 2.1% over the past year, to 80,808 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$1,779$63,631Bottom 46%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$757$29,843Bottom 24%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate15.8%Top 35%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute23.8 minBottom 37%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher21.2%Bottom 45%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Employment80,808Top 31%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (3 years)0.9%Top 43%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-2.1%Bottom 16%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force84,834Top 31%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force participation66.5%Top 12%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.2%Bottom 32%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate4.7%Top 31%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/065.92.7
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 4.7% 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
202120222023202464k52k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $63,631 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 — Kansas City, MO-KS
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
General and Operations Managers31,080$90,490
Registered Nurses29,650$83,040
Retail Salespersons26,110$34,320
Cashiers24,160$30,700
Stockers and Order Fillers23,580$36,850
Customer Service Representatives22,240$44,350

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.

13% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 20% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 15.5 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
61
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
15.5
across all schools here
Math proficiency
12.8%
Bottom 5% in Kansas
Reading proficiency
20.2%
Bottom 5% in Kansas
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Wyandotte HighKansas City1,90319.2
Silver City ElemKansas City1,49545.38%26%
J C Harmon HighKansas City1,28518.1
Washington HighKansas City1,18018.2
Turner HighTurner-Kansas City1,14714.7
Sumner Academy of Arts & ScienceKansas City1,04517.132%47%
Piper HighPiper-Kansas City91315.0
F L Schlagle HighKansas City84116.2
Carl B. Bruce Middle SchoolKansas City82115.53%3%
Bonner Springs HighBonner Springs77812.8
Gloria Willis Middle SchoolKansas City73718.93%3%
Central MiddleKansas City68716.83%3%

75.3% 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 $1,122 takes 21% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 2.7 times median household income here, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.

Rent as a share of income
21.2%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
2.7×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,122
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$172,300
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income2.71Bottom 38%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate62.0%Bottom 10%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±14068,803Top 13%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$23$1,122Top 21%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$4,446$172,300Bottom 45%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income21.2%Top 14%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate10.5%Bottom 32%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
57/ 100
Top 37% of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing — 2 consecutive years, measured from 2020 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 169,418 in 2024.

60% of recently permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes, so new supply is concentrated in apartments and condominiums rather than detached houses.

At 3.5 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
584
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
3.5
Top 43% nationally
Year over year
−1%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
60.1%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
20202021202220232024169k166k
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
202020212022202320242025646153
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2020 (+203%).

Weather & climate

6 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 90°F and January a low of 22°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 38.1 inches, including 11.0 inches of snow.

Air quality measures a median index of 46, in the Good band, and about 3 days a year pass 100, the threshold at which the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups.

10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station KANSAS CITY DOWNTOWN AP, 8.9 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND5.3"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index71.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation38.1"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall11.0"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low22°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high90°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months61991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10032024 calendar year
Median air quality index46.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing50°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
46
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
71
90th percentile index
Days above 100
3
unhealthy for sensitive groups

A comfortable median and a bad tail are different problems. Wildfire smoke and summer ozone show up in the worst tenth of days, not in the middle of the year.

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. Air quality is measured rather than modelled, by EPA monitors, and published by county only where a monitor sits — roughly half the counties AreaProfile publishes have one, and the rest show nothing rather than an estimate. Air masses are regional, so a county reading describes the air over a place reasonably well, but it is still the county reading.

Physical risk

76 / 100
Physical resilience

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

Strong windModerate
Winter weatherModerate
Heat waveModerate
TornadoElevated
HailElevated

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

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.

Wyandotte County records 19.4 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, higher than most counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 31.5 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 27.8 per 100,000 residents in Wyandotte County.

Homicide
19.4
per 100,000 residents
Firearm deaths, all intents
31.5
per 100,000 residents
Drug overdose
27.8
per 100,000 residents
Suicide
18.8
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 Wyandotte 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 Wyandotte County rather than Wyandotte 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 and full cost of living
No public source publishes either with national coverage and a method open enough to check. 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. 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

3 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 13 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Kansas City IntlMCI13 mi10,801 ft
Rosecrans MemlSTJ46 mi8,061 ft
Topeka RgnlFOE50 mi12,803 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
58
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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
ClimateU.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Air Quality System
Daily Air Quality Index by county
2024 calendar yearAnnually, once a calendar year is complete

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 Wyandotte County, KS