El Dorado, Kansas

Area Profile

12,769 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for El Dorado, in Butler County.

58out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 40% of 2,944 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity2324th of 3,904 cities measured52
Schools1428th of 2,668 cities measured49
Growth2183rd of 2,973 cities measured37
Housing affordabilityTop 8% of 4,223 cities measured100
Climate2829th of 4,223 cities measured64
Physical resilience2695th of 4,182 cities measured45
Access2759th of 4,226 cities measured87
Economic stability3230th of 4,226 cities measured45
The quick read

Unemployment is 4.1% and median household income $59,180, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published city profiles.

Residential permitting has slowed: 19 units authorized over the past twelve months, 41% below the prior year.

Housing is more affordable relative to local incomes than in most published city profiles: rent takes 17% of median household income and the median home is 2.0 times it.

At a glance

Population
12,769
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$59,180
Bottom 38% nationally
Density
1,335/sq mi
9.6 sq mi of land
Median age
36.2
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Butler County
Kansas
Metro area
Wichita, KS
Nearest major airport
BEC
21 mi · Beech Factory
Median home value
$120,300
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.1% is lower than 59% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 1.2% over the past year, to 33,316 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$6,349$59,180Bottom 38%of 29,5732024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,118$30,871Bottom 40%of 31,4202024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate16.6%Top 31%of 31,9002024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute19.2 minBottom 15%of 31,5432024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher26.0%Top 37%of 31,9192024 ACS 5-Year
Employment33,316Bottom 40%of 3,904June 2026
Employment change (3 years)0.5%Top 42%of 3,903June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.2%Bottom 41%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force34,746Bottom 40%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force participation63.8%Top 38%of 31,9332024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$58,830Bottom 11%of 3,6582025 OEWS
Median annual wage$47,630Bottom 21%of 3,6582025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)0.0%Bottom 45%of 3,904June 2026
Unemployment rate4.1%Bottom 41%of 3,904June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202459k49k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $59,180 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 — Wichita, KS
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Fast Food and Counter Workers11,580$27,420
Aircraft Structure, Surfaces, Rigging, and Systems Assemblers9,460$59,850
Retail Salespersons7,530$30,760
Registered Nurses7,460$76,540
Cashiers7,070$28,430
Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive6,290$41,480

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.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes city-level labor data only for places of 25,000 or more. This is the figure for Butler County, KS, which contains this city.

28% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 33% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 13.9 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
6
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
13.9
across all schools here
Math proficiency
28.3%
Bottom 48% in Kansas
Reading proficiency
32.6%
Bottom 36% in Kansas
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
El Dorado HighEl Dorado54314.7
El Dorado MiddleEl Dorado37012.812%12%
Blackmore ElementaryEl Dorado30314.420%30%
Circle Oil Hill ElementaryCircle27414.438%52%
Skelly Elementary SchoolEl Dorado26614.031%30%
Grandview ElemEl Dorado25213.348%48%

64.4% 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 →

Prices for everything a household buys run about 11% below the national average, on the Bureau of Economic Analysis index. Housing drives most of that difference.

Median rent of $844 takes 17% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 2.0 times median household income here, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.

Cost of living
89.4

Prices here run about 11% below the national average. The spread between places is driven mostly by housing — goods vary far less — and this excludes taxes.

Rent as a share of income
17.1%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
2.0×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$844
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$120,300
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Cost of living index89.4Bottom 5%of 3,6582023
Home price to income2.03Bottom 24%of 28,4732024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate60.0%Bottom 21%of 31,8432024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±3016,209Top 10%of 32,3302024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$106$844Bottom 34%of 23,4322024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$11,395$120,300Bottom 28%of 29,3422024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income17.1%Bottom 39%of 23,2012024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate12.4%Top 41%of 32,0012024 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
37/ 100
Ranks 2183 of 2,973 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 fallen 1% since 2020, reaching 12,694 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 1.5 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
19
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
1.5
Bottom 39% nationally
Year over year
−41%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202413k13k
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
20222023202420253327
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2022 (+11%).

Weather & climate

6 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 92°F and January a low of 23°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 32.6 inches.

10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station WICHITA JABARA AP, 20.3 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND5.2"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation32.6"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low23°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high92°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months61991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing47°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

45 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are inland flooding, wildfire and heat wave.

WildfireHigh
Winter weatherModerate
HailElevated
Strong windElevated
Heat waveModerate
Ice stormModerate
Inland floodingModerate
LightningModerate

Low or minimal exposure: tornado, cold wave, drought, landslide, earthquake, hurricane.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. City values are the population-weighted mean of the counties the city overlaps, using AreaProfile place-to-county land-area weights. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.

Violent crime
331
per 100,000 residents · 2025 calendar year
Property crime
1,373
per 100,000 residents · 2025 calendar year

Below these are deaths rather than offences, published for the county. The two measure different things and are not comparable with each other.

El Dorado's police department reported 331 violent offences per 100,000 residents, near the middle of places with a department reporting. Property crime runs at 1,373.

Butler County records 2.9 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 15.8 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 13.2 per 100,000 residents in Butler County.

Homicide
2.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
15.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
13.2
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
14.6
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.

Offences are reported to the FBI by El Dorado’s own police department, for the population it serves, and are shown only where it reported every month of the year — a partial year is withheld rather than scaled up. Reported crime counts what was reported to and recorded by police, which is not the same as what happened, and a place that draws a large daytime workforce carries incidents its residents did not generate. Age-adjusted rates from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC for Butler 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 El Dorado rather than El Dorado 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.

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

2 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 21 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Beech FactoryBEC21 mi8,001 ft
Wichita Dwight D Eisenhower NtlICT33 mi10,302 ft
Topeka RgnlFOE101 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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Other cities in Wichita, KS

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
WichitaSedgwick County397,94561vs El Dorado
DerbySedgwick County26,06271vs El Dorado
NewtonHarvey County18,39765vs El Dorado
AndoverButler County15,96569vs El Dorado
HaysvilleSedgwick County11,11757vs El Dorado

Every city here is measured on the same scale from the same source releases, so the comparison is like for like. A higher Area Score reflects AreaProfile’s standardized weighting rather than a judgment about which is the better place to live.

Data & methodology

Used forSourceSource periodUpdated
AccessFederal Aviation Administration
Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service
NASR current cycle28-day NASR cycle
safetyFederal Bureau of Investigation, Crime Data Explorer
Summarized offense counts by law enforcement agency
2025 calendar yearAnnually, with monthly revisions
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)
HousingU.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
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
2025 OEWSAnnual (spring release)
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)
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month
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.

ZIP codes in El Dorado

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
6704216,978$62,85757