66044Lawrence, Kansas

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 66044.

61out of 100
Area Score
Top 48% of 5,298 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity3913th of 6,210 published ZIP areas49
SchoolsTop 47% of 4,422 published ZIP areas54
Growth3104th of 5,428 published ZIP areas46
Housing affordability3685th of 6,685 published ZIP areas77
Climate5215th of 6,789 published ZIP areas62
Physical resilienceTop 31% of 6,709 published ZIP areas74
Access4566th of 6,791 published ZIP areas87
Economic stability4830th of 6,742 published ZIP areas47
The quick read

Unemployment is 4.2% and median household income $55,955, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published ZIP profiles.

In the public schools here, 24% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 13.9 students for every teacher.

189 housing units were authorized over the past twelve months, within 13% of the prior year — steady rather than turning.

At a glance

Population
28,820
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$55,955
Bottom 23% nationally
Density
449/sq mi
64.2 sq mi of land
Median age
24.4
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Lawrence
Kansas
Metro area
Lawrence, KS
Nearest major airport
FOE
25 mi · Topeka Rgnl
Median home value
$235,000
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.2% is lower than 60% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

Employment fell 1.6% over the past year, to 53,897 employed residents.

54% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 90% of measured US ZIP areas.

Median household income of $55,955 is below 77% of measured US ZIP areas.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$5,966$55,955Bottom 23%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$3,617$32,823Bottom 37%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate26.2%Top 10%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute20.3 minBottom 14%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher54.5%Top 10%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment53,897Top 50%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-0.6%Bottom 39%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.6%Bottom 32%June 2026
Labor force56,238Top 50%June 2026
Labor force participation68.0%Top 21%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$60,950Bottom 23%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$47,390Bottom 23%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)0.2%Top 43%June 2026
Unemployment rate4.2%Bottom 40%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202456k48k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $55,955 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.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish labor-force data for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Lawrence, KS, the city containing this ZIP code.

24% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 39% 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
5
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
13.9
across all schools here
Math proficiency
23.9%
Bottom 43% in Kansas
Reading proficiency
39.2%
Top 41% in Kansas
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
New York ElemLawrence41520.823%35%
Hillcrest ElemLawrence39311.931%44%
Lawrence Liberty Memorial Central Mid SchoolLawrence38614.312%22%
Cordley ElemLawrence34812.031%60%
Woodlawn ElemLawrence24012.622%36%

58.4% 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 $1,038 takes 22% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 4.2 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
22.3%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
4.2×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,038
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$235,000
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income4.20Top 25%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate38.6%Bottom 5%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±60412,696Top 11%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$69$1,038Top 48%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$9,269$235,000Top 46%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income22.3%Top 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate8.5%Bottom 40%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
46/ 100
Ranks 3104 of 5,428 published city profiles

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.

At 2.0 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US ZIP areas.

Units permitted
189
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
2.0
Bottom 40% nationally
Year over year
+13%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
26.5%
units in 5+ unit buildings

The Building Permits Survey is not published for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Lawrence, KS, the city containing this ZIP code.

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, 1.7 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

74 / 100
Physical resilience

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

TornadoModerate
HailModerate
Heat waveModerate

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

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. ZIP values are the land-area-weighted mean of the counties the ZIP Code Tabulation Area intersects. Expected annual loss is not allocated below county level. 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 · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
10.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
18.2
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 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 66044 rather than 66044 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 25 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Topeka RgnlFOE25 mi12,803 ft
Kansas City IntlMCI32 mi10,801 ft
Rosecrans MemlSTJ54 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
61
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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
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)
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.

66044 vs Lawrence

How this ZIP area compares with Lawrence as a whole. Both figures come from the same ACS release, so the comparison is like for like.

66044
Lawrence
Median household income
$55,955
vs
$65,009
Per capita income
$32,823
vs
$39,194
Population density
449/sq mi
vs
2,774/sq mi
Median home value
$235,000
vs
$292,700
Median gross rent
$1,038
vs
$1,091
Homeownership rate
38.6%
vs
43.6%
Bachelor's degree or higher
54.5%
vs
55.8%
Poverty rate
26.2%
vs
17.4%
Median age
24.4
vs
29.3

Some demographic statistics use Census ZIP Code Tabulation Areas, which approximate but do not exactly match USPS ZIP delivery geography. See the methodology for how AreaProfile maps between them.