These Are The 10 Best Cities For Hippies In Kansas

You might think that the whole hippie movement has faded away, but the truth is, there are plenty of hippies out there in Kansas.

While they aren’t necessarily in your face all the time with war protests and the next Woodstock isn’t being planned any time soon, we thought it would be fun to look at which cities in the Sunflower State where the most hippies would live.

And, after crunching the data, you know what? It was pretty spot on, we have to say.

How do you decide where the most hippies live? By the number of yoga studios, organic markets, and most importantly, where the liberals live in droves.

Using that criteria, it’s not hard to scrape the internet, run some scientific data on where hippies might live in Kansas, and then put out a list.

So, put on your tie dye shirt and your sandals as you go through this list with us. After analyzing all cities with a decent amount of people in them, we came up with this list of the 10 best cities for hippies in Kansas:

1. Roeland Park (Photos)
2. Mission
3. Bonner Springs (Photos)
4. Merriam
5. Bel Aire
6. Leawood
7. Lenexa
8. Pittsburg (Photos)
9. Manhattan (Photos)
10. Hays (Photos)

Read on below to see where your town ranked, young flower child. Hippie culture not your cup of tea? Check out the most conservative places in Kansas.

How do you determine the most beatnik city in Kansas?

In order to rank the best cities for hippies in Kansas, we had to determine what criteria defines a hippie.

We threw a lot of criteria at this one in order to get the best, most complete results possible. Using the Google Places API, the Census’s 2010-2014 American Community Survey, and Voter Registration data, this is the criteria we used:

• Number of yoga studios per capita
• Number of organic markets per capita
• Number of pet adoption centers per capita
• Number of vegan restaurants per capita
• Number of thrift stores per capita
• Each city’s liberal voting population

Note: For the sake of getting reliable numbers, we counted places within a ~4.5 mile radius of a city’s center. The average city in America is about 18 square miles.

All of these results are listed in a per capita basis, meaning number of stores per person in a city. Additionally, we limited the analysis to non-CDPs that have over 5,000 people.

We ranked each place with scores from 1 to 52 in each category, where 1 was the most hippie.

Next, we averaged the rankings for each place to create a hippie index.

And finally, we crowned the city with the highest hippie index the “Best City for Hippies In Kansas.” We’re lookin’ at you, Roeland Park.

Read on below to learn more about what it’s like to live in hippie central. Or skip to the end to see the list of all the places in the state from hippiest to most square.

1. Roeland Park

Population: 6,799
Yoga Studios Per 1,000 People: 4.85
Organic Markets Per 1,000 People: 1.03
Pet Adoption Centers Per 1,000 People: 1.18
Vegan Restaurants Per 1,000 People: 1.47
Thrift Stores Per 1,000 People: 3.97

2. Mission

Population: 9,451
Yoga Studios Per 1,000 People: 3.28
Organic Markets Per 1,000 People: 0.63
Pet Adoption Centers Per 1,000 People: 0.85
Vegan Restaurants Per 1,000 People: 0.85
Thrift Stores Per 1,000 People: 2.86

3. Bonner Springs

Population: 7,420
Yoga Studios Per 1,000 People: 0.27
Organic Markets Per 1,000 People: 0.13
Pet Adoption Centers Per 1,000 People: 0.27
Vegan Restaurants Per 1,000 People: 1.08
Thrift Stores Per 1,000 People: 0.67

4. Merriam

Population: 11,191
Yoga Studios Per 1,000 People: 1.07
Organic Markets Per 1,000 People: 0.71
Pet Adoption Centers Per 1,000 People: 0.8
Vegan Restaurants Per 1,000 People: 0.09
Thrift Stores Per 1,000 People: 1.79

5. Bel Aire

Population: 6,923
Yoga Studios Per 1,000 People: 0.72
Organic Markets Per 1,000 People: 0.43
Pet Adoption Centers Per 1,000 People: 1.01
Vegan Restaurants Per 1,000 People: 1.01
Thrift Stores Per 1,000 People: 0.58

6. Leawood

Population: 32,842
Yoga Studios Per 1,000 People: 0.46
Organic Markets Per 1,000 People: 0.24
Pet Adoption Centers Per 1,000 People: 0.15
Vegan Restaurants Per 1,000 People: 0.18
Thrift Stores Per 1,000 People: 0.52

7. Lenexa

Population: 49,573
Yoga Studios Per 1,000 People: 0.12
Organic Markets Per 1,000 People: 0.1
Pet Adoption Centers Per 1,000 People: 0.08
Vegan Restaurants Per 1,000 People: 0.42
Thrift Stores Per 1,000 People: 0.14

8. Pittsburg

Population: 20,336
Yoga Studios Per 1,000 People: 0.1
Organic Markets Per 1,000 People: 0.0
Pet Adoption Centers Per 1,000 People: 0.15
Vegan Restaurants Per 1,000 People: 0.05
Thrift Stores Per 1,000 People: 0.3

9. Manhattan

Population: 55,112
Yoga Studios Per 1,000 People: 0.11
Organic Markets Per 1,000 People: 0.02
Pet Adoption Centers Per 1,000 People: 0.07
Vegan Restaurants Per 1,000 People: 0.15
Thrift Stores Per 1,000 People: 0.18

10. Hays

Population: 20,886
Yoga Studios Per 1,000 People: 0.1
Organic Markets Per 1,000 People: 0.05
Pet Adoption Centers Per 1,000 People: 0.1
Vegan Restaurants Per 1,000 People: 0.19
Thrift Stores Per 1,000 People: 0.24

There You Have It

If you’re measuring the locations in Kansas where there are lots of liberals, and there are many options for vegan food, yoga and thrift stores, this is an accurate list.

If you’re curious, here are the most square places in Kansas:

1. Liberal
2. Wellington
3. Ottawa

For more Kansas reading , check out:

• These Are The 10 Most Stressed Out Places In Kansas
• These Are The 10 Fastest Growing Cities In Kansas
• These Are The 10 Worst Places To Live In Kansas

Detailed List Of The Hippiest Cities In Kansas