Some of you might be asking yourself, at this very moment, is Kansas a good place?
The answer is unequivocally yes… if you know where to locate the best counties to live in Kansas.
Lucky for you, we’re here to help you identify the best counties to live in the Sunflower State based on the most recently available data from the Census. And this isn’t our first rodeo — we’ve been using Saturday Night Science to rank places for years.
The question becomes if you wanted to relocate to the best part of Kansas, where would you go? To answer that, we looked at crime, cost of living, and demographic data for all 105 counties in the state.
Pottawatomie County is the county to be when it comes to living the good life in Kansas. And you should avoid Edwards County if you can — at least according to the data.
$92,325 median income · 2.1% unemployment
$109,208 median income · 3.2% unemployment
$81,528 median income · 1.0% unemployment
$81,278 median income · 2.4% unemployment
$77,348 median income · 1.5% unemployment
$73,750 median income · 0.7% unemployment
$59,955 median income · 0.6% unemployment
$75,215 median income · 1.8% unemployment
$89,000 median income · 3.7% unemployment
$71,325 median income · 0.6% unemployment
The receipts
Compare the top ten
Pick a metric. The bars rescale. The red line is Kansas’s statewide median.
Kansas statewide median: $74,275
Kansas statewide median: $244,761
Kansas statewide median: 3.9%
On the map
Where Kansas’s best counties are
Saturday Night Science
Methodology: How do you determine which Kansas county is the best?
To give you the best county in Kansas, we have to look at a handful of metrics that signal the quality of a place. To do that, we made assumptions about what’s in a “best county” and what isn’t. For reference, we are trying to make the kind of argument you’d make at a bar using facts, Saturday Night Science.
With that in mind, we went to two of the best data sources on the internet. Namely, the American Community Survey data and FBI Crime data for the most recent period.
We paid particular attention to:
- Violent Crime Rates
- Property Crime Rates
- Median Home Values
- Median Income
- Unemployment Rates
- Adult Education Levels
- Health Insurance Coverage
- Poverty Rates
We then ranked each county in Kansas across each of the criteria from one to 105, with one being the best.
Taking the average rank across all criteria, we created a quality of life score with the county posting the lowest overall score being the “Best County To Live In Kansas.”
The result is some of the safest, quietest, and best counties to raise a family in the Sunflower State.
We updated this article for 2026. This report is our eleventh time ranking the best counties to live in Kansas.
Read on to see why Pottawatomie County is the best county, while Edwards County is probably in contention for being the worst county in Kansas.
The full plate
Detailed List Of The Best Counties In Kansas
Click any column to sort. Search by county name.
| Rank | County | Population | Median Income | Median Home Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pottawatomie County | 26,204 | $92,325 | $324,482 |
| 2 | Johnson County | 620,631 | $109,208 | $459,391 |
| 3 | Trego County | 2,777 | $81,528 | $143,348 |
| 4 | Jefferson County | 18,349 | $81,278 | $281,949 |
| 5 | Nemaha County | 10,160 | $77,348 | $241,966 |
| 6 | Sheridan County | 2,426 | $73,750 | $234,560 |
| 7 | Hodgeman County | 1,652 | $59,955 | $160,390 |
| 8 | Jackson County | 13,341 | $75,215 | $250,557 |
| 9 | Miami County | 34,938 | $89,000 | $371,974 |
| 10 | Thomas County | 7,885 | $71,325 | $175,114 |
| 11 | Leavenworth County | 83,123 | $89,218 | $344,041 |
| 12 | Butler County | 68,287 | $81,610 | $244,142 |
| 13 | Washington County | 5,533 | $65,482 | $162,841 |
| 14 | Rawlins County | 2,516 | $67,742 | $136,297 |
| 15 | McPherson County | 30,205 | $78,851 | $222,474 |
| 16 | Gove County | 2,799 | $66,029 | $155,146 |
| 17 | Osage County | 15,744 | $74,467 | $207,645 |
| 18 | Doniphan County | 7,503 | $74,028 | $165,154 |
| 18 | Ottawa County | 5,819 | $74,018 | $175,170 |
| 20 | Franklin County | 26,106 | $77,207 | $257,410 |
| 21 | Smith County | 3,552 | $59,135 | $110,245 |
| 22 | Scott County | 5,027 | $68,839 | $184,068 |
| 23 | Rooks County | 4,813 | $62,500 | $122,904 |
| 24 | Clay County | 8,048 | $66,176 | $167,257 |
| 25 | Ellsworth County | 6,360 | $65,560 | $137,041 |
| 26 | Greeley County | 1,304 | $80,565 | $149,133 |
| 27 | Marshall County | 9,993 | $68,419 | $156,076 |
| 28 | Wabaunsee County | 7,009 | $76,908 | $258,358 |
| 29 | Wallace County | 1,417 | $63,207 | $146,653 |
| 30 | Dickinson County | 18,445 | $68,417 | $170,171 |
| 31 | Kiowa County | 2,422 | $75,539 | $160,797 |
| 32 | Osborne County | 3,452 | $63,011 | $97,413 |
| 33 | Kearny County | 3,864 | $89,135 | $192,118 |
| 34 | Mitchell County | 5,779 | $64,246 | $135,931 |
| 35 | Douglas County | 120,302 | $69,746 | $333,701 |
| 36 | Chase County | 2,561 | $56,484 | $165,881 |
| 37 | Lincoln County | 2,923 | $57,500 | $128,553 |
| 38 | Harvey County | 33,756 | $74,368 | $188,877 |
| 39 | Gray County | 5,701 | $79,122 | $242,079 |
| 40 | Wichita County | 2,091 | $79,063 | $168,345 |
| 41 | Lane County | 1,461 | $54,526 | $109,476 |
| 43 | Riley County | 71,946 | $61,098 | $268,302 |
| 43 | Republic County | 4,646 | $56,833 | $113,992 |
| 43 | Barber County | 4,069 | $61,926 | $88,344 |
| 45 | Logan County | 2,707 | $75,662 | $157,809 |
| 46 | Ness County | 2,653 | $68,616 | $105,898 |
| 47 | Comanche County | 1,729 | $54,545 | $93,288 |
| 48 | Stanton County | 2,038 | $71,700 | $154,679 |
| 49 | Morris County | 5,340 | $58,686 | $188,209 |
| 50 | Jewell County | 2,916 | $52,634 | $117,434 |
| 51 | Norton County | 5,359 | $54,050 | $120,830 |
| 52 | Kingman County | 7,186 | $59,842 | $171,002 |
| 53 | Stafford County | 3,978 | $64,226 | $102,314 |
| 54 | Marion County | 11,754 | $64,695 | $138,582 |
| 55 | Ellis County | 28,920 | $63,084 | $241,381 |
| 56 | Cloud County | 8,898 | $58,770 | $115,389 |
| 57 | Sherman County | 5,858 | $61,750 | $150,841 |
| 58 | Russell County | 6,679 | $62,392 | $115,682 |
| 59 | Linn County | 9,767 | $59,069 | $169,750 |
| 59 | Shawnee County | 178,025 | $67,104 | $200,189 |
| 61 | Meade County | 3,903 | $71,852 | $121,290 |
| 62 | Grant County | 7,229 | $66,476 | $152,693 |
| 63 | Clark County | 1,974 | $63,043 | $85,923 |
| 64 | Anderson County | 7,834 | $70,614 | $192,521 |
| 65 | Sumner County | 22,353 | $63,951 | $144,021 |
| 66 | Atchison County | 16,208 | $61,112 | $181,317 |
| 67 | Elk County | 2,453 | $64,609 | $96,811 |
| 68 | Rice County | 9,350 | $63,925 | $116,694 |
| 69 | Hamilton County | 2,471 | $70,250 | $148,172 |
| 70 | Coffey County | 8,308 | $70,346 | $193,850 |
| 71 | Phillips County | 4,813 | $62,123 | $116,450 |
| 72 | Geary County | 35,815 | $59,317 | $216,269 |
| 73 | Finney County | 38,084 | $73,009 | $234,022 |
| 74 | Brown County | 9,343 | $62,233 | $154,025 |
| 75 | Saline County | 53,668 | $65,422 | $175,858 |
| 76 | Pratt County | 9,127 | $66,022 | $123,329 |
| 77 | Sedgwick County | 528,226 | $69,365 | $222,530 |
| 78 | Decatur County | 2,726 | $53,870 | $108,892 |
| 79 | Pawnee County | 6,144 | $63,517 | $107,044 |
| 80 | Lyon County | 32,186 | $59,912 | $186,020 |
| 81 | Allen County | 12,483 | $60,689 | $112,160 |
| 82 | Woodson County | 3,109 | $50,326 | $114,988 |
| 83 | Rush County | 2,947 | $59,970 | $92,824 |
| 84 | Haskell County | 3,641 | $66,162 | $175,817 |
| 85 | Graham County | 2,389 | $50,650 | $116,545 |
| 86 | Reno County | 61,553 | $60,645 | $151,597 |
| 87 | Morton County | 2,611 | $66,447 | $105,640 |
| 88 | Ford County | 34,074 | $70,781 | $209,376 |
| 89 | Neosho County | 15,656 | $56,618 | $108,188 |
| 89 | Greenwood County | 5,919 | $60,042 | $104,223 |
| 91 | Wilson County | 8,505 | $60,677 | $102,252 |
| 92 | Stevens County | 5,162 | $64,178 | $166,426 |
| 93 | Cowley County | 34,411 | $57,878 | $124,850 |
| 94 | Bourbon County | 14,394 | $59,238 | $131,363 |
| 95 | Cheyenne County | 2,628 | $55,429 | $179,571 |
| 96 | Wyandotte County | 167,654 | $63,631 | $204,979 |
| 97 | Harper County | 5,400 | $53,488 | $97,012 |
| 98 | Seward County | 21,486 | $63,827 | $145,403 |
| 99 | Cherokee County | 19,151 | $57,668 | $125,219 |
| 100 | Barton County | 25,097 | $58,851 | $120,136 |
Source: U.S. Census ACS + FBI crime data via Saturday Night Science. All 105 Kansas counties.
Summary
Summary: The Best Counties In Kansas To Call Home For 2026
Living in Kansas can vary from one part of the state to the next — who woulda thought?
The best counties in Kansas are Pottawatomie County, Johnson County, Trego County, Jefferson County, Nemaha County, Sheridan County, Hodgeman County, Jackson County, Miami County, and Thomas County.
But now you know the outstanding parts and the parts to avoid, and that’s why you came here to learn at the end of the day.
You are welcome.
