Are you sick of being a city slicker?
Do you long for life in suburban Kansas? Where you can drive your overly-large vehicle to the store for groceries, and schlep the kids around to practices and appointments without worrying about a parking space?
We do too.
Public transportation is…icky at times. When you have to call an Uber to get to urgent care on a Friday night, that gets old after a while.
So, the question is, if you wanted to move out to the suburbs of Topeka, where would you go? And how would you decide on the ranking factors to help you pick which Kansas suburb was best?
No worries. We got it all figured out here.
These are the 10 best suburbs in the Sunflower State:
- Bel Aire
- Colwich
- Derby
- North Newton
- Andover
- Mulvane
- Rose Hill (Photos)
- Clearwater (Photos)
- Kechi
- Valley Center
Bel Aire is the place to be when it comes to being a soccer mom in suburban Kansas.
So if you’re thinking of packing up your mini van and making a move to a quiet place to live in Kansas, we’ve got you covered.
Keep on reading for a detailed methodology. Or, check out the best places to live in Kansas and the best places to raise a family in Kansas.
How do you determine which suburb is the best in Kansas anyways?
To give you the best suburbs in Kansas, we have to look at a handful of metrics. Of course, we want to measure the type of people who live in each city, and make some assumptions about what’s a ‘best city’ and what isn’t.
So we researched the internet for a database that contains all that information.
How we crunched the suburb numbers for the Sunflower State
We threw a lot of criteria at this one in order to get the best, most complete results possible. Using U.S. Census data produced for the state of Kansas, we looked at every town between 1,000 and 200,000 residents, and within 30 miles of a city that’s over 200,000 people (In other words, suburbs).
We paid particular attention to:
- Median Home Values
- Median Income
- Population Density (Higher is Better)
- Unemployment Rates
- Commute Time
- Education Levels
- Health Insurance Coverage
- Poverty Rates
We ranked each suburb in Kansas across a number of criteria from one to 26, with one being the best.
We then took the average rank across all criteria, with the town posting the lowest overall score being crowned the winner of the title ‘Best Suburb To Live In Kansas’.
The result is some of the safest, quiet, and awesome places to live in Kansas
Read on to see why Bel Aire is the ‘burb with the most, while Newton is probably not the best place to live in Kansas.
1. Bel Aire
Population: 7,214
Median Income: $80,324
Median Home Price: $141,900
Bel Aire is located 7 miles east of Wichita.
2. Colwich
Population: 1,305
Median Income: $76,406
Median Home Price: $123,800
Colwich is located 12 miles west of Wichita.
3. Derby
Population: 23,847
Median Income: $68,965
Median Home Price: $156,900
Derby is located 10 miles south of Wichita.
4. North Newton
Population: 1,901
Median Income: $57,500
Median Home Price: $148,900
North Newton is located 26 miles north of Wichita.
5. Andover
Population: 12,477
Median Income: $85,230
Median Home Price: $176,200
Andover is located 11 miles east of Wichita.
6. Mulvane
Population: 5,461
Median Income: $68,560
Median Home Price: $125,900
Mulvane is located 15 miles south of Wichita.
7. Rose Hill
Population: 3,915
Median Income: $67,308
Median Home Price: $136,200
Rose Hill is located 14 miles east of Wichita.
8. Clearwater
Population: 2,423
Median Income: $61,667
Median Home Price: $130,800
Clearwater is located 15 miles south of Wichita.
9. Kechi
Population: 2,352
Median Income: $90,781
Median Home Price: $167,500
Kechi is located 8 miles north of Wichita.
10. Valley Center
Population: 6,420
Median Income: $58,384
Median Home Price: $137,400
Valley Center is located 9 miles north of Wichita.
There You Have It – The Best Suburbs In Kansas
Here’s a look at the worst suburbs in Kansas according to the data:
- Newton
- Wellington
- Douglass
For more Kansas reading, check out:
Detailed List Of The Best Suburbs In Kansas
City | Rank |
---|---|
Bel Aire | 1 |
Colwich | 2 |
Derby | 3 |
North Newton | 4 |
Andover | 5 |
Mulvane | 6 |
Rose Hill | 7 |
Clearwater | 8 |
Kechi | 9 |
Valley Center | 10 |
Goddard | 11 |
Halstead | 12 |
Oxford | 13 |
Haven | 14 |
Haysville | 15 |
Conway Springs | 16 |
Maize | 17 |
Belle Plaine | 18 |
Cheney | 19 |
Towanda | 20 |
Sedgwick | 21 |
El Dorado | 22 |
Augusta | 23 |
Douglass | 24 |
Wellington | 25 |
Newton | 26 |