Like all states, Kansas has certain places that are going on hard times. These Kansas places have an above-average percentage of people living in poverty, out of work, or not making as much as they should be.
Even as the economy continues to improve, it’s worthwhile to look at the places in each state struggling to make ends meet. So we set our sites on locating the poorest places in Kansas.
To do so, we used Saturday Night Science to analyze the newest Census data from the American Community Survey for the 64 cities in Kansas with more than 5,000 people.
$43,419 median income · 29.6% poverty · #1 lowest income in Kansas
Located in
Crawford County, Kansas
Pittsburg, unfortunately, ranks as the poorest place in Kansas thanks to combination of low pay and and a lack of jobs.
The city of 20,637 people averages the lowest median household income in Kansas and the highest poverty rate. At the very least, the cost of living ranks in the bottom 15% of place in the state, so things like housing are relatively affordable.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$45,670 median income · 21.1% poverty · #2 lowest income in Kansas
Located in
Montgomery County, Kansas
The second poorest city in Kansas is Coffeyville.
The city ranks as having the 3rd highest incidence of poverty and 2nd lowest median household income. However, the unemployment rate ‘only’ ranks as the 44th highest in the Sunflower State.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$51,069 median income · 18.4% poverty · #6 lowest income in Kansas
Located in
Montgomery County, Kansas
Placing as the third poorest city, Independence’s median income ranks as the 6th lowest.
And that’s a sign that there’s a relatively substantial jump in the quality of the economy from second to third place on our list. The poverty rate is 18.4% and ranks near the bottom of places in the state.
But what makes up for the relatively low incomes of the city is its low cost of living. The income you do make here goes further than in most parts of the Sunflower State.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$52,428 median income · 20.9% poverty · #9 lowest income in Kansas
Located in
Labette County, Kansas
Parsons ranks as the fourth poorest place in Kansas.
The town ranks as having the 9th lowest median household income and the 4th highest incidence of poverty in the state.
That being said, there’s still a ton of cultural diversity in the city as it hosts many events throughout the year.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$49,629 median income · 17.2% poverty · #3 lowest income in Kansas
Located in
Cowley County, Kansas
The fifth poorest city in Kansas is Arkansas City.
The city ranks as having the 3rd lowest median income in the state. However, an extremely low cost of living prevents a good number of folks from living in poverty as the poverty rate only ranks as the 11th highest in Kansas.
Still not the best news for Arkansas City.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$50,882 median income · 17.3% poverty · #5 lowest income in Kansas
Located in
Neosho County, Kansas
Chanute ranks as the sixth poorest place in the Sunflower State.
It ranks as having the 10th highest incidence of poverty and the 18th highest unemployment rate.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$52,704 median income · 17.8% poverty · #10 lowest income in Kansas
Located in
Lyon County, Kansas
Emporia places as the seventh poorest city in Kansas.
The city of over 24,131 ranks as having the 7th highest incidence of poverty in the state. However, it has a very low cost of living which helps to pay the bills each month.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$50,333 median income · 16.4% poverty · #4 lowest income in Kansas
Located in
Sumner County, Kansas
Wellington ranks as the eighth poorest city in Kansas.
The big issue for the town is the unemployment rate which ranks as one of the highest in the state.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$60,172 median income · 23.3% poverty · #20 lowest income in Kansas
Located in
Riley County, Kansas
Manhattan couldn’t stay out of the top ten poorest places in Kansas; it ranks number 9.
While the median income is the 20th lowest, there are a substantial number of people that live below the poverty line. Overall, Manhattan ranks as having the 2nd most people living in poverty of all the places we analyzed in Kansas.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$58,459 median income · 20.1% poverty · #17 lowest income in Kansas
Located in
Ellis County, Kansas
And rounding out the top ten poorest cities in Kansas is Hays.
The city of 21,143 people ranks in the bottom 20% for both median income and poverty rate in the Sunflower State.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
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: 11.3%
Kansas statewide median: 3.9%
On the map
Where poverty hits hardest in Kansas
Saturday Night Science
How we determined the poorest places in Kansas for 2026
The first thing that comes to most people’s minds when they think about determining the poorest places is to simply the poverty rate. That is, the number of people living below a federally established level of income for a household of a certain size.
However, we don’t think that one statistic wholly encompasses what it means to be one of the “poorest places”. So we used Saturday Night Science to look at this set of criteria from the newly released 2020-2024 American Community Survey:
- Poverty Level
- Median Household Income
After we collected the data for all 64 places with more than 5,000 people in Kansas, we ranked each place from 1 to 64 for each of the criteria, with 1 being the poorest.
We then averaged all the rankings for a place into a “Poor Score” with the place having the lowest overall Poor Score, Pittsburg, crowned the “Poorest Place In Kansas For 2026”. The median Kansas home is 50 years old — old enough that it pays to compare home warranty plans before something expensive breaks.
The full plate
Detailed list of the poorest places to live in Kansas
Click any column to sort. Search by city name.
| Rank | City | Poor Score | Population | Median income | Poverty | Unemployment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pittsburg | 1.00 | 20,637 | $43,419 | 29.6% | 4.0% |
| 2 | Coffeyville | 2.50 | 8,662 | $45,670 | 21.1% | 3.2% |
| 3 | Independence | 6.00 | 8,422 | $51,069 | 18.4% | 7.0% |
| 4 | Parsons | 6.50 | 9,425 | $52,428 | 20.9% | 2.2% |
| 5 | Arkansas City | 7.00 | 11,884 | $49,629 | 17.2% | 2.8% |
| 6 | Chanute | 7.50 | 8,598 | $50,882 | 17.3% | 5.2% |
| 7 | Emporia | 8.50 | 24,131 | $52,704 | 17.8% | 2.0% |
| 8 | Wellington | 9.00 | 7,615 | $50,333 | 16.4% | 7.0% |
| 9 | Manhattan | 11.00 | 54,239 | $60,172 | 23.3% | 3.6% |
| 10 | Hays | 11.00 | 21,143 | $58,459 | 20.1% | 3.6% |
| 11 | Great Bend | 11.50 | 14,479 | $54,139 | 16.9% | 4.7% |
| 12 | Junction City | 14.50 | 22,331 | $61,181 | 17.5% | 6.2% |
| 13 | Atchison | 15.00 | 10,785 | $54,474 | 15.8% | 5.3% |
| 14 | Fort Scott | 16.00 | 7,555 | $52,159 | 13.5% | 6.3% |
| 15 | El Dorado | 16.00 | 12,769 | $59,180 | 16.6% | 3.3% |
| 16 | Topeka | 16.50 | 125,786 | $56,956 | 15.7% | 4.9% |
| 17 | Winfield | 16.50 | 11,711 | $56,656 | 15.4% | 7.3% |
| 18 | Kansas City | 19.00 | 155,135 | $62,401 | 16.0% | 5.8% |
| 19 | Concordia | 19.00 | 5,015 | $51,138 | 12.2% | 3.2% |
| 20 | Hutchinson | 19.00 | 39,709 | $58,687 | 14.9% | 4.6% |
| 21 | Lawrence | 19.50 | 96,051 | $65,009 | 17.4% | 4.4% |
| 22 | Wichita | 22.00 | 397,945 | $64,620 | 15.9% | 5.6% |
| 23 | Pratt | 24.00 | 6,577 | $63,819 | 14.3% | 3.7% |
| 24 | Salina | 24.50 | 46,307 | $61,783 | 13.0% | 5.2% |
| 25 | Liberal | 25.50 | 19,316 | $63,706 | 13.1% | 5.2% |
| 26 | Dodge City | 26.50 | 27,613 | $68,721 | 14.6% | 5.6% |
| 27 | Iola | 27.00 | 5,348 | $54,221 | 8.6% | 8.4% |
| 28 | Augusta | 31.00 | 9,216 | $64,919 | 11.9% | 4.2% |
| 29 | Haysville | 31.50 | 11,117 | $67,740 | 11.9% | 3.7% |
| 30 | Abilene | 32.50 | 6,449 | $57,924 | 6.8% | 3.2% |
| 31 | Maize | 33.00 | 6,824 | $72,024 | 12.4% | 2.7% |
| 32 | McPherson | 34.00 | 13,995 | $77,529 | 13.5% | 1.9% |
| 33 | Colby | 34.00 | 5,387 | $63,494 | 8.0% | 0.6% |
| 34 | Park City | 34.50 | 7,673 | $74,301 | 12.5% | 2.5% |
| 35 | Louisburg | 35.00 | 5,094 | $68,824 | 9.7% | 5.9% |
| 36 | Tonganoxie | 35.50 | 5,891 | $80,109 | 13.2% | 4.5% |
| 37 | Newton | 36.50 | 18,397 | $68,885 | 9.7% | 6.1% |
| 38 | Leavenworth | 36.50 | 37,195 | $72,987 | 11.7% | 4.8% |
| 39 | Garden City | 36.50 | 27,819 | $72,865 | 11.0% | 2.7% |
| 40 | Ulysses | 37.00 | 5,476 | $63,857 | 7.6% | 0.9% |
| 41 | Bonner Springs | 38.00 | 7,839 | $83,218 | 12.4% | 2.5% |
| 42 | Ottawa | 38.00 | 12,678 | $71,699 | 9.1% | 2.9% |
| 43 | Mission | 40.50 | 9,915 | $75,534 | 9.7% | 3.2% |
| 44 | Mulvane | 41.50 | 6,171 | $74,039 | 8.5% | 6.0% |
| 45 | Bel Aire | 43.00 | 9,043 | $97,795 | 11.8% | 2.9% |
| 46 | Paola | 43.50 | 5,770 | $74,662 | 7.8% | 4.2% |
| 47 | Roeland Park | 44.50 | 6,763 | $88,774 | 9.2% | 3.0% |
| 48 | Merriam | 46.50 | 11,085 | $73,600 | 6.0% | 5.4% |
| 49 | Gardner | 50.50 | 24,526 | $96,818 | 6.3% | 3.8% |
| 50 | Derby | 50.50 | 26,062 | $84,112 | 6.0% | 3.7% |
| 51 | Lansing | 52.00 | 11,246 | $102,786 | 6.3% | 4.5% |
| 52 | Spring Hill | 52.50 | 9,120 | $112,428 | 7.7% | 2.1% |
| 53 | Valley Center | 53.00 | 8,590 | $77,020 | 3.6% | 3.5% |
| 54 | De Soto | 53.50 | 6,414 | $104,000 | 6.1% | 8.6% |
| 55 | Basehor | 55.00 | 7,491 | $116,769 | 7.0% | 6.3% |
| 56 | Lenexa | 56.00 | 58,384 | $103,239 | 5.4% | 2.8% |
| 57 | Overland Park | 56.50 | 200,306 | $104,834 | 5.6% | 3.6% |
| 58 | Goddard | 57.00 | 6,030 | $94,004 | 1.9% | 3.6% |
| 59 | Prairie Village | 57.50 | 22,874 | $113,530 | 5.7% | 3.0% |
| 60 | Shawnee | 58.50 | 68,542 | $109,940 | 5.3% | 3.3% |
| 61 | Andover | 58.50 | 15,965 | $104,787 | 4.6% | 2.7% |
| 62 | Olathe | 59.00 | 145,057 | $114,009 | 5.6% | 2.7% |
| 63 | Eudora | 61.50 | 6,119 | $118,184 | 4.9% | 2.9% |
| 64 | Leawood | 63.50 | 33,809 | $185,625 | 3.1% | 2.0% |
Source: U.S. Census ACS 2020-2024. 64 cities with more than 5,000 residents.
Summary
The poorest cities in Kansas for 2026
Like we said earlier, when we set out to identify the poorest places in Kansas, we weren’t sure what we’d encounter, but it ended up being some of the best places to live in Kansas.
When you look at the data, the cities and places mentioned above meet the criteria for being at the very bottom of the income ladder for everyone that lives there. Not sold on Kansas? Take the two-minute Find Your Place quiz and see which state actually fits you.
