The 10 Richest Cities In Nebraska For 2023


We analyzed 32 places in Nebraska to determine where the 1% live.

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Gretna, Seward, Schuyler: These cities aren’t just some of the best places to live in Nebraska. They are also home to some of the richest people in the Cornhusker State.

Gretna in particular houses the richest residents in the state thanks, in part, to a median household income of $85,476 and a ridiculously low poverty rate of 6.6772026866851055%.

If you’re thinking of moving to one of these towns, you’ll probably need to start saving. The richest places in Nebraska share common characteristics such as having a genius level populous, sky high home prices, and a Pleasantville level of married couples.

How did we come up with these mega wealthy cities? We analyzed Census data from the 2017-2021 American Community Survey for the 32 places in Nebraska with more than 5,000 people.

Here are the 10 richest places in Nebraska for 2023:

  1. Gretna
  2. Seward
  3. Schuyler
  4. Papillion
  5. Ralston
  6. Columbus
  7. La Vista
  8. Gering
  9. South Sioux City
  10. Bellevue

For more on how we calculated the top ten, read on or skip to the end for the full list of the richest cities in Nebraska.

Rich people not your cup of tea? Feel free to check out some more reading about Nebraska:

The 10 Richest Cities In Nebraska For 2023

1. Gretna

Gretna, NE

Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Population: 5,106
Rank Last Year: 1 (No Change)
Median Income: $85,476
Unemployment Rate: 0.0%
Poverty Rate: 6.7%
More on Gretna: Real Estate | Photos

2. Seward

Seward, NE

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

9
/10

Population: 7,651
Rank Last Year: 3 (Up 1)
Median Income: $68,348
Unemployment Rate: 1.5%
Poverty Rate: 7.9%
More on Seward: Real Estate | Photos

3. Schuyler

Schuyler, NE

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

8
/10

Population: 6,526
Rank Last Year: 7 (Up 4)
Median Income: $70,592
Unemployment Rate: 0.3%
Poverty Rate: 10.6%
More on Schuyler: Real Estate | Photos

4. Papillion

Papillion, NE

Overall SnackAbility

9.5
/10

Population: 23,875
Rank Last Year: 2 (Down 2)
Median Income: $95,293
Unemployment Rate: 3.0%
Poverty Rate: 4.8%
More on Papillion: Real Estate | Photos

5. Ralston

Ralston, NE

Overall SnackAbility

8.5
/10

Population: 6,453
Rank Last Year: 5 (No Change)
Median Income: $64,735
Unemployment Rate: 2.8%
Poverty Rate: 6.2%
More on Ralston: Real Estate | Photos

6. Columbus

Columbus, NE

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

7
/10

Population: 23,954
Rank Last Year: 6 (No Change)
Median Income: $60,586
Unemployment Rate: 2.5%
Poverty Rate: 7.9%
More on Columbus: Real Estate | Photos

7. La Vista

La Vista, NE

Overall SnackAbility

8.5
/10

Population: 16,786
Rank Last Year: 4 (Down 3)
Median Income: $70,310
Unemployment Rate: 3.9%
Poverty Rate: 6.1%
More on La Vista: Real Estate | Photos

8. Gering

Gering, NE

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

8
/10

Population: 8,521
Rank Last Year: 9 (Up 1)
Median Income: $64,631
Unemployment Rate: 3.2%
Poverty Rate: 8.5%
More on Gering: Real Estate | Photos

9. South Sioux City

South Sioux City, NE

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Population: 13,796
Rank Last Year: 26 (Up 17)
Median Income: $57,783
Unemployment Rate: 1.5%
Poverty Rate: 11.5%
More on South Sioux City: Real Estate | Photos

10. Bellevue

Bellevue, NE

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

7.5
/10

Population: 62,888
Rank Last Year: 8 (Down 2)
Median Income: $73,534
Unemployment Rate: 3.6%
Poverty Rate: 8.7%
More on Bellevue: Real Estate | Photos

Methodology: How We Determined The Richest Places In Nebraska For 2023

Map Of The Richest Places To Live In Nebraska
The first thing that comes to most people’s minds when they think about determining the richest places is to simply identify personal incomes. After all, rich people have really high salaries.

However, we don’t believe that one statistic wholly encompasses what it means to be one of the “richest places”. So we looked at this set of criteria from the newly released 2017-2021 American Community Survey:

  • Poverty Level
  • Median Household Income
  • Unemployment Rate

Median household income is the most digestible way to understand how rich a place really is. The unemployment rate tries to capture the prospects for more people to become rich. If more people are employed, the richer the future looks.

After we collected the data for all 32 places with more than 5,000 people in Nebraska, we ranked each place from 1 to 32 for each of the criteria, with 1 being the richest.

We then averaged all the rankings for a place into a “Rich Score” with the place having the lowest overall Rich Score, Gretna, crowned the “Richest City In Nebraska For 2023”. You can download the data here.

You can learn more about the top ten below or skip to the end to see the rankings for all 32 places.

Summary: The Wealthiest Places In Nebraska For 2023

Like we said earlier, when we set out to identify the richest places in Nebraska, we weren’t sure what we’d encounter, but it ended up being some of the best places to live in Nebraska.

When you look at the data, the cities and places mentioned above meet the criteria for being at the very top of the income ladder for everyone that lives there.

If you’re curious enough, here are the poorest cities in Nebraska, according to data:

Poorest: Crete
2nd Poorest: Wayne
3rd Poorest: Lexington

For more Nebraska reading, check out:

Detailed List Of The Richest Cities In Nebraska

Rank City RichScore Median Income
1 Gretna 2.33 $85,476
2 Seward 5.33 $68,348
3 Schuyler 5.67 $70,592
4 Papillion 6.0 $95,293
5 Ralston 8.67 $64,735
6 Columbus 9.67 $60,586
7 La Vista 10.67 $70,310
8 Gering 11.33 $64,631
9 South Sioux City 11.67 $57,783
10 Bellevue 11.67 $73,534
11 Blair 13.33 $68,196
12 Plattsmouth 13.33 $52,109
13 Kearney 15.33 $62,695
14 York 16.33 $61,230
15 Sidney 16.33 $49,812
16 Lincoln 16.67 $62,566
17 Omaha 17.0 $65,359
18 Holdrege 17.33 $55,313
19 Grand Island 18.33 $58,162
20 Hastings 18.67 $54,606
21 Chadron 20.67 $50,363
22 Nebraska City 21.33 $59,983
23 Norfolk 21.33 $52,021
24 Fremont 21.67 $57,551
25 Scottsbluff 23.0 $50,788
26 Mccook 23.33 $51,711
27 Alliance 23.67 $56,866
28 North Platte 23.67 $54,489
29 Beatrice 24.67 $45,858
30 Lexington 25.0 $56,729
31 Wayne 26.33 $46,610
32 Crete 27.67 $51,520

How Is The Area In ?

Editor’s Note: Data has been updated for 2023. This is our tenth time ranking the richest cities in Nebraska.

About Chris Kolmar

Chris Kolmar has been in the real estate business for almost ten years now. He originally worked for Movoto Real Estate as the director of marketing before founding HomeSnacks.

He believes the key to finding the right place to live comes down to looking at the data, reading about things to do, and, most importantly, checking it out yourself before you move.

If you've been looking for a place to live in the past several years, you've probably stumbled upon his writing already.

You can find out more about him on LinkedIn or his website.