Mission Hills, Leawood, Fairway: These cities aren’t just some of the best places to live in Kansas. They are also home to some of the richest people in the Sunflower State.
Mission Hills in particular houses the richest residents in the state thanks, in part, to a median household income of $250,001 and a ridiculously low poverty rate of 1.2%.
If you’re thinking of moving to one of these towns, you’ll probably need to start saving. The richest places in Kansas 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 2020-2024 American Community Survey for the 88 places in Kansas with more than 3,000 people.
$250,001 median income · 1.2% poverty · #1 income in Kansas
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$185,625 median income · 3.1% poverty · #2 income in Kansas
Located in
Johnson County, KansasLeawood is a city in Johnson County, Kansas, United States, and part of the Kansas City metropolitan area. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 31,867.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$152,574 median income · 3.1% poverty · #3 income in Kansas
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$113,530 median income · 5.7% poverty · #7 income in Kansas
Prairie Village is a city in Johnson County, Kansas, United States, and part of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 21,447.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$116,769 median income · 7.0% poverty · #5 income in Kansas
Basehor is a city in Leavenworth County, Kansas, United States and is a suburb of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 4,613.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$114,009 median income · 5.6% poverty · #6 income in Kansas
Located in
Johnson County, KansasOlathe is a city in, and is the county seat of, Johnson County, Kansas, United States. Located in northeastern Kansas, it is the fourth most populous city in Kansas, with a population of 125,872 persons as of 2010. Olathe is also the fourth-largest city in the Kansas City metropolitan area. It is bordered by the cities of Lenexa to the north, Overland Park to the east, De Soto to the northwest, and Gardner to the southwest.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$104,834 median income · 5.6% poverty · #10 income in Kansas
Located in
Johnson County, KansasOverland Park is the second most populous city in the U.S. state of Kansas. Located in Johnson County, it is also the second most populous city in the Kansas City metropolitan area. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 173,372.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$103,239 median income · 5.4% poverty · #13 income in Kansas
Located in
Johnson County, KansasLenexa is a city in Johnson County, Kansas, United States, and part of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 48,190. It is bordered by the cities of Shawnee to the north, Overland Park to the east, De Soto to the west and Olathe to the south.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$112,428 median income · 7.7% poverty · #8 income in Kansas
Located in
Miami County, KansasSpring Hill is a city in Johnson and Miami counties in the U.S. state of Kansas, and part of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 5,437.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$109,940 median income · 5.3% poverty · #9 income in Kansas
Located in
Johnson County, KansasShawnee is a city located in Johnson County, Kansas, United States, and part of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 62,209.
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: $244,761
Kansas statewide median: 11.3%
Kansas statewide median: 3.9%
On the map
Where the money lives in Kansas
Saturday Night Science
How we determined the richest places in Kansas for 2026
The first thing most people reach for is personal income. After all, rich people have really high salaries. But one statistic doesn’t capture what it means to be one of the “richest places,” so we applied Saturday Night Science to two measures from the 2020-2024 American Community Survey:
- Median household income
- Median home value
Median household income is the most digestible way to understand how rich a place is, and home values are a measure of accumulated wealth. The two combine to define a “Rich City.”
After collecting the data for all 88 places in Kansas with more than 3,000 people, we ranked each place from 1 to 88 on both criteria, then averaged the two ranks into a “Rich Score.” The place with the lowest Rich Score, Mission Hills, is crowned the richest city in Kansas for 2026.
The full plate
All 88 richest cities in Kansas, ranked
Click any column to sort. Search by city name.
| Rank | City | Rich Score | Population | Median income | Median home value | Poverty | Unemployment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mission Hills | 1.00 | 3,548 | $250,001 | $1,603,473 | 1.2% | 0.3% |
| 2 | Leawood | 2.00 | 33,809 | $185,625 | $777,578 | 3.1% | 2.0% |
| 3 | Fairway | 3.00 | 4,159 | $152,574 | $634,208 | 3.1% | 1.7% |
| 4 | Prairie Village | 5.50 | 22,874 | $113,530 | $488,597 | 5.7% | 3.0% |
| 5 | Basehor | 6.00 | 7,491 | $116,769 | $439,342 | 7.0% | 6.3% |
| 6 | Olathe | 7.00 | 145,057 | $114,009 | $433,117 | 5.6% | 2.7% |
| 7 | Overland Park | 7.50 | 200,306 | $104,834 | $482,295 | 5.6% | 3.6% |
| 8 | Lenexa | 9.50 | 58,384 | $103,239 | $477,848 | 5.4% | 2.8% |
| 9 | Spring Hill | 9.50 | 9,120 | $112,428 | $419,142 | 7.7% | 2.1% |
| 10 | Shawnee | 9.50 | 68,542 | $109,940 | $424,763 | 5.3% | 3.3% |
| 11 | De Soto | 10.50 | 6,414 | $104,000 | $425,984 | 6.1% | 8.6% |
| 12 | Eudora | 10.50 | 6,119 | $118,184 | $332,798 | 4.9% | 2.9% |
| 13 | Andover | 16.50 | 15,965 | $104,787 | $325,994 | 4.6% | 2.7% |
| 14 | Gardner | 16.50 | 24,526 | $96,818 | $352,182 | 6.3% | 3.8% |
| 15 | Tonganoxie | 18.00 | 5,891 | $80,109 | $373,875 | 13.2% | 4.5% |
| 16 | Roeland Park | 18.50 | 6,763 | $88,774 | $332,319 | 9.2% | 3.0% |
| 17 | Lansing | 18.50 | 11,246 | $102,786 | $321,293 | 6.3% | 4.5% |
| 18 | Goddard | 21.50 | 6,030 | $94,004 | $300,790 | 1.9% | 3.6% |
| 19 | Paola | 21.50 | 5,770 | $74,662 | $371,666 | 7.8% | 4.2% |
| 20 | Mission | 23.50 | 9,915 | $75,534 | $330,951 | 9.7% | 3.2% |
| 21 | Rose Hill | 23.50 | 4,246 | $102,389 | $269,694 | 1.0% | 2.8% |
| 22 | Bel Aire | 23.50 | 9,043 | $97,795 | $278,866 | 11.8% | 2.9% |
| 23 | Bonner Springs | 23.50 | 7,839 | $83,218 | $300,304 | 12.4% | 2.5% |
| 24 | Baldwin City | 24.50 | 4,911 | $72,941 | $358,654 | 5.8% | 6.1% |
| 25 | Derby | 25.00 | 26,062 | $84,112 | $282,214 | 6.0% | 3.7% |
| 26 | Louisburg | 26.00 | 5,094 | $68,824 | $400,547 | 9.7% | 5.9% |
| 27 | Wamego | 26.00 | 4,386 | $78,809 | $295,898 | 5.2% | 1.6% |
| 28 | Merriam | 26.50 | 11,085 | $73,600 | $326,709 | 6.0% | 5.4% |
| 29 | Valley Center | 29.50 | 8,590 | $77,020 | $260,221 | 3.6% | 3.5% |
| 30 | Lindsborg | 30.50 | 3,792 | $81,250 | $233,796 | 6.8% | 4.6% |
| 31 | Maize | 30.50 | 6,824 | $72,024 | $307,838 | 12.4% | 2.7% |
| 32 | Edwardsville | 31.50 | 4,724 | $72,611 | $298,497 | 14.9% | 8.7% |
| 33 | Hesston | 32.00 | 3,582 | $75,225 | $239,949 | 5.7% | 4.1% |
| 34 | Lawrence | 33.00 | 96,051 | $65,009 | $331,113 | 17.4% | 4.4% |
| 35 | Leavenworth | 33.50 | 37,195 | $72,987 | $260,124 | 11.7% | 4.8% |
| 36 | McPherson | 34.00 | 13,995 | $77,529 | $217,268 | 13.5% | 1.9% |
| 37 | Mulvane | 34.00 | 6,171 | $74,039 | $235,791 | 8.5% | 6.0% |
| 38 | Park City | 36.00 | 7,673 | $74,301 | $220,147 | 12.5% | 2.5% |
| 39 | Garden City | 37.50 | 27,819 | $72,865 | $233,702 | 11.0% | 2.7% |
| 40 | Ottawa | 38.00 | 12,678 | $71,699 | $235,346 | 9.1% | 2.9% |
| 41 | Dodge City | 43.50 | 27,613 | $68,721 | $210,132 | 14.6% | 5.6% |
| 42 | Haysville | 44.50 | 11,117 | $67,740 | $207,754 | 11.9% | 3.7% |
| 43 | Manhattan | 44.50 | 54,239 | $60,172 | $288,518 | 23.3% | 3.6% |
| 44 | Augusta | 46.00 | 9,216 | $64,919 | $214,258 | 11.9% | 4.2% |
| 45 | Osawatomie | 46.50 | 4,182 | $66,991 | $200,351 | 16.6% | 4.2% |
| 46 | Newton | 47.50 | 18,397 | $68,885 | $171,182 | 9.7% | 6.1% |
| 47 | Wichita | 48.50 | 397,945 | $64,620 | $202,720 | 15.9% | 5.6% |
| 48 | Hays | 49.50 | 21,143 | $58,459 | $252,838 | 20.1% | 3.6% |
| 49 | Junction City | 53.00 | 22,331 | $61,181 | $207,588 | 17.5% | 6.2% |
| 50 | Colby | 53.50 | 5,387 | $63,494 | $180,598 | 8.0% | 0.6% |
| 51 | Kansas City | 53.50 | 155,135 | $62,401 | $198,195 | 16.0% | 5.8% |
| 52 | Ellsworth | 54.00 | 3,108 | $66,821 | $157,101 | 10.0% | 1.6% |
| 53 | Hiawatha | 56.50 | 3,197 | $68,750 | $137,118 | 14.7% | 6.2% |
| 54 | Salina | 56.50 | 46,307 | $61,783 | $173,120 | 13.0% | 5.2% |
| 55 | Garnett | 56.50 | 3,202 | $65,230 | $148,036 | 6.0% | 5.3% |
| 56 | Ulysses | 57.00 | 5,476 | $63,857 | $153,433 | 7.6% | 0.9% |
| 57 | Hugoton | 57.50 | 3,974 | $62,773 | $163,270 | 15.8% | 3.5% |
| 58 | Holton | 58.50 | 3,387 | $52,532 | $221,786 | 11.1% | 1.3% |
| 59 | Clay Center | 58.50 | 4,132 | $62,695 | $159,720 | 13.1% | 1.1% |
| 60 | Topeka | 58.50 | 125,786 | $56,956 | $190,096 | 15.7% | 4.9% |
| 61 | Abilene | 59.00 | 6,449 | $57,924 | $184,105 | 6.8% | 3.2% |
| 62 | El Dorado | 59.00 | 12,769 | $59,180 | $169,661 | 16.6% | 3.3% |
| 63 | Frontenac | 60.50 | 3,392 | $58,733 | $167,433 | 8.7% | 4.5% |
| 64 | Liberal | 61.00 | 19,316 | $63,706 | $145,107 | 13.1% | 5.2% |
| 65 | Scott City | 61.50 | 3,800 | $54,880 | $185,537 | 2.8% | 3.5% |
| 66 | Pratt | 64.00 | 6,577 | $63,819 | $123,111 | 14.3% | 3.7% |
| 67 | Atchison | 66.00 | 10,785 | $54,474 | $166,546 | 15.8% | 5.3% |
| 68 | Hutchinson | 66.00 | 39,709 | $58,687 | $146,981 | 14.9% | 4.6% |
| 69 | Emporia | 66.50 | 24,131 | $52,704 | $169,150 | 17.8% | 2.0% |
| 70 | Marysville | 67.50 | 3,422 | $55,386 | $151,679 | 12.0% | 2.2% |
| 71 | Lyons | 69.00 | 3,553 | $62,569 | $104,937 | 9.1% | 8.0% |
| 72 | Winfield | 69.50 | 11,711 | $56,656 | $137,701 | 15.4% | 7.3% |
| 73 | Goodland | 72.00 | 4,121 | $52,258 | $150,886 | 11.7% | 0.8% |
| 74 | Russell | 72.50 | 4,217 | $56,832 | $120,255 | 17.8% | 0.4% |
| 75 | Beloit | 74.00 | 3,029 | $52,114 | $147,756 | 17.9% | 0.2% |
| 76 | Great Bend | 75.00 | 14,479 | $54,139 | $124,919 | 16.9% | 4.7% |
| 77 | Larned | 76.00 | 3,423 | $55,648 | $104,921 | 14.0% | 1.8% |
| 78 | Fort Scott | 76.50 | 7,555 | $52,159 | $127,119 | 13.5% | 6.3% |
| 79 | Concordia | 78.50 | 5,015 | $51,138 | $125,724 | 12.2% | 3.2% |
| 80 | Iola | 79.50 | 5,348 | $54,221 | $87,715 | 8.6% | 8.4% |
| 81 | Baxter Springs | 80.00 | 3,855 | $51,404 | $119,708 | 24.3% | 5.6% |
| 82 | Pittsburg | 80.50 | 20,637 | $43,419 | $133,322 | 29.6% | 4.0% |
| 83 | Independence | 81.50 | 8,422 | $51,069 | $114,893 | 18.4% | 7.0% |
| 84 | Parsons | 82.00 | 9,425 | $52,428 | $78,523 | 20.9% | 2.2% |
| 85 | Wellington | 83.00 | 7,615 | $50,333 | $110,051 | 16.4% | 7.0% |
| 86 | Chanute | 84.50 | 8,598 | $50,882 | $96,749 | 17.3% | 5.2% |
| 87 | Arkansas City | 85.00 | 11,884 | $49,629 | $97,615 | 17.2% | 2.8% |
| 88 | Coffeyville | 87.50 | 8,662 | $45,670 | $62,588 | 21.1% | 3.2% |
Source: U.S. Census ACS 2020-2024, Zillow research. 88 cities with more than 3,000 residents.
Mission Hills is the richest place in Kansas for 2026
When we set out to identify the richest places in Kansas, we weren’t sure what we’d find, but it ended up being some of the best places to live in the state. The richest cities in Kansas are Mission Hills, Leawood, and Fairway, and when you look at the data they sit at the very top of the income ladder for everyone who lives there.
Breaking into the top ten takes a median household income of at least $103,239. If you’re curious about the other end of the ledger, the poorest places are listed to the right.
