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Place dossier plate
SheetKS-ARKANSAS-CITY-KS · Arkansas City, KS 11,909 pop · income 25th pct · 11 tracts
Instrument codes from this place’s ACS population and household income, BEA state COL, FBI safety, national income percentile, photo-finish peer city, home-value band, and matched Census-tract book - not a moving recommendation.
Income neighbourhood around Arkansas City
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Arkansas City on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
De Leon Sprin… · lowest
53,468
De Leon Sprin… · lowest
53,468 median HH income
26.6% of the leader · rank #1
Leesburg · near
53,472
Leesburg · near
53,472 median HH income
26.6% of the leader · rank #2
Rock Island A… · near
53,472
Rock Island A… · near
53,472 median HH income
26.6% of the leader · rank #3
Hendrum · near
53,472
Hendrum · near
53,472 median HH income
26.6% of the leader · rank #4
Catawissa · near
53,472
Catawissa · near
53,472 median HH income
26.6% of the leader · rank #5
Arkansas City · this city
53,475
Arkansas City · this city
53,475 median HH income
26.6% of the leader · rank #6
Rossmoor · highest
200,833
Rossmoor · highest
200,833 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #7
What this shows Neighbourhood peers only - not a full nationwide city board. Open a near peer when the gap is small; open the poles when the spread is wide.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by population, income, and FBI crime rate
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Arkansas City on ACS population and median household income
, plus FBI UCR reporting rate when the extract covers this place. Link sets are deduped so each column is a distinct comparison path, not a forecast that peers share a labor market or climate.
Similar population
Nearest out-of-state cities by ACS population. This city: 11,909.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Arkansas City - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Arkansas City lands in the 25th percentile for household income and the 21st percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
25th
percentile, household income
4th
percentile, home value
6th
percentile, median rent
21st
percentile, safety
📝 How we sourced this
Population, income, and housing-cost figures come from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates (B-series tables). Crime data uses FBI UCR; climate uses NOAA Climate Normals; school counts come from NCES Common Core of Data; permits use the Census Building Permits Survey (BPS). See our methodology page for the full ETL pipeline and OMB / FIPS join keys.
Data Snapshot: Arkansas City, KS
Kansas's Arkansas City is a small town, with 11,909 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Arkansas City households earn a median of $53,475 annually, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 14.5%. Home values in Arkansas City run a median of $81,700, and the median resident age is 35.5 years. Educational attainment runs 19.9% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 55.6% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 3 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Construction Slowdown), down 94% from five years earlier. Crime here tracks close to the national norm: per-100,000 total crime stands at 2572.6 in FBI UCR data, near the national average (a voluntary reporting program, read this as reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
Living costs in Kansas run below the national norm: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, Kansas scores 90.1 (Well Below Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $947 per month statewide. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Kansas run around $217, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 29.9 out of 100 (Very Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Arkansas City's data
How this reading path is ordered
This is not a composite city score. It is a city-specific route through the available public records, ordered for this profile so the page starts with questions the joined data can actually answer. The route here runs from population change to housing and income to comparison shortlist to schools and households to within-city variation to reported crime to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Arkansas City, city-specific coverage includes within-city Census tract profiles, local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count, annual population history, commute-mode shares.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
Question 1
Is Arkansas City growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -168 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -1.4% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 3 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Recent estimates point downward. A falling count can reflect migration, household size, annexation boundaries, or estimation noise, so it is a prompt to inspect the full series rather than a claim about local economic health.
How far does income reach against housing in Arkansas City?
This is a citywide price-to-income reference, not a mortgage-affordability test; it does not include interest rates, taxes, insurance, household size, or an individual buyer's down payment. The ratio makes housing the clearest place to start this profile, but a low multiple can coexist with slow demand, older stock, or household-level hardship. Compare the home-value distribution and same-state peer table before treating it as an advantage.
The home-value-to-income reference is relatively compact: the ACS median home value is 1.5 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 14.5%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Which cities make useful reference points for Arkansas City?
Use the in-state set to hold state policy and broad price conditions more nearly constant. Use the nationwide size set to ask whether cities with a similar resident count produce different housing, income, or commute outcomes. The income set is a third lens, deliberately separate from population matching. The nationwide peer panel below adds a fourth FBI UCR reporting-rate lens, not personal risk.
Within Kansas, the closest population matches are Winfield (11,731 residents, $58,140 income); Lansing (11,229 residents, $100,871 income); Ottawa (12,632 residents, $64,655 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Middleburg, FL (11,911 residents); Show Low, AZ (11,913 residents); Martinsville, IN (11,913 residents). A third, income-matched reference set of 6 out-of-state cities sits in the income neighbourhood chart near the Place Dossier plate. These are mechanical peer sets, not claims that the places share a labor market, climate, culture, or metro context.
What can 11 Census tracts reveal inside Arkansas City?
PlainCities matches 11 Census tracts to this city.
That layer breaks the citywide income, rent, and home-value medians into smaller Census geographies, which can reveal differences that one municipal median necessarily hides. A tract is a statistical area, not a locally defined neighborhood or a promise about conditions on a particular block. Start with the city profile for the broad comparison, then use the tract layer to test whether the same housing and income pattern is consistent across the city. Large within-city spreads are a reason to avoid treating any citywide median as a universal resident experience.
These joined records add useful context, but they do not need another full-size panel. Each remains a separate measure with its own geography and source boundary.
Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Arkansas City?
The city has a broader matched school footprint, but count alone does not describe performance, capacity, program availability, or attendance boundaries. This profile deliberately avoids converting it into an unsupported family-friendliness score.
The NCES join finds 8 public schools within the city match. 19.9% of adults age 25+ hold a bachelor's degree or higher in the ACS estimate. These measures answer different questions: the school count describes local institutions, while adult attainment describes residents and cannot be used as a school-quality rating.
Poverty estimate
14.5%
Bachelor's degree+
19.9%
Matched public schools
8
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Arkansas City?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 2572.6 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 13% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Treat this as a reporting-rate comparison, not a prediction of personal risk or a neighborhood-level safety grade. Tourism, daytime population, reporting practices, and variation inside the city are not adjusted away. The state rank and same-state peer table are the narrower comparisons available on this page.
Total reported rate
2572.6
Violent rate
401.7
Property rate
2170.9
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
What does the journey to work look like in Arkansas City?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 77.8%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. No single mode completely explains the work trip here. The mix is more useful than a one-number commute grade, especially when comparing places where transit, walking, and remote work divide the non-driving share differently.
Drive alone
77.8%
Work from home
3.2%
Public transit
0.3%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 4,979 workers age 16+.
Comparative score against U.S. cities with population of 1,000 or more on Census ACS medians
(income, poverty, bachelor's share, cost of living) and FBI UCR violent-crime rates when
published. Higher means a stronger standing on those published figures, not a livability
rating, not a recommendation to move, buy, or pick a "best" city. Missing inputs drop out
and redistribute weight.
How it is calculated.
Cost of living A
90.1 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Bachelor's+ share F
19.9%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$53,475
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
14.5%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
402 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Arkansas City profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 85/100 (A) · 90.1 index
Bachelor's+ share: 34/100 (F) · 19.9%
Household income: 25/100 (F) · $53,475
Poverty rate: 24/100 (F) · 14.5%
Violent crime: 22/100 (F) · 402 /100k
Where Arkansas City sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Arkansas City's median home value and FBI crime rate plotted with similar-size and
same-state peers (padded with large cities when the peer set is thin). The second
read: pricey does not always mean safer, check which quadrant this city lands in.
Census ACS median home value vs FBI UCR crime rate - Arkansas City highlighted among 9 peers.Read the chart values
Arkansas City, KS (this city): home $81,700, crime 2,573/100k
Show Low, AZ : home $275,000, crime 2,998/100k
South Miami, FL : home $736,900, crime 2,610/100k
Winfield, KS : home $121,200, crime 3,197/100k
Lansing, KS : home $247,500, crime 749/100k
Ottawa, KS : home $165,700, crime 1,260/100k
Haysville, KS : home $155,100, crime 1,562/100k
Merriam, KS : home $242,400, crime 6,022/100k
El Dorado, KS : home $113,800, crime 1,692/100k
How does Arkansas City compare to other US cities?
Where Arkansas City sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income25% higher than other cities
Home value4% pricier than other cities
Median rent6% pricier than other cities
Safety21% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
Zoom in to just Kansas and the picture shifts: Arkansas City ranks #87 of 109 Kansas cities by lowest crime rate, a different read than the national percentile above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Arkansas City against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Kansas only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Kansas-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Arkansas City near the bottom of Kansas's cities
Among the 552 Kansas cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Arkansas City ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Arkansas City only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#354 of 527
33rd percentile in Kansas
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 552
0th percentile in Kansas
Median Home Value
#337 of 527
36th percentile in Kansas
Poverty Rate
#102 of 552
81st percentile in Kansas
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#285 of 552
48th percentile in Kansas
How in-state ranks are ordered
Ranked by raw value (highest first); a higher rank is not automatically "better" for every measure, see each metric's own context above. This is a comparison within Kansas only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
25th percentile nationally for median household income · 21st percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Arkansas City's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Arkansas City's percentile rank on 3 favorable-direction measures (income, affordability, safety) vs. every tracked US city -- higher on every axis is more favorable. Not a composite quality score, just the arithmetic mean of the axes shown.
How Arkansas City's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$81,700Among the most affordablemore affordable than 96% of 15,600 US cities
Show national distribution
Each bar is a $25K-wide band; taller bars hold more US cities. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year Estimates · 2023
Arkansas City's home-value-to-income ratio: 1.5×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#436 of 15,516
More affordable than 97% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#8 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 1.5×, Arkansas City sits in the affordable band:
national rank #436 of 15,516 and #8 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
The multiple is comparatively compact among tracked cities, but a low ratio can still coexist with slow demand or household-level hardship.
How this ratio is calculated
Ratio = Census ACS 2023 median home value ÷ median household income for cities with both fields and population ≥ 1,000.
Rank 1 = lowest ratio (most compact). Bands match the fleet affordability thresholds used on guides (<3.0 / 3.0–5.0 / >5.0).
This is not a mortgage payment estimate and does not include rates, taxes, insurance, or down payment.
Income distribution context
$53,475Arkansas City, KS median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Arkansas City, KS median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Arkansas City, KS.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)19.9%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)14.5%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)55.6%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
11,909
Median Income
$53,475
Median Home Value
$81,700
Median Age
35.5
Poverty Rate
14.5%
Labor force participation
55.6%
Bachelor's Degree+
19.9%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
2572.6
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
401.7
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
2170.9
per 100,000 residents
Crime reporting caveat
Reflects incidents reported to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program — agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies by jurisdiction and year, so this reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score. Not adjusted for tourism, commuter, or daytime population.
Schools
Total Schools
8
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Arkansas City's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
11,968 residents
2021
11,976 residents
2022
11,922 residents
2023
11,784 residents
2024
11,783 residents
2025
11,800 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
3
housing units authorized
Single-Family
3
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
0.3
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
54
6
48
$6.4M
2020
7
5
2
$0.8M
2021
31
4
27
$2.6M
2022
18
3
15
$0.9M
2023
20
2
18
$1.1M
2024
3
3
0
$1.2M
Permit volume decreased 94% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
77.8%
Carpool
16.0%
Public Transit
0.3%
Walk
1.6%
Work from Home
3.2%
Other
1.1%
Based on 4,979 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Kansas statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $217
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Kansas at $217 (electricity about $110 , water and sewer about $42 ).
These are Kansas statewide averages, not a meter reading for Arkansas City. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Kansas's BEA cost-of-living index is 90.1 (Well Below Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Arkansas City is $947/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Kansas statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 29.9 / 100 (Very Low).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Kansas statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Arkansas City sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Arkansas City compares to similar-size Kansas cities
Same-state peer method
Closest same-state population matches, not geographic neighbors. Population + median household income come from Census Bureau ACS 5-year B01001 and B19013.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year 2023, FBI UCR, NCES CCD, Census BPS 2024, Census ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.