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Place dossier plate
SheetKS-LAWRENCE-KS · Lawrence, KS 95,459 pop · income 40th pct · 27 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 Lawrence
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Lawrence on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Reading · lowest
45,599
Reading · lowest
45,599 median HH income
38.6% of the leader · rank #1
Otter Creek · near
62,833
Otter Creek · near
62,833 median HH income
53.1% of the leader · rank #2
Lawrence · this city
62,838
Lawrence · this city
62,838 median HH income
53.1% of the leader · rank #3
New Richland · near
62,841
New Richland · near
62,841 median HH income
53.1% of the leader · rank #4
Metolius · near
62,841
Metolius · near
62,841 median HH income
53.1% of the leader · rank #5
Sullivan · near
62,845
Sullivan · near
62,845 median HH income
53.1% of the leader · rank #6
Tracy · highest
118,253
Tracy · highest
118,253 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 Lawrence 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: 95,459.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Lawrence - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Lawrence lands in the 40th percentile for household income and the 21st percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
40th
percentile, household income
60th
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: Lawrence, KS
Lawrence is a small city in Kansas, home to 95,459 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. The typical household in Lawrence brings in $62,838 a year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 6.1%. Typical homes in Lawrence are valued around $269,500, and the median resident age is 29.2 years. Educational attainment runs 55.1% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 67.1% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 176 residential building permits were authorized in Lawrence (Construction Slowdown), down 53% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Crime here tracks close to the national norm: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 2618.1 incidents per 100,000 residents, near the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). NOAA puts Lawrence's yearly average temperature at 54.9°F with 39.4 inches of precipitation per year and 10.4 inches of snowfall.
Living costs in Kansas run below the national norm: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts Kansas at 90.1 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Well Below Average). Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $947 monthly. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Kansas's average monthly utility costs around $217 (state average). Commute times here average 16.9 minutes, with 68.7% driving alone and 14.1% working from home, per Census ACS commuting 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 Lawrence'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 climate and hazard context to comparison shortlist to housing and income to work and mobility to schools and households to population change to reported crime to within-city variation; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Lawrence, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history, within-city Census tract profiles, commute-mode shares.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
Question 1
What physical conditions frame life in Lawrence?
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 54.9°F, with 39.4 inches of precipitation and 10.4 inches of annual snowfall. FEMA's state-averaged National Risk Index score for Kansas is 29.9 out of 100. Climate normals describe long-run weather; the FEMA score on PlainCities is a state average of county NRI inputs and combines hazards, exposure, vulnerability, and resilience.
The two sources should not be blended into one comfort or safety score. Use the climate values for baseline conditions and the risk index as a prompt to inspect specific hazards, insurance, and local emergency guidance for a particular address.
Which cities make useful reference points for Lawrence?
Within Kansas, the closest population matches are Shawnee (68,175 residents, $106,312 income); Topeka (126,103 residents, $55,902 income); Lenexa (57,986 residents, $102,344 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Tracy, CA (95,358 residents); Edmond, OK (95,618 residents); Deltona, FL (95,682 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.
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.
How far does income reach against housing in Lawrence?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 4.3 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 6.1%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
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. Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median. That flags a question for comparison, not a verdict: tenure, household composition, financing costs, and the age of the ACS estimate can all change what a resident actually pays.
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.
PlainCities matches 27 Census tracts to this city.
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.
Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Lawrence?
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.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 68.7%. The reported mean trip to work is 16.9 minutes.
Public transit
3.2%
Work from home
14.1%
Drive alone
68.7%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 53,484 workers age 16+.
The NCES join finds 20 public schools within the city match. 55.1% 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.
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.
Matched public schools
20
Bachelor's degree+
55.1%
Poverty estimate
6.1%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Is Lawrence growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Recent estimates point upward. Growth can increase housing demand and service needs, but the permit record must move in the same direction before calling it a supply response; the two series measure different things.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +1,431 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +1.5% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 176 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Period change
+1.5%
2025 estimate
96,367
2020 estimate
94,936
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Lawrence?
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.
The joined FBI UCR record reports 2618.1 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 15% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
2156.5
Violent rate
461.5
Total reported rate
2618.1
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Below median income · poverty 6.1% (Below-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
90.1 (US=100)
Affordable · BEA RPP 2024, Kansas average
C
City profile score · Lawrence, KS
55/100
5 published dimensions · ACS/FBI 2023
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.
Bachelor's+ share A
55.1%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
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.
Poverty rate C
6.1%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$62,838
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime F
462 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Lawrence profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 88/100 (A) · 55.1%
Cost of living: 85/100 (A) · 90.1 index
Poverty rate: 58/100 (C) · 6.1%
Household income: 39/100 (F) · $62,838
Violent crime: 18/100 (F) · 462 /100k
Where Lawrence sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Lawrence'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 - Lawrence highlighted among 9 peers.Read the chart values
Lawrence, KS (this city): home $269,500, crime 2,618/100k
Tracy, CA : home $653,900, crime 1,893/100k
Edmond, OK : home $324,900, crime 1,521/100k
Reading, PA : home $109,800, crime 1,772/100k
Shawnee, KS : home $332,900, crime 2,049/100k
Topeka, KS : home $130,600, crime 4,499/100k
Lenexa, KS : home $368,800, crime 1,531/100k
Olathe, KS : home $340,600, crime 1,137/100k
Salina, KS : home $164,500, crime 2,968/100k
How does Lawrence compare to other US cities?
Here's how Lawrence stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income40% higher than other cities
Home value60% 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.
National percentiles can mask local variation. Looking only at Kansas, Lawrence ranks #91 of 109 Kansas cities by lowest crime rate - a narrower, more locally useful cut than the national comparison above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Lawrence 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 Lawrence near the bottom of Kansas's cities
Among the 552 Kansas cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Lawrence ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Lawrence only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#228 of 527
57th percentile in Kansas
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 552
0th percentile in Kansas
Median Home Value
#22 of 527
96th percentile in Kansas
Poverty Rate
#299 of 552
46th percentile in Kansas
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#16 of 552
97th 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
40th percentile nationally for median household income · 21st percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Lawrence's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Lawrence'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 Lawrence's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$269,50040th percentilemore affordable than 40% 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
Lawrence's home-value-to-income ratio: 4.3×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#11,492 of 15,516
More affordable than 26% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#359 of 750
Mid-size cities (50,000–199,999)
At 4.3×, Lawrence sits in the moderate band:
national rank #11,492 of 15,516 and #359 of 750mid-size cities (50,000–199,999).
Income and home value move in the same broad scale; check same-state peers before treating the multiple as an advantage or a warning.
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
$62,838Lawrence, KS median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Lawrence, 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 Lawrence, KS.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)55.1%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)6.1%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)67.1%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
95,459
Median Income
$62,838
Median Home Value
$269,500
Median Age
29.2
Poverty Rate
6.1%
Labor force participation
67.1%
Bachelor's Degree+
55.1%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
2618.1
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
461.5
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
2156.5
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.
Climate
Avg Temperature
54.9°F
Annual Precipitation
39.4"
Annual Snowfall
10.4"
Schools
Total Schools
20
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Lawrence's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
94,936 residents
2021
95,417 residents
2022
95,785 residents
2023
96,350 residents
2024
96,441 residents
2025
96,367 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
176
housing units authorized
Single-Family
127
detached homes
Multifamily
49
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
1.8
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
373
174
199
$67.8M
2020
292
193
99
$72.9M
2021
441
187
254
$78.1M
2022
305
99
206
$65.4M
2023
149
121
28
$40.6M
2024
176
127
49
$46.9M
Permit volume decreased 53% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
16.9 minutes
Drive Alone
68.7%
Carpool
7.1%
Public Transit
3.2%
Walk
4.5%
Work from Home
14.1%
Other
2.4%
Based on 53,484 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 Lawrence. 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 Lawrence 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 Lawrence sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Lawrence 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, NOAA Climate Normals, 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.