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Place dossier plate
SheetKS-MEDICINE-LODGE-KS · Medicine Lodge, KS 1,518 pop · income 27th pct · 2 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 Medicine Lodge
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Medicine Lodge on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Arnaudville · lowest
26,500
Arnaudville · lowest
26,500 median HH income
25.4% of the leader · rank #1
Onawa · near
54,659
Onawa · near
54,659 median HH income
52.5% of the leader · rank #2
Dudley · near
54,659
Dudley · near
54,659 median HH income
52.5% of the leader · rank #3
Medicine Lodge · this city
54,663
Medicine Lodge · this city
54,663 median HH income
52.5% of the leader · rank #4
Montevallo · near
54,665
Montevallo · near
54,665 median HH income
52.5% of the leader · rank #5
Katie · near
54,667
Katie · near
54,667 median HH income
52.5% of the leader · rank #6
Williamsville · highest
104,135
Williamsville · highest
104,135 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 Medicine Lodge 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: 1,518.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Medicine Lodge - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Medicine Lodge lands in the 27th percentile for household income and the 61st percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
27th
percentile, household income
4th
percentile, home value
6th
percentile, median rent
61st
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: Medicine Lodge, KS
Medicine Lodge is a small town in Kansas, home to 1,518 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Medicine Lodge households earn a median of $54,663 annually, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 8.9%. Home values in Medicine Lodge run a median of $80,200, and the median resident age is 46.5 years. Educational attainment runs 23.9% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 61.9% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 0 residential units were authorized in 2024 (No Permits). Medicine Lodge reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 1065.7 incidents per 100,000 residents, below the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). The annual average temperature per NOAA climate normals runs 57.9°F with 27.8 inches of precipitation per year and 9.4 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). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $947 per month. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Kansas's average monthly utility costs around $217 (state average). Natural-hazard exposure scores 29.9 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (Very Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Medicine Lodge'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 schools and households to comparison shortlist to reported crime to population change to housing and income to work and mobility to climate and hazard context to within-city variation; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Medicine Lodge, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, local building permits, commute-mode shares, FBI reported-crime rates, within-city Census tract profiles, annual population history.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
1. Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Medicine Lodge?
The matched institution count is small, so district boundaries and schools outside the city line may matter more than the municipal count suggests. Use the number as a coverage cue, then verify attendance zones with the district before making a household decision.
The NCES join finds 2 public schools within the city match. 23.9% 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Medicine Lodge?
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 Stockton (1,521 residents, $60,964 income); Douglass (1,523 residents, $70,735 income); Hill City (1,536 residents, $49,899 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Arnaudville, LA (1,518 residents); West Brookfield, MA (1,518 residents); Dunsmuir, CA (1,519 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 the FBI record say about safety in Medicine Lodge?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 1065.7 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 53% lower 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.
What can 2 Census tracts reveal inside Medicine Lodge?
PlainCities matches 2 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.
Population change
Is Medicine Lodge growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -58 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -3.3% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 0 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.
2020 estimate
1,765
2025 estimate
1,707
Period change
-3.3%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
How far does income reach against housing in Medicine Lodge?
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 8.9%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
1.5×
Home value
$80,200
Household income
$54,663
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
What does the journey to work look like in Medicine Lodge?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 87.2%. 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. The profile is strongly car-oriented, so a relocation comparison should put trip distance, vehicle access, and household fuel costs ahead of a citywide commute average. The same-state peer links offer a more relevant benchmark than a national label.
Drive alone
87.2%
Work from home
2.8%
Public transit
0.8%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 756 workers age 16+.
What physical conditions frame life in Medicine Lodge?
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.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 57.9°F, with 27.8 inches of precipitation and 9.4 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.
FEMA risk index (state avg)
29.9
Annual precipitation
27.8 in
Mean temperature
57.9°F
NOAA Climate Normals and FEMA National Risk Index (state-averaged on PlainCities). Hazard context is not address-level.
Below median income · poverty 8.9% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
90.1 (US=100)
Affordable · BEA RPP 2024, Kansas average
C
City profile score · Medicine Lodge, KS
59/100
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.
Violent crime A+
0 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
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 D
23.9%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate D
8.9%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$54,663
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Medicine Lodge profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Violent crime: 97/100 (A+) · 0 /100k
Cost of living: 85/100 (A) · 90.1 index
Bachelor's+ share: 46/100 (D) · 23.9%
Poverty rate: 44/100 (D) · 8.9%
Household income: 27/100 (F) · $54,663
Where Medicine Lodge sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Medicine Lodge'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 - Medicine Lodge highlighted among 24 peers.Read the chart values
Medicine Lodge, KS (this city): home $80,200, crime 1,066/100k
West Brookfield, MA : home $282,900, crime 331/100k
Dunsmuir, CA : home $262,800, crime 1,171/100k
Belle Plaine, KS : home $121,500, crime 484/100k
New York, NY : home $751,700, crime 3,039/100k
Los Angeles, CA : home $879,500, crime 2,212/100k
Chicago, IL : home $315,200, crime 4,012/100k
Houston, TX : home $253,400, crime 5,442/100k
Phoenix, AZ : home $381,900, crime 3,125/100k
Philadelphia, PA : home $232,400, crime 5,457/100k
San Antonio, TX : home $219,700, crime 5,218/100k
San Diego, CA : home $848,500, crime 2,082/100k
Dallas, TX : home $295,300, crime 4,010/100k
San Jose, CA : home $1,187,800, crime 3,195/100k
Austin, TX : home $512,700, crime 3,709/100k
Fort Worth, TX : home $277,300, crime 3,158/100k
Columbus, OH : home $234,500, crime 3,088/100k
Indianapolis, IN : home $207,000, crime 4,214/100k
San Francisco, CA : home $1,380,500, crime 4,526/100k
Seattle, WA : home $912,100, crime 5,783/100k
Denver, CO : home $586,700, crime 5,755/100k
Oklahoma City, OK : home $215,100, crime 3,570/100k
El Paso, TX : home $171,700, crime 1,772/100k
Washington, DC : home $724,600, crime 4,514/100k
How does Medicine Lodge compare to other US cities?
Here's how Medicine Lodge stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income27% higher than other cities
Home value4% pricier than other cities
Median rent6% pricier than other cities
Safety61% 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, Medicine Lodge ranks #36 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 Medicine Lodge 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 Medicine Lodge near the bottom of Kansas's cities
Among the 552 Kansas cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Medicine Lodge ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Medicine Lodge only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#342 of 527
35th percentile in Kansas
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 552
0th percentile in Kansas
Median Home Value
#346 of 527
34th percentile in Kansas
Poverty Rate
#220 of 552
60th percentile in Kansas
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#188 of 552
66th 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
27th percentile nationally for median household income · 61st percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Medicine Lodge's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Medicine Lodge'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 Medicine Lodge's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$80,200Among 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
Medicine Lodge's home-value-to-income ratio: 1.5×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#348 of 15,516
More affordable than 98% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#342 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 1.5×, Medicine Lodge sits in the affordable band:
national rank #348 of 15,516 and #342 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
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
$54,663Medicine Lodge, KS median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Medicine Lodge, 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 Medicine Lodge, KS.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)23.9%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)8.9%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)61.9%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
1,518
Median Income
$54,663
Median Home Value
$80,200
Median Age
46.5
Poverty Rate
8.9%
Labor force participation
61.9%
Bachelor's Degree+
23.9%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1065.7
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
0.0
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1065.7
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
57.9°F
Annual Precipitation
27.8"
Annual Snowfall
9.4"
Schools
Total Schools
2
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Medicine Lodge's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
1,765 residents
2021
1,724 residents
2022
1,729 residents
2023
1,715 residents
2024
1,710 residents
2025
1,707 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
Total Permits (2024)
0
housing units authorized
Single-Family
0
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
0
0
0
-
2020
0
0
0
-
2021
0
0
0
-
2022
0
0
0
-
2023
0
0
0
-
2024
0
0
0
-
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
87.2%
Carpool
6.6%
Public Transit
0.8%
Walk
2.6%
Work from Home
2.8%
Based on 756 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 Medicine Lodge. 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 Medicine Lodge 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 Medicine Lodge sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Medicine Lodge 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.