City safety & data profile
HaysKS
Hays, KS is a 21K-resident city in Ellis County with a median household income of $58,459.
Ellis County, Kansas. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for Hays, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. Hays has a population larger than 47% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, a median home value of $225,500, and 1 hospital serving the surrounding area.
Data updated 2026-09-04
- 21K
- Population (place)
- Bottom 48%
- By size
- $58,459
- Median income (place)
- $225,500
- Median home (place)
- 20.1%
- Poverty rate (place)
The read on Hays
Hays posts a median household income higher than 20% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks, where 1 hospital serves the Hays area.
- Bottom 21%
- by median income, US cities
- 1
- hospital in & near Hays
Where Hays income ranks nationally
Median household income vs. every place Areazine profiles (place-level ACS)
$58,459 Bottom 20% higher than 20% of 3,889 places Areazine profiles
Each bar is a $20K-wide band; taller bars hold more places Areazine profiles. 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, American Community Survey (place-level) · 2024 ACS 5-year
Largest cities in KS
Population among 36 KS places with 10,000+ residents and ACS income on Areazine. Tooltip shows the income rank in the same pool.
- Wichita
Wichita, KS
396,119 residents
- Overland Park
Overland Park, KS
186,515 residents
- Kansas City 152,933
Kansas City, KS
152,933 residents
- Olathe 134,305
Olathe, KS
134,305 residents
- Topeka 125,963
Topeka, KS
125,963 residents
- Lawrence 93,917
Lawrence, KS
93,917 residents
- Shawnee 65,046
Shawnee, KS
65,046 residents
- Manhattan 56,308
Manhattan, KS
56,308 residents
- Lenexa 52,490
Lenexa, KS
52,490 residents
- Salina 47,813
Salina, KS
47,813 residents
What this shows Wichita is the largest KS city on this list; Leawood leads median income.
Highest median incomes in KS
Median household income among the same 36-city pool. Tooltip shows the population rank.
- Leawood
Leawood, KS
$185,625 median
- Olathe
Olathe, KS
$114,009 median
- Prairie Vill…
Prairie Village, KS
$113,530 median
- Shawnee
Shawnee, KS
$109,940 median
- Overland Park
Overland Park, KS
$104,834 median
- Andover
Andover, KS
$104,787 median
- Lenexa
Lenexa, KS
$103,239 median
- Lansing
Lansing, KS
$102,786 median
- Gardner
Gardner, KS
$96,818 median
- Derby
Derby, KS
$84,112 median
What this shows Leawood posts the highest place-level median income in KS; Wichita is largest by headcount.
The quick read
Reading Hays, KS beyond the headline numbers
Hays sits inside Ellis County, Kansas, at roughly 38.88°N, -99.33°W. Population 21,092, $58,459 median household income. Median home value $225,500, median rent $922. Poverty rate 20.1%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.
1 hospital in/around Hays, 3/5 avg rating, 1 with an ER.
20.1% of Hays, KS residents live below the poverty line, placing it in the hardest-hit quarter of reporting cities. Read every median on this page against that: half the households are above it, and a large minority are far below.
The median home in Hays costs roughly 3.9 times median household income, below the midpoint for reporting cities, so ownership remains reachable on a typical local wage.
Only 5.2% of Hays workers report working from home, the lowest quarter of reporting cities -- an economy still built around showing up somewhere.
Among the CDC measures on this page, binge drinking departs furthest from its peer median: 19.2% in Hays, the highest-prevalence quarter of the 3,759 cities reporting that measure.
Public transit carries 0% of Hays workers, a smaller share than at least three quarters of reporting cities.
Hays's median age is 30.2 years, in the youngest quarter of reporting cities.
Sources: U.S. Census ACS, CDC PLACES, CMS Hospital Compare, plus live alerts for Hays from FEMA, NOAA, FDA, and CPSC. Economic comparison bars use the unweighted average across tracked Census places with a reported value, not a household-weighted national median.
10-Year Trends 2013–2024
County-level trend (Ellis County): Hays's own historical series isn't separately published by the Census Bureau, so these year-over-year figures track the surrounding county, not the city alone.
Economics
| Indicator | Value |
|---|---|
| Median Rent | |
| Poverty Rate | 20.1% +62% vs avg |
| Unemployment | 3.6% |
| Bachelor's Degree+ | 42.7% |
| Work From Home | 5.2% |
| Public Transit | 0% |
Population
Health Profile 15 measures
Health Indicators
Preventive Care
Other Measures
Hospitals 1 total
What alerts and safety updates affect Hays?
No area-tagged alerts are on record for Hays right now. New federal and counterpart-agency notices still land in the site feed as agencies publish them.
City alert dispatch desk
Sheet KS-HAYS · Hays
Hays: no area-tagged alerts on record — state hubs carry the live CAP stream.
- FEED-QUIET No tagged alerts
- LEAD-NONE Feed idle
- DESK-IDLE Awaiting feed
Counts reflect published articles tagged to Hays; untagged NOAA county warnings may still appear in the site feed. Browse Kansas state hubs · Methodology
Read with this city profile
Frequently Asked Questions 6
What is the population of Hays, KS? ▼
What is the median household income in Hays? ▼
What is the median home value in Hays? ▼
What are the top health concerns in Hays? ▼
How many hospitals are in Hays? ▼
What is the median age in Hays? ▼
Nationwide cities with similar poverty or income 8
Two ACS-derived peer sets for Hays, both outside Kansas so the neighborhoods are not the geographic nearby list below.
Similar poverty rate
Nearest place-level ACS poverty rates outside KS (20.1% here).
Similar median income
Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside KS ($58,459 here).
Compare Hays with another city
Pick a second U.S. city to open a side-by-side profile on population, income, health, and hospitals, the same federal datasets as this page.
Nearby Cities 8
Using Hays's profile
Use this as a starting research checklist, not a verdict on whether to live here.
- Check live recalls, weather and hazard alerts scoped to the Hays area before relying on national headlines. Check your area
- Read the poverty rate alongside the income figure, two places with the same median can have very different realities.
- Compare Hays against Kansas peers on any ranking lens. Explore Kansas
Population and economics (income, home value, poverty, education) are place-level U.S. Census ACS; health is CDC PLACES; hospital counts reflect facilities in and around the city. County-level trends are labeled when shown.
Data Sources
All data on this page comes from official U.S. government sources. Population and economic data from the Census Bureau American Community Survey (2024 5-year estimates, place geography). Health data from the CDC PLACES program (2023). Hospital ratings from CMS Hospital Compare (2024). Climate data from NOAA. Education data from NCES. Cost of living from Bureau of Economic Analysis. Crime statistics, where referenced on Areazine, originate from the FBI Crime Data Explorer. Housing market figures referenced on Areazine come from HUD Fair Market Rents. Census economics and population are at place geography; some health and hospital indicators are reported at the county level (Ellis County) where that is the smallest published unit.
Every figure on Areazine is published directly from official U.S. government sources, no number is typed in by an editor. City demographic and health figures are compiled directly from U.S. Census (place-level ACS), CDC, and CMS releases, updated quarterly within 30 days of upstream release. County-level trends are labeled when shown. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of 2026.