City safety & data profile
KearneyNE
Kearney, NE is a 33K-resident city in Buffalo County with a median household income of $69,724.
Buffalo County, Nebraska. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for Kearney, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. Kearney has a population larger than 67% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, a median home value of $244,600, and 2 hospitals serving the surrounding area.
Data updated 2026-09-04
- 33K
- Population (place)
- Top 33%
- By size
- $69,724
- Median income (place)
- $244,600
- Median home (place)
- 12.4%
- Poverty rate (place)
The read on Kearney
Kearney posts a median household income higher than 36% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks, where 2 hospitals serve the Kearney area.
- Bottom 37%
- by median income, US cities
- 2
- hospitals in & near Kearney
Where Kearney income ranks nationally
Median household income vs. every place Areazine profiles (place-level ACS)
$69,724 Bottom 36% higher than 36% 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 NE
Population among 17 NE places with 10,000+ residents and ACS income on Areazine. Tooltip shows the income rank in the same pool.
- Omaha
Omaha, NE
486,051 residents
- Lincoln
Lincoln, NE
294,757 residents
- Bellevue 55,510
Bellevue, NE
55,510 residents
- Grand Island 51,440
Grand Island, NE
51,440 residents
- Kearney 33,021
Kearney, NE
33,021 residents
- Fremont 26,474
Fremont, NE
26,474 residents
- Hastings 24,924
Hastings, NE
24,924 residents
- Norfolk 24,366
Norfolk, NE
24,366 residents
- North Platte 24,194
North Platte, NE
24,194 residents
- Columbus 22,797
Columbus, NE
22,797 residents
What this shows Omaha is the largest NE city on this list; Papillion leads median income.
Highest median incomes in NE
Median household income among the same 17-city pool. Tooltip shows the population rank.
- Papillion
Papillion, NE
$111,679 median
- Chalco
Chalco, NE
$85,672 median
- Bellevue
Bellevue, NE
$85,462 median
- La Vista
La Vista, NE
$81,961 median
- Omaha
Omaha, NE
$73,201 median
- Lincoln
Lincoln, NE
$71,867 median
- Fremont
Fremont, NE
$71,152 median
- Kearney
Kearney, NE
$69,724 median
- South Sioux …
South Sioux City, NE
$68,223 median
- Lexington
Lexington, NE
$67,666 median
What this shows Papillion posts the highest place-level median income in NE; Omaha is largest by headcount.
The quick read
Reading Kearney, NE beyond the headline numbers
Kearney sits inside Buffalo County, Nebraska, at roughly 40.70°N, -99.08°W. Population 33,021, $69,724 median household income. Median home value $244,600, median rent $949. Poverty rate 12.4%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.
2 hospitals in/around Kearney, 4/5 avg rating, 2 with an ER.
Poverty in Kearney, NE stands at 12.4%, above the midpoint of reporting cities. A median income can look comfortable while a share this size sits well beneath it, which is why the two figures belong together.
The median home in Kearney costs roughly 3.5 times median household income, below the midpoint for reporting cities, so ownership remains reachable on a typical local wage.
Only 4.5% of Kearney 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: 21.3% in Kearney, the highest-prevalence quarter of the 3,759 cities reporting that measure.
Kearney's median age is 32.8 years, in the youngest quarter of reporting cities.
Sources: U.S. Census ACS, CDC PLACES, CMS Hospital Compare, plus live alerts for Kearney 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 (Buffalo County): Kearney'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 | 12.4% |
| Unemployment | 2.9% |
| Bachelor's Degree+ | 36.5% |
| Work From Home | 4.5% |
| Public Transit | 0.3% |
Population
Health Profile 15 measures
Health Indicators
Preventive Care
Other Measures
Hospitals 2 total
What alerts and safety updates affect Kearney?
No area-tagged alerts are on record for Kearney right now. New federal and counterpart-agency notices still land in the site feed as agencies publish them.
City alert dispatch desk
Sheet NE-KEARNEY · Kearney
Kearney: 1 tagged alert; lead category NWS weather alert.
- VOL-TRACE 1 on record
- WX-LED 100% weather
- DESK-MIX NOAA
- PHOTO-FINISH ≈ Houston
Tagged alert mix: Kearney
Published notices carrying this city slug or location tag
- Weather Alerts
Weather Alerts
1
What this shows 1 tagged notice on record for Kearney.
Nearest tagged-volume peer: Houston, TX (1 tagged · Δ0)
Counts reflect published articles tagged to Kearney; untagged NOAA county warnings may still appear in the site feed. Browse Nebraska state hubs · Methodology
Cities with a similar tagged alert volume 4
Nearest published-notice counts on Areazine (1 tagged here), a feed-density peer set, not an ACS demographic match.
Read with this city profile
Frequently Asked Questions 6
What is the population of Kearney, NE? ▼
What is the median household income in Kearney? ▼
What is the median home value in Kearney? ▼
What are the top health concerns in Kearney? ▼
How many hospitals are in Kearney? ▼
What is the median age in Kearney? ▼
Nationwide cities with similar poverty or income 8
Two ACS-derived peer sets for Kearney, both outside Nebraska so the neighborhoods are not the geographic nearby list below.
Similar poverty rate
Nearest place-level ACS poverty rates outside NE (12.4% here).
Similar median income
Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside NE ($69,724 here).
Compare Kearney 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 Kearney'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 Kearney 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 Kearney against Nebraska peers on any ranking lens. Explore Nebraska
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 (Buffalo 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.