City safety & data profile

LawrenceKS

Lawrence, KS is a 94K-resident city in Douglas County with a median household income of $65,009.

Douglas County, Kansas. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for Lawrence, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. Lawrence has a population larger than 92% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, a median home value of $292,700, and 1 hospital serving the surrounding area.

Data updated 2026-09-04

94K
Population (place)
Top 8%
By size
$65,009
Median income (place)
$292,700
Median home (place)
17.4%
Poverty rate (place)
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The read on Lawrence

Lawrence posts a median household income higher than 30% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks, where 1 recent safety alert is on record and 1 hospital serves the Lawrence area.

Bottom 31%
by median income, US cities
1
safety alert on record
1
hospital in & near Lawrence

Where Lawrence income ranks nationally

Median household income vs. every place Areazine profiles (place-level ACS)

$65,009 Bottom 30% higher than 30% of 3,889 places Areazine profiles

Lawrence $0 $260,000 every profiled place, bucketed by value

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.

residents

What this shows Wichita is the largest KS city on this list; Leawood leads median income.

Source U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (place-level) As of 2024 ACS 5-year

Highest median incomes in KS

Median household income among the same 36-city pool. Tooltip shows the population rank.

median

What this shows Leawood posts the highest place-level median income in KS; Wichita is largest by headcount.

Source U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (place-level) As of 2024 ACS 5-year

The quick read

Reading Lawrence, KS beyond the headline numbers

Lawrence sits inside Douglas County, Kansas, at roughly 38.97°N, -95.24°W. Population 93,917, $65,009 median household income. Median home value $292,700, median rent $1,091. Poverty rate 17.4%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.

1 hospital in/around Lawrence, 4/5 avg rating, 1 with an ER.

17.4% of Lawrence, 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.

A median home in Lawrence runs about 4.5 times median household income, above the midpoint. Multiples in this range usually mean buyers are arriving from outside the local wage base.

15.5% of Lawrence workers are remote, above the midpoint of reporting cities.

Among the CDC measures on this page, binge drinking departs furthest from its peer median: 19.3% in Lawrence, the highest-prevalence quarter of the 3,759 cities reporting that measure.

2.9% of Lawrence workers commute by public transit, a larger share than at least three quarters of reporting cities.

Lawrence's median age is 29.3 years, in the youngest quarter of reporting cities.

Sources: U.S. Census ACS, CDC PLACES, CMS Hospital Compare, plus live alerts for Lawrence 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.

Population (place)
93,917
Lawrence · Census Place
Median Income (place)
$65,009
-27% vs avg
Median Home Value (place)
$292,700
-29% vs avg
Median Age (place)
29.3
years · ACS place

10-Year Trends 2013–2024

County-level trend (Douglas County): Lawrence'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.

20132024
Population
120K+7%
Median Income
$69,746+41%
Median Home Value
$309,400+72%
Poverty Rate
14.7%-23%
Unemployment
4.2%-39%

Economics

Economics indicators for Lawrence, KS
IndicatorValue
Median Rent
$1,091/mo
Poverty Rate
17.4% +40% vs avg
Unemployment 4.4%
Bachelor's Degree+ 55.8%
Work From Home 15.5%
Public Transit 2.9%

Population

White 75.2%
African American 5%
Asian 5.1%
Two or More Ethnicities 6.8%

Health Profile 15 measures

Health Indicators

Short Sleep Duration
32.6%
Obesity
31.5%
High Blood Pressure
25.9%
Physical Inactivity
19.7%
Binge Drinking
19.3%
Frequent Mental Distress
18.4%
Current Smoking
12.3%
Frequent Physical Distress
11%
Current Asthma
10.5%
Lack of Health Insurance
8.5%

Preventive Care

Dental Visit 63.6%
Annual Checkup 75.9%

Other Measures

Diabetes
7.9%
Coronary Heart Disease
4.5%
Stroke
2.4%

Hospitals 1 total

Rating Distribution
★★★★★
0
★★★★
1
★★★
0
★★
0
★
0
Average Rating
4/5
Total Hospitals
1
With ER
1
LMH
LAWRENCE · Acute Care Hospitals · ER
★★★★☆

What alerts and safety updates affect Lawrence? 1

Bushfire Alerts

Advice Issued for Grass Fire on Mantons Rd in Lawrence, Clarence Valley

NSW RFS ·

City alert dispatch desk

Sheet KS-LAWRENCE-KS · Lawrence

Lawrence: 28 tagged alerts; lead category NWS weather alert.

  • VOL-HEAVY 28 on record
  • WX-LED 93% weather
  • DESK-MIX NOAA
  • NEAR-PEER 36 · Somerset
  • RANK-MID #54 tagged volume

Tagged alert mix: Lawrence

Published notices carrying this city slug or location tag

Value

What this shows 28 tagged notices on record for Lawrence.

Source Areazine publication corpus As of Live tagged feed

Nearest tagged-volume peer: Somerset, NJ (36 tagged · Δ8)

Counts reflect published articles tagged to Lawrence; untagged NOAA county warnings may still appear in the site feed. Browse Kansas state hubs · Methodology

Cities with a similar tagged alert volume 4

Nearest published-notice counts on Areazine (28 tagged here), a feed-density peer set, not an ACS demographic match.

Somerset, NJ 36 alerts El Paso, TX 16 alerts Phoenix, AZ 15 alerts California, MD 15 alerts

Read with this city profile

Understanding Weather Alerts

Watch vs warning vs advisory, how NOAA labels map to action
All safety guides →

Frequently Asked Questions 6

What is the population of Lawrence, KS? ▼
Lawrence, KS has a population of 93,917 people, located in Douglas County, Kansas.
What is the median household income in Lawrence? ▼
The median household income in Lawrence, KS is $65,009 per year, per the U.S. Census ACS. The poverty rate is 17.4%.
What is the median home value in Lawrence? ▼
The median home value in Lawrence, KS is $292,700. Median rent is $1,091/month.
What are the top health concerns in Lawrence? ▼
The top health indicators in Lawrence include Short Sleep Duration (32.6%), Obesity (31.5%), High Blood Pressure (25.9%). Data from CDC PLACES.
How many hospitals are in Lawrence? ▼
Lawrence has 1 hospital with an average rating of 4/5 stars. 1 have emergency departments.
What is the median age in Lawrence? ▼
The median age in Lawrence, KS is 29.3 years. 55.8% of residents have a bachelor's degree or higher.

Nationwide cities with similar poverty or income 8

Two ACS-derived peer sets for Lawrence, both outside Kansas so the neighborhoods are not the geographic nearby list below.

Similar poverty rate

Nearest place-level ACS poverty rates outside KS (17.4% here).

Killeen, TX 17.4% El Monte, CA 17.4% Dundalk, MD 17.4% Farmington, NM 17.4%

Similar median income

Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside KS ($65,009 here).

Corvallis, OR $65,012 Opelika, AL $65,004 Harper Woods, MI $65,022 Norwich, CT $65,024

Compare Lawrence 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.

Quick picks:

Nearby Cities 8

Gardner, KS 21K Ottawa, KS 12K Olathe, KS 134K Lansing, KS 12K Topeka, KS 126K Leavenworth, KS 36K Lenexa, KS 52K Shawnee, KS 65K
All cities in Kansas → Compare Lawrence vs Gardner → All comparisons → Browse all cities

Using Lawrence'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 Lawrence 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 Lawrence 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 (Douglas 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.