Overland Park — New census figures for Kansas confirmed what many people thought: Johnson County keeps growing and growing and growing.
Would it be enough to give the burgeoning Kansas City suburban area bragging rights as the largest county in Kansas? Not quite but just you wait. For now, it's just the fastest-growing county in the state.
The statistics released this week showed Johnson County with 451,086 residents as of April 1, 2000 a 27.1 percent increase from a decade earlier.
That put Johnson County just 1,783 behind Sedgwick County, the south-central Kansas county that includes Wichita, the state's largest city. Sedgwick County grew at a much slower rate 12.2 percent to 452,869.
"We can celebrate for a couple more years," said Tim Witsman, president of the Wichita Area Chamber of Commerce. "I don't begrudge their growth. That's great."
The census takes a statistical picture at a given point, but demographers, economists and other number-crunchers are constantly updating information and estimates. Dennis McKee of CERI Inc., which tracks economic data in Johnson County, was expecting the county to move ahead of Sedgwick this time.
"I think Johnson County has a labor force that's 30,000 or 40,000 more than Sedgwick, and we expected to see a larger population," McKee said. "It may have something to do with demographics in terms of age, or a larger participation rate from two-worker families."
Based on past trends, Johnson County has added close to 10,000 people since the census, McKee said.
"I suspect that if we redid the enumeration today, Johnson County would be ahead of Sedgwick County," he said.
Northeast boom
The two big metro counties of Johnson and Sedgwick account for just over a third of the total Kansas population, which rose 8.5 percent to 2,688,418, according to the 2000 census.
Besides Johnson, two of the other fastest growing counties over the decade were in the northeast, in or on the outskirts of the Kansas City, Mo., metro area.
Douglas County, home to Lawrence and Kansas University, was the third-fastest growing county, climbing 22.2 percent to 99,962. Next was Miami County immediately south of Johnson County with an increase of 20.8 percent, to 28,351.
The second-fastest growing county was Finney County in southwest Kansas. That county grew 22.5 percent to 40,523, bolstered by meatpacking plants in that area that have drawn a growing number of Hispanics. The population in Seward County, also in the southwest, rose 20.1 percent to 22,510.
The only Kansas county in the Kansas City metro area to lose population was Wyandotte, which dropped 2.6 percent to 157,882. Leavenworth County rose by 6.7 percent to 68,691.
Five cities in Johnson County were among the 15 largest in the state, with Overland Park rising from No. 4 to No. 2 behind Wichita. Overland Park grew by 33.4 percent during the decade, adding 37,290 residents to reach 149,080.
The population in Wichita increased 13.2 percent to 344,284, with its total gain of 40,273 slightly more than Overland Park's numerical increase.
Kansas City, Kan., which had been second, slipped to No. 3 with a 1.9 percent population loss to 146,866. Topeka, gaining 2.1 percent to 122,377, was the fourth-largest city, down from No. 3, followed by Olathe, which moved ahead of Lawrence to No. 5.
Olathe's gain was 46.7 percent to 92,962, while Lawrence climbed 22.1 percent to 80,098.
Other Johnson County cities in the top 15 were Shawnee, No. 7, up 26.3 percent to 47,996; Lenexa, ranked 11th with an 18.2 percent rise to 40,238, and No. 14 Leawood, which increased 40.4 percent to 27,656.
Olathe's outlook
Olathe, which led the state with its 46.7 percent growth rate during the decade, was an outlying, nonsuburban community of just over 5,000 in 1950, reaching 37,258 by 1980 and then 63,440 10 years ago. Today, the city has a population of 92,962, and city officials expect it to break the 100,000 mark this year.
"I don't see it speeding up or slowing down," said Mayor Larry Campbell. "Our guess is that it will continue on for at least the next decade. We are only about 50 percent built up for our available land space."
Olathe, located along the Interstate 35 corridor about 30 miles southwest of Kansas City, has led the metro area in housing starts the last three or four years, said Tim McKee of the Olathe Chamber of Commerce.
"We have a wide range of housing, some of the most affordable in Johnson County," he said.
Tim Dannenberg, the city's communications director, admits that traffic congestion has become an issue. He said right now there are just four ways to cross I-35 in Olathe, and there may be a need to push for another interchange or overpass in the coming years.
"It'd be like standing in front of a freight train if we tried to slow the residential growth," said Campbell, Olathe's mayor. "But we're trying for balance, trying to bring in more commercial growth, and we're making headway."
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