Census figures show how Lawrence stacks up
Call it learning by numbers.
The U.S. Census Bureau — through its American Community Survey program — released a large new batch of statistics for every community in the U.S. on Thursday.
All the numbers are a five-year average from 2006 to 2010. The numbers are garnered from a continuous survey that the Census Bureau conducts throughout the country. The five-year average is meant to lower the margin of error on the statistics, but some of the margins of error are still significant. But they’re the best numbers that will be released.
So dive in and learn how Lawrence or your community stacks up to others in the area.
Median age of residents
No surprise here. Lawrence is young, but we’re more mature than our friends in Manhattan.
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Manhattan: 23.4 years
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Lawrence: 25.6
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Eudora: 31
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Tonganoxie: 31.2
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Baldwin City: 31.7
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Olathe: 32.4
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Bonner Springs: 33.8
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De Soto: 34.5
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Shawnee: 35.0
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Topeka: 36.0
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Basehor: 38.9
Percent of population that is white
Here’s a measure to show you how racially diverse a community is:
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De Soto: 99.3 percent white
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Tonganoxie: 97.5 percent
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Baldwin City: 97.4 percent
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Basehor: 96.0 percent
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Eudora: 95.7 percent
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Bonner Springs: 89.7 percent
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Manhattan: 88.7 percent
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Shawnee: 86.8 percent
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Olathe: 84.2 percent
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Lawrence: 82.5 percent
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Topeka: 75.7 percent
Percent of owner-occupied homes
Everybody knows Lawrence is a big rental community, but here’s a look at just how big.
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Basehor: 81.6 percent owner-occupied
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Bonner Springs: 75.2 percent
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Olathe: 74.1 percent
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Shawnee: 73.3 percent
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Eudora: 72.5 percent
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De Soto: 70.6 percent
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Tonganoxie: 67.9 percent
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Baldwin: 62.4 percent
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Topeka: 59.6 percent
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Lawrence: 46.7 percent
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Manhattan: 41 percent
Median price of a home
Lawrence is no Johnson County, but it’s more expensive than much of the pack.
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De Soto: $220,100
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Shawnee: $198,600
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Olathe: $193,300
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Basehor: $183,000
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Lawrence: $172,900
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Manhattan: $163,800
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Tonganoxie: $151,800
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Eudora: $151,200
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Baldwin: $150,600
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Bonner Springs: $147,100
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Topeka: $94,200
Spending on housing costs
Percent of homeowners who spend more than 35 percent of their household income on housing costs. If you hear people say Lawrence has a high cost of housing, this may be what they’re really talking about.
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Bonner Springs: 25.2 percent of homeowners
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Lawrence: 22.4 percent
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Baldwin City 20.2 percent
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Topeka: 19.1 percent
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Shawnee: 18.1 percent
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Basehor: 17.2 percent
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Tonganoxie: 16.8 percent
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Olathe: 16.7 percent
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Manhattan: 16.6 percent
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Eudora: 15.3 percent
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De Soto: 11 percent
Median monthly rent
Lawrence may not rank as high as some would think, although some of these communities may be more focused on renting houses than apartments.
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Basehor: $921
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Baldwin: $826
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Olathe: $801
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Eudora: $777
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Lawrence: $774
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Tonganoxie: $765
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Shawnee: $753
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Manhattan: $739
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Bonner Springs: $697
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De Soto: $680
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Topeka: $628
Median household income
Students who earn part-time incomes do drag Lawrence’s numbers down in this category.
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Olathe: $75,228
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Shawnee: $72,122
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Basehor: $72,120
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Baldwin City: $65,053
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De Soto: $61,915
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Eudora: $60,544
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Tonganoxie: $58,672
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Bonner Springs: $56,630
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Lawrence: $41,290
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Topeka: $40,342
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Manhattan: $36,630
Median earnings for a male, full-time, year-round worker
These numbers don’t include many undergraduate college students, but Lawrence is still near the bottom of the list.
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Basehor: $60,326
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Olathe: $56,934
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Shawnee: $56,312
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Baldwin City: $50,833
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Bonner Springs: $47,670
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Tonganoxie: $47,500
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Eudora: $45,861
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De Soto: $45,000
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Lawrence: $42,362
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Topeka: $40,832
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Manhattan: $39,095
Percent of households receiving food stamps.
There are several ways to measure poverty in a community, and this is one.
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Topeka: 11.9 percent of households
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Bonner Springs: 7.4 percent
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Eudora: 5.3 percent
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Lawrence: 5.1 percent
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Baldwin City: 4.7 percent
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Manhattan: 4.1 percent
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Olathe: 3.7 percent
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De Soto: 3.4 percent
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Shawnee: 3.1 percent
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Basehor: 2.1 percent
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Tonganoxie: 0.8 percent