Selected Data

As with most rural communities, Bourbon County is a mixed bag of advantages and disadvantages that at once move us forward and hold us back.  I have spent the last year writing about what we need to do to strengthen our weaknesses and leverage what we do well.  To round out year one, let’s take a look at some selected data from the 2020 Kansas Statistical Abstract to give us a general sense of how we are doing.

Per capita personal income in Bourbon County is $46,149, which ranks us 71^st out of the 105 counties in Kansas.  Greeley County is number one, with almost $100,000 in per capita income, more than double our number.  Of the SEK counties, we rank first.  The worst SEK County? Montgomery at $39,041, placing them at 104^th; Crawford is only slightly better, ranking 103^rd.  Interesting side note, two Kansas counties have consolidated the county government with that of the largest cities within the county: Greeley and Wyandotte; ironically, Greeley ranks number one in personal income, Wyandotte dead last at 105.

Bourbon County does better when considering what percentage of our residents 25 years and older have a high school diploma; that number is 91.3%, which ranks us 57th in the state.  In this category, Allen and Crawford bested us at 91.9% and 92.1%, respectively.  These three SEK counties have respectable rankings near or above the top half of Kansas counties.  These are important numbers for future workforce development.

Our shining statistic is median age, in which we rank 28^th at 38.2 years; not bad for small town America.  As you might expect, Crawford County is much younger than we are with the median age at 32.6 years, ranking them in the top 10.  The balance of the SEK counties rank behind us, with Linn County as the oldest of the bunch at 44.8 years.  The youngest county in Kansas?  The home of the Wildcats: Riley County at 24.3 years.  Only four Kansas counties have a median age below age 30; the other three are Geary, Douglas and Seward.  Jewell County ranks as having the oldest residents in the state with a median age of 52.5.

Lastly, we have two challenges in this list of general statistics: unemployment rate and food stamp participation.  While we rank better than our neighbors on unemployment, our year-end 2020 number of 5.6% ranked us 88^th in the State.  Hamilton County is number one at 1.7%, while our most populous county, Sedgwick is dead last at 8.7%.  Food stamp participation is our Achilles Heel: we rank 104^th at 12.2% of residents.  Only Wyandotte County is worse at 12.8%.  As you might expect, the most food independent county in Kansas is Johnson at 2.1%.  Obviously, we are the bottom of the “food chain” in SEK.

These are not terrible numbers considering the challenges we have faced in the last 40+ years.  There is much upon which to build, and problems to solve.  Our economic development team has these important statistics in view, along with many others, as we invest our resources in Bourbon County.