Why Kansas Has So Few Americans Compared To Missouri And Colorado

Was driving thru western Kansas in 1980. Developed a leaky tire around 6 pm and pulled into a small town gas station. The owner was closing but stayed to fix my tire and only charged me $1.00. I have never forgotten his kindness. Good reflection on my time in Kansas.

Big, mechanized agriculture doesn't require a lot of workers. I rode my bicycle east to west across Kansas in 2018 on the route of the National Old Trails Highway. I was surprised to find that so many of the fine old farm houses were left vacant, bought up by big agriculture companies. Small towns had a forlorn feeling about them with big empty churches and long forgotten businesses. Never the less, I greatly enjoyed the Kansas part of my journey as it was all new to me. What a country! Never boring.

I moved to Kansas from Texas originally back in 2013 and I tell ya what, I enjoy the lack of population here. It’s peaceful! There’s hardly traffic in Wichita. Everyone else can go to Colorado and Missouri, go populate those states. I like my peace and quiet in Kansas 😂

BTW: "Osage" is pron "O-sage" like the spice. "Ute" is one syllable: "yout."

Missouri is full of small towns. You will not feel isolated when you drive through Missouri because of the frequency of towns.

I have lived in Kansas a couple of different times in my lifetime. I first moved there as a 9-year-old child when my dad was stationed there in the military. My dad was reassigned to Kansas when I was about 16. Now, I do a lot of over-the-road traveling throughout the entire country. (No, I'm not a trucker.) I currently live on the heavily populated East Coast, where I experience congestion and bumper-to-bumper traffic nearly every day. When I'm traveling across country, I find it a great pleasure to drive through Kansas without having to deal with any traffic jams!! The people I've encountered from Kansas have always been polite and friendly. Furthermore, I also love the wide-open spaces of Kansas, where one can see for miles all around. I miss that openness living on the East Coast. This Texan gives Kansas a 👍!

I'm unsure why you left out Kansas City in favour of St. Louis and even Ft. Leavenworth. KC was a major setting off point and outfitting for the westward wagon trains and settlers. Later, it was also the hub in the US for cattle hence the nickname 'Cowtown'. When I was a boy the cattle-yards in the West Bottoms were immense.

There was massive growth in South Central Kansas during World War II. It was centered in and around Wichita where B-29's were manufactured by Boeing at what was at that time the largest factory in the world. Most of Kansas' growth has been in the metro areas in Eastern half of the state with population densities similar to that of Missouri and Colorado as a whole. The Western half of Kansas is relatively very empty by comparison. Just a couple of things you might have overlooked. t.Kansas born and raised

Take eastern Kansas. Woods, rivers, birds, parks, and Johnson County, Kansas, one of the wealthiest counties in the nation. (How could you miss Johnson County?) The farther west you go, the drier and flatter the land becomes. Water becomes harder to find. In some places, the wind blows so much it gets right under your skin. People complain that western Kansas is flat and boring, but that's because they are riding in I-70. Naturally the engineers picked the flattest land to build the freeway on. Duh! If you like nature, there is lots to see off the freeway in Kansas.

I’m from Kansas and I don’t mind the geography at all, when I went to the east coast it felt weird constantly being surrounded by huge trees and not being able to see around you

My husband and I bought a house in eastern Kansas last year. We chose Kansas for it's affordable housing and lower cost of living over all. But before we settled on a particular area we had travel through Kansas several times sast to west and north to south. Frankly western Kansas is so windy that I couldn't take it. But I love eastern Kansas, the flint hills, lush landscape and rich history. Our small town is wonderful too. Neighbors talk to one another, kids still play in their front yards and it feels safe! My only complaint is that the restaurants are not very good. But the local donut shop is awesome. 😂

Small correction. Spanish settlers did not name the region of Colorado. Spain just named the river (which flows through a lot of other former Spanish territories), and Americans later named the territory/state in 1861. Spanish Colorado was part of the New Mexico region of New Spain. (Southern California had earlier in 1859 considered separating into a new state called Colorado.) EDIT: See @b.y.2460's reply for a comment to my earlier post that said that the state was named after the river (now removed that part).

Kansas, which covers an area of 81,823 square miles, has a population, almost that of Mongolia, (3.3 Million). Mongolia, a totally land-locked Country, which covers 603,909 square miles, is the world's most sparsely populated Sovereign State. BTW, I lived there, my wife, Master's Degree in Linguistics, Mongolian/English & my daughter were born in Ulaanbaatar. 🙂

For much of the 19th century, Missouri was the fastest growing region because 1) it was the “jumping off place” for anyone going wet; 2) it’s fertile soil and moderate climate; 3) it’s abundant natural resources. St. Louis is our largest metro area, but Kansas City is our largest city.

As a Kansas resident for my entire life I love the Great Plains. There’s nothing more beautiful than the sun setting on a beautiful day as you can see for miles all around you

Kansas has 2.9 million people. If it tried to have even 5 or 6 million the aquifer would be pumped dry in an attempt to obtain enough water for household use alone.

no one who has ever been to western kansas would be confused about why this is.

when i road-tripped through kansas from missouri to colorado, i can say the first 2 ish hours (in eastern kansas) seemed normla just like in missouri with towns and cities but then the western part of kansas took like 4 hours to drive throguh with almost nothing in it apart from wind turbines and huge and mesmerizing thunderstorms if you’ve ever seen them. What’s even worse is that it extends into eastern colorado for 2 hours as well until you reach the rockies TLDR; like 70% of kansas is just a huge cornfield and is boring

Kansas was already subdivided into large farms, leaving relatively little space for urban/suburban expansion. A farm would have to be more valuable as housing to be sold, thus a chicken and egg problem. Also urban areas generally build around geographical features. But Kansas is largely geographically featureless.

I hadn't thought of the dust bowl as a reason that Kansas lags behind Colorado and Missouri in population.