Safest Counties in Kansas: 9 Ranked (2026)
The 9 Kansas counties where police report enough to the FBI to build a reliable rate, ranked by violent crime, with home prices, asking rents and incomes where available.
Kansas has 105 counties. Nine of them clear the reporting bar this page uses, and the gap between the quietest, Johnson at 193 violent offenses per 100,000, and the busiest, Wyandotte at 995, is 5.1 to one. What homes closed at over the last 12 months sits beside the rate where Resideline has enough sales to publish a median: 16,737 closing records tracked in the 7 counties that clear that bar.
The crime rates here are built from the 1,897,058 residents those police agencies actually report on, over the months they reported. Each figure is a single county-wide figure, so treat this as a way to narrow a search rather than a verdict on any street.
We do not treat missing or conflicting crime data as zero. A county appears here only when its reporting clears our reliability threshold, and we set aside results that conflict materially with the state's own records. Whether a county is ranked depends on its crime reporting alone; whether it shows a price depends on whether Resideline tracked enough closings there.
The ranking
| # | County | Violent per 100k | Property per 100k | Median closed price | Median asking rent | Median income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Johnson | 193 | 1,297 | $465,208 | $2,025 | $109,357 |
| 2 | Leavenworth | 262 | 961 | $340,000 | $1,395 | $91,056 |
| 3 | Riley | 296 | 1,229 | $309,000 | $1,275 | $64,086 |
| 4 | Douglas | 395 | 1,728 | $330,000 | $1,500 | $73,332 |
| 5 | Saline | 447 | 2,130 | n/a | n/a | $69,558 |
| 6 | Reno | 507 | 1,669 | n/a | n/a | $61,984 |
| 7 | Shawnee | 708 | 2,731 | $224,650 | $1,200 | $71,876 |
| 8 | Sedgwick | 979 | 3,810 | $177,500 | $1,374 | $71,044 |
| 9 | Wyandotte | 995 | 3,167 | $234,900 | $1,545 | $64,054 |
A closer look at each county
1. Johnson County
Police in Johnson reported 193 violent offenses per 100,000 people, putting it in the lowest quarter of this list. The median comparable US county records 245, so it is quieter than most of the country too. Buyers there paid a median of $465,208, some 151 percent of the level across the counties measured. Safe and expensive is the usual pairing on this list, and this is one of its clearest cases. Median household income is $109,357, roughly 154 percent of the level across this list. Its property rate is also among the lowest here, 1,297 per 100,000, or 1.1 times the median comparable US county. For prices at street level, see Overland Park, the market with the most tracked closings in this county's ZIP codes.
2. Leavenworth County
Leavenworth's violent crime rate is 262 per 100,000 residents, the lowest quarter among the Kansas counties Resideline can measure. That is close to the median comparable US county, which records 245. Homes there closed at a median of $340,000, close to the middle of this list. Households there earn a median of $91,056, about 128 percent of the median for these counties. Property crime is low too, at 961 per 100,000, the bottom quarter of this list and 0.8 times the median comparable US county. Asking rents run about $1,395 a month. Resideline publishes a separate page for Leavenworth, the market with the most tracked closings in this county's ZIP codes.
3. Riley County
Riley records 296 violent offenses per 100,000 residents, which places it in the lowest quarter of the Kansas counties measured here. That is 1.2 times the median comparable US county, which records 245, though still below the Kansas statewide rate of 570 per 100,000 in the same data. The median closed price, $309,000, sits near the center of the counties measured. Against what households there earn, a home costs 4.8 times median income, in the top quarter of this list. Its property rate is also among the lowest here, 1,229 per 100,000, or 1.0 times the median comparable US county. The median rental listing asks $1,275 a month.
4. Douglas County
Police in Douglas reported 395 violent offenses per 100,000 people, putting it in the middle range of this list. That is 1.6 times the median comparable US county, which records 245, though still below the Kansas statewide rate of 570 per 100,000 in the same data. At $330,000, its median closed price is unremarkable against the rest of this list. Its property rate, 1,728 per 100,000, sits in the middle of these counties. The median rental listing asks $1,500 a month. For prices at street level, see Lawrence, the market with the most tracked closings in this county's ZIP codes.
5. Saline County
Saline records 447 violent offenses per 100,000 residents, which places it in the middle range of the Kansas counties measured here. That is 1.8 times the median comparable US county, which records 245, though still below the Kansas statewide rate of 570 per 100,000 in the same data. Its property rate, 2,130 per 100,000, sits in the middle of these counties.
6. Reno County
Reno's violent crime rate is 507 per 100,000 residents, the middle range among the Kansas counties Resideline can measure. That is 2.1 times the median comparable US county, which records 245, though still below the Kansas statewide rate of 570 per 100,000 in the same data. Its property rate, 1,669 per 100,000, sits in the middle of these counties.
7. Shawnee County
Police in Shawnee reported 708 violent offenses per 100,000 people, putting it in the middle range of this list. That is 2.9 times the median comparable US county, which records 245, and above the Kansas statewide rate of 570 per 100,000 in the same data. Homes there closed at a median of $224,650, about 73 percent of the median across this list. A home costs 3.1 times the median household income there, the lowest quarter of this list. Its property rate, 2,731 per 100,000, sits in the middle of these counties. The median rental listing asks $1,200 a month. Resideline publishes a separate page for Topeka, the market with the most tracked closings in this county's ZIP codes.
8. Sedgwick County
Sedgwick records 979 violent offenses per 100,000 residents, which places it in the highest quarter of the Kansas counties measured here. That is 4.0 times the median comparable US county, which records 245, and above the Kansas statewide rate of 570 per 100,000 in the same data. Buyers there paid a median of $177,500, some 57 percent of the level across the counties measured. Local incomes go further here than almost anywhere else on this list, with homes at 2.5 times median household income. Theft and burglary are the larger problem: 3,810 property offenses per 100,000, 3.2 times the median comparable US county. Asking rents of $1,374 a month against that price put it in the top quarter of this list for gross return.
9. Wyandotte County
At 995 violent offenses per 100,000, Wyandotte sits in the highest quarter of the places on this list. That is 4.1 times the median comparable US county, which records 245, and above the Kansas statewide rate of 570 per 100,000 in the same data. Homes changed hands at a median $234,900, around 76 percent of what the rest of this list recorded. Its property rate of 3,167 per 100,000 is in the top quarter here, and 2.7 times the median comparable US county. At $1,545 a month in asking rent, the gross return here is in the top quarter of the counties measured. For prices at street level, see Kansas City, the market with the most tracked closings in this county's ZIP codes.
Does safety set the price in Kansas?
Somewhat, and less than you would expect. The safest third of these counties runs 51 percent above the highest-crime third on price. The same safe places also earn 28 percent more, so income explains part of the raw gap. This state-level comparison does not isolate density, housing mix or other factors that may explain the remainder.
That matches what we found nationally: across 688 counties, once income and other county characteristics are controlled for, a crime rate stops predicting home prices. The full analysis is in our study of crime and home prices.
That is a county-level result. Within a county, research at the scale of a block or a neighborhood finds that violent crime does lower the value of the homes nearest to it, so use these figures to compare counties, not streets.
How to read this list
A rate like this averages everything inside the area, from its downtown to its farmland, and the spread within one of them is often wider than the spread between them. Use it to shortlist, then look at the specific address and the block it sits on.
Prices and rents are as of September 9, 2026, from closings and rental listings Resideline tracks over the previous 12 months; a price is shown where at least 100 closings were tracked and a rent where at least 50 listings were. Rent figures are the median asking rent on listings, not lease figures. Crime is the 2025 FBI Crime Data Explorer release, measured for the whole county over the months each agency reported, and violent crime means murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault. Household income is the Census SAIPE 2024 estimate of the county's median household income; population is the Census 2024 estimate. Where this page compares a rate with the median comparable US county, that figure (245 violent and 1188 property offenses per 100,000) is the median across the 874 US counties with at least 50,000 residents whose agencies reported on 90 percent or more of them for the year.
Sources and related pages
- •Crime: FBI Crime Data Explorer, agency-level offense counts for 2025, aggregated by county over the months each agency reported.
- •Income: Census SAIPE 2024, county median household income.
- •Population: Census county population estimates, vintage 2024.
- •Prices and rents: Resideline's tracked closings and rental listings, 12 months to September 2026.
- •Related: Safest counties by state; Does crime actually lower home prices?; Kansas housing market.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the safest county in Kansas?
Of the 9 Kansas counties measured here, Johnson County records the lowest violent crime rate at 193 offenses per 100,000 residents, against 245 for the median comparable US county. Homes there closed at a median of $465,208 over the last 12 months.
Is this every county in Kansas?
No. It covers 9 of the state's 105 counties, the ones where police agencies report at least 90 percent of the population to the FBI, the area has at least 50,000 residents, and the resulting rate falls inside the sanity bounds we apply. Whether Resideline has enough sales there decides only whether a price is shown. No place above 150,000 residents was excluded.
Does a lower crime rate mean higher home prices?
Less than most people assume. Comparing the safest third of these counties with the highest-crime third, the median closed price is 51 percent higher and household income 28 percent higher. Across 688 US counties we found that once income and other county characteristics are controlled for, a county's crime rate stops predicting its home prices. At the scale of a block, the research says violent crime does lower nearby values.
Is this crime rate for my neighborhood?
No. The FBI publishes these figures for whole counties, so every part of a county carries the same number here, from its densest district to its farmland. It is useful for narrowing a search and not a substitute for looking at a specific address.
Are these rents asking rents or lease rents?
They are the median asking rent on rental listings in the county over the last 12 months. That is what landlords advertised, a guide to the market rather than a lease figure.
About the author
Jeffrey Batista
Jeffrey Batista is the founder of Resideline, a real estate technology company building institutional grade valuation and investment analysis tools for real estate investors.
A software engineer with more than 10 years of experience, Jeffrey has worked across full stack development, infrastructure, data engineering, machine learning, and large scale systems. He left his engineering career to build Resideline full time.
Jeffrey is also a real estate investor with nearly a decade of hands on experience buying, renovating, managing, and analyzing residential properties. His experience on both sides of the industry, as an engineer and an investor, led him to build Resideline after seeing how fragmented and outdated many of the tools available to individual investors were.
Today, he leads the development of Resideline's proprietary data infrastructure, automated valuation models, rental analytics, and investment underwriting technology.