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State Facts

History | Symbols | Interesting Facts | Famous People

Demographics
Statehood:  January 29, 1861, the 34th state

Capital:  Topeka

Total Area:  15th among states, 213,109 sq km (82,282 sq mi)

Water Area:  1,189 sq km (459 sq mi)

Highest Point:  Mount Sunflower, 1,231 m (4,039 ft)

Total Population:  32nd among states
2000 census -  2,688,418
2005 estimate -  2,774,687

Population Density in 2000:  12 people per sq km (32 per sq mi)

Distribution in 1990:   69% Urban, 31% Rural  

Economy:  
 Gross State Product - $93 billion (2003)
Personal income per Capita - $29,438 (2003)

Largest cities in 2000: 
 Wichita:  353,823
Overland Park:  160,368
Kansas City:  146,866

  • Dodge City is the windiest city in the United States. 
     

  • In 1990 Kansas wheat farmers produced enough wheat to make 33 billion loaves of bread, or enough to provide each person on earth with 6 loaves. 
     

  • At one time it was against the law to serve ice cream on cherry pie in Kansas. 
     

  • Pizza Hut restaurants opened its first store in Wichita, Kansas. 
     

  • A grain elevator in Hutchinson is ½ mile long and holds 46 million bushels in its 1,000 bins. 
     

  • In Lucas, Civil War veteran S.P. Dinsmoor used over 100 tons of concrete to build the Garden of Eden.  Even the flag is made of concrete. 
     

  • Russell Springs in Logan County is known as the Cow Chip Capital of Kansas. 
     

  • At Kansas State University College of Veterinary Medicine waterbeds are used in surgery for horses. 
     

  • The graham cracker was named after the Reverend Sylvester Graham.  He was a minister who strongly believed in eating whole-wheat flour products. 
     

  • Sumner County is known as the Wheat Capital of the World.
     

  • In 1919 the first airplane factory in Kansas was built in Wichita, which became one of the nation's top plane manufacturing cities.
     

  • Dwight Eisenhower, 34th president of the United States, was born in Abeline, Kansas in 1890.
      

  • Kansas was a crucial battleground in the fight over slavery between 1858-1859, and was finally admitted as a free state in 1861, just before the Civil War.