Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Great Bend gives you more for your money than most places: homes are within reach, about $125K for a typical one, or 2.1 years of the Great Bend area’s $59K median household income. It grades C− overall, 120th among Kansas's 150 graded towns. The low prices come with trade-offs. The median household income is $54K, and 17% of residents live below the poverty line. On the plus side, it is more walkable than 78% of U.S. towns. 42% of working residents work locally in Great Bend, above both Kansas’ towns (15%) and U.S. towns (8%). The biggest park or preserve is Veteran's Memorial Park, at 46 acres.
Where Great Bend beats most towns.
Abel House
Jerry Moran
Census counts: 1,071 in 1880, 14,733 in 2020. The archive holds 18 old photos and papers going back to 1868 and 3 maps from 1958 on.
8 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Kansas), ordered by how far Great Bend is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Who provides power, water and the rest in Great Bend, and how to reach them.
EPA SDWIS (Oct 9, 2026) · HIFLD + EIA-861 2025 · Census 2020 ZCTAs · NCES 2024–25 · registration: vote.gov, updated Nov 18, 2024.
Ordered by what stands out in Great Bend.
Great Bend fares better on crime within Kansas than nationally, is healthier than towns with similar incomes and has homes that are cheap against local pay.
At 2.1 years of the Great Bend area’s $59K median household income, the typical home (about $125K) costs less against local pay than in 88% of Kansas towns; that ratio is one input to its B for cost of living.
56% of Great Bend households own their home. Typical home values rose 9.3% in the year to September 2026. The median rent in Great Bend is $759 a month.
| Great Bend | Kansas towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households that own their home | 56% | 72% | 73% |
| Median rent | $759 a month | $977 a month | $1,185 a month |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Its public schools are run by the Great Bend school district. Two of its 8 schools are below, each with why it’s listed.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Great Bend Middle SchoolLargest public middle schoolGrades 7–8 | Grades 7–8 | 438 | C |
| Great Bend High SchoolLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 923 | C− |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within KS on state tests and graduation
At 29 crimes per 1,000 residents a year, it reports more crime than 58% of Kansas’s graded towns. Reported crimes fell from 294 to 225 over the last three FBI years, a drop beyond ordinary year-to-year swings.
Great Bend’s violent crime rate is 3.2 per 1,000 residents.
| Great Bend | Kansas towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Violent crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 3.2 per 1,000 residents | 2.5 | 1.6 |
| Property crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 12.6 per 1,000 residents | 10.9 | 9.9 |
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
Against the 7,167 U.S. towns with household incomes like Great Bend’s, it is healthier than 56%, so its C isn’t only a matter of income.
Great Bend beats the Kansas average on 0 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 16. 14% of adults 18 to 64 have no health insurance in Great Bend.
| Great Bend | Kansas towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Get no exercise (CDC PLACES) | 32% | 26% | 25% |
| No health insurance, 18–64 (CDC PLACES) | 14% | 8.9% | 8.1% |
| Fair or poor health (CDC PLACES) | 23% | 18% | 19% |
| Diabetes (CDC PLACES) | 13% | 11% | 12% |
| What stands out | Great Bend | KS |
|---|---|---|
| More older adults who have lost all their teeth | 16.9% | 11.3% |
| More uninsured adults | 14% | 9.9% |
| More adults facing food insecurity | 17.6% | 13% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Great Bend has chilly winters and hot summers. July afternoons reach 92°, January nights drop to 19° and about 12 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Expected storm and flood damage is lower than in 65% of U.S. communities. Since 1979, 396 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Great Bend.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Jobs based here fell from 8,283 in 2013 to 6,286.
Jobs based in Great Bend fell to 6,286 in 2023, 1,997 fewer than in 2013. The top destinations are Great Bend Township (8%), Wichita (7%) and South Bend Township (4%).
| Great Bend | Kansas towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average trip to work | 14 minutes | 20 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Median household income | $54,000 | $73,000 | $80,000 |
| Work from home | 5.9% | 8.8% | 11% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
| Great Bend | Kansas towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.1 miles per square mile | 0.3 | 0.4 |
| Conserved land | 2.6% | 2% | 4.3% |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Veteran's Memorial Park | 0.4 mi | 46 |
| 2. Brit Spaugh Park | — | 44 |
| 3. Heizer Park | — | 3 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
1 within 15 miles of the center of Great Bend
About 4 of every 100 Great Bend residents are enrolled in college, against 7 across Kansas.
8 places in Great Bend on the National Register of Historic Places.
20 notable people were born in Great Bend.
City in Barton County, Kansas
Great Bend is a city in and the county seat of Barton County, Kansas, United States. It is named for its location at the point where the course of the Arkansas River bends east then southeast. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 14,733. It is home to Barton Community College.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
5 towns share a border with Great Bend.
| Town | KS rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Great Bend | #120 | C− | B | C | C+ | C |
| Great Bend Township | — | — | B | — | C+ | C |
| South Bend Township | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Liberty Township | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Buffalo Township | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Comanche Township | — | — | — | — | — | — |
Great Bend Township has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade. Great Bend Township reports no FBI crime data of its own. South Bend Township, Liberty Township, Buffalo Township and Comanche Township aren’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Great Bend with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Great Bend grades C− overall, better than 24% of U.S. towns and #120 of 150 in Kansas. It grades C for health, C for safety and C+ for schools. Jobs & income is its weak spot, with a C−.
Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades B.
20 notable people were born here, including Jerry Moran and Karrin Allyson.
