Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town of 1,397, settled in 1871.
The best of Great Bend Township’s subject grades are a B for cost of living and incomes; the weakest is a D for walkability. Great Bend Township’s average trip to work is 12 minutes, below both the Kansas town median (20 minutes) and the median of U.S. towns (25 minutes). On walkability, just 35 of Kansas’ 372 towns do worse. On civic life, just 15 of Kansas’ 362 towns do worse. Great Bend Township is home to Barton County Community College. Great Bend Township has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade.
Where Great Bend Township beats most towns.
| College | Students |
|---|---|
| Barton County Community College | 2,111 |
1,752 counted in 2010 and 1,365 in 2020; an estimated 1,397 in 2025.
U.S. Census 2010 & 2020 counts · Census Bureau estimate, July 1, 2025
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Kansas), ordered by how far Great Bend Township is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
The archive holds 6 old photos and papers going back to 1868.
Who provides power, water and the rest in Great Bend Township, 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 Township.
Most working residents leave Great Bend Township for work: only 6% work in town. At $103,000, Great Bend Township’s median household income is where Kansas’ towns sit at $73,000 and U.S. towns at $80,000. Jobs based in Great Bend Township fell to 1,044 in 2023, 328 fewer than in 2013.
| Great Bend Township | Kansas towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $103,000 | $73,000 | $80,000 |
| Working residents who work in town | 6.3% | 15% | 8% |
| Below the poverty line | 6.2% | 9.1% | 9.6% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Its one school is below.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Central Kansas Christian Academy PrivateLargest elementary schoolGrades K–8 | Grades K–8 | 68 | – |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within KS on state tests and graduation
Great Bend Township beats the Kansas average on 0 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 17. 13% of Great Bend Township adults 18 to 64 have no health insurance. Among 151 Kansas towns, just 9 have a lower share of adults who binge drink than Great Bend Township.
| Great Bend Township | Kansas towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Get no exercise (CDC PLACES) | 32% | 26% | 25% |
| No health insurance, 18–64 (CDC PLACES) | 13% | 8.9% | 8.1% |
| Diabetes (CDC PLACES) | 14% | 11% | 12% |
| Fair or poor health (CDC PLACES) | 23% | 18% | 19% |
| What stands out | Great Bend Township | KS |
|---|---|---|
| More older adults who have lost all their teeth | 17.2% | 11.3% |
| More adults with COPD | 9.2% | 6.7% |
| More uninsured adults | 13.4% | 9.9% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Great Bend Township has chilly winters and hot summers. The July high in Great Bend Township is 92°F.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Expected storm and flood damage is lower than in 65% of U.S. communities.
FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
1 within 15 miles of the center of Great Bend Township
About 13 of every 100 Great Bend Township residents are enrolled in college, against 7 across Kansas.
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)
7 towns share a border with Great Bend Township.
| Town | KS rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Great Bend Township | — | — | B | — | C+ | C |
| Great Bend | #120 | C− | B | C | C+ | C |
| South Bend Township | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Comanche Township | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Cheyenne Township | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Lakin Township | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Buffalo Township | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Liberty 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, Comanche Township, Cheyenne Township, Lakin Township, Buffalo Township and Liberty Township aren’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Great Bend Township with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades B.