Franklin R. Lanter House · Photo: Rmprit · CC BY-SA 3.0Households in Olathe have higher incomes than those in 86% of U.S. towns
Poverty touches 5.6% of residents; Kansas has 11.3%. The two grades for Olathe are A for jobs and income and B+ for walkability. 21% of workers work from home, next to 12% for Kansas as a whole.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Olathe stands out on work
Olathe trades workers with the towns around it
Olathe has about as many jobs (67,696) as working residents (70,085), but they are mostly different people: 52,125 residents leave for work each day while 49,736 people come in. Only 27% of the jobs in Olathe are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
A lot of Olathe works one town over
32% of working residents work in a town that borders Olathe: Overland Park (21%) and Lenexa (11%). Next door ↓
A lot of Olathe works from home
21% of Olathe workers work from home, against 12% across Kansas. Time on the road ↓
Most Olathe residents work close to home
61% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home. Only 7% work more than 50 miles away. How far ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey.
How Olathe earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Olathe is better than 93% of U.S. towns, #12 of 151 in Kansas. All four inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Olathe’s grade. It also does well on household income and the poverty rate and unemployment.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Olathe could be anywhere from A to A+.
Who leaves Olathe for work, and who comes in
On a workday 52,125 residents head out to work, 17,960 work right here, and 49,736 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (0.97 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Commuting from Olathe: about 21 minutes a trip
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Olathe workers work from home, vs 12% across Kansas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 61,880 commuters (the 21% who work from home are left out). Across Kansas: 85% drive alone, <1% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Olathe
Straight-line distance from each worker’s home block to their main job’s block. LEHD 2023.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
The towns that employ Olathe’s residents
Where Olathe clocks in
11% of workers
9% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
The kinds of work in Olathe
67,696 jobs are based in Olathe.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Olathe, 2013 → 2023: 58,217 → 67,696. Big swings can come from how a large employer reports its locations, not only from real openings or closings.
Primary jobs covered by unemployment insurance (not the self-employed). Pay is monthly earnings. LEHD 2023.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Olathe’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Few in Olathe walk, bike or ride to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Olathe is more walkable than 65% of U.S. towns, #55 of 151 in Kansas. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 3.4% across Kansas.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 78,257 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 35% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 2% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 0.6 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 51% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 3.2% of Olathe households have no vehicle (Kansas 5.1%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Olathe’s commuters take a bus or train.
These are town averages; neighborhoods differ.
Olathe is 5th of 234 U.S. towns of 105,000 to 203,000 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Carmel IN | 105,634 | $142K | 3.9% | 2.7% | 23% | A+ |
| 2 | Pearland TX | 129,930 | $119K | 4.1% | 3.3% | 10% | A+ |
| 3 | Smithtown NY | 116,847 | $153K | 4.2% | 3.9% | 16% | A |
| 4 | Berkeley CA | 121,911 | $108K | 17.3% | 5.6% | 21% | A |
| 5 | Olathe KS | 150,025 | $114K | 5.6% | 2.7% | 26% | A |
| 6 | Naperville IL | 153,114 | $155K | 4.4% | 4.5% | 17% | A |
| 7 | Allen TX | 113,447 | $131K | 6.1% | 3.7% | 11% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 161 | Kansas City KS | 157,805 | $62K | 16.0% | 5.8% | 30% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 183 | Topeka KS | 125,795 | $57K | 15.7% | 4.9% | 66% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 234 | Macon-Bibb County GA | 157,556 | $51K | 24.7% | 8.1% | 53% | D |
Census ACS 2020–24 (income, poverty, unemployment), Census LEHD (work in town), TownRatings Jobs & income grades. Each town links to its Work & commute page.
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Olathe, the top three, the last and three more from Kansas.
Work next door: 32% of Olathe’s workers
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Olathe workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Olathe | – | A | B+ | 21 min | $114,009 |
| Lenexa | 11% | A | B+ | 19 min | $103,239 |
| Lexington Township | under 2% | A+ | B− | 24 min | $135,068 |
| Oxford Township | under 2% | A+ | D | 23 min | $163,333 |
| Spring Hill Township | under 2% | B+ | B | 32 min | $110,536 |
| Overland Park | 21% | A | B+ | 20 min | $104,834 |
| Gardner Township | under 2% | A+ | C− | 28 min | $116,136 |
| Gardner | under 2% | A− | B− | 23 min | $96,818 |
| De Soto | under 2% | B+ | B− | 28 min | $104,000 |
| Aubry Township | under 2% | A+ | C | 23 min | $134,081 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Overland Park. Darker towns draw more of Olathe’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Two sources, two years. Trips, distances and jobs based here: Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs, where the employer reports them. Income, poverty, unemployment, commute time and how people travel: Census ACS 2020–24 averages.
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Olathe: questions
What is the median household income in Olathe?
$114,009 (±$2,589) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,275 across Kansas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Olathe?
5.6%, against 11.3% across Kansas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Olathe?
21 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Kansas and 26 nationally. 21% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Olathe work?
26% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Overland Park (21%, 7 mi), Lenexa (11%, 6 mi), Kansas City (9%, 22 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Olathe walkable?
Olathe is more walkable than 65% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 9.6 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Olathe without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. 2% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Olathe, from the people who make the trip.
More of Olathe
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2023, primary jobs. Commute time, working from home and working out of state: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates. Distances are straight lines between home and work; real drives run longer. Walkability index, job access and transit service: U.S. EPA Smart Location Database. The two grades are our own summaries of these figures, not official ratings.