Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
The best of Silver Lake’s subject grades are an A+ for schools and an A− for health and cost of living. Silver Lake has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade.
Where Silver Lake beats most towns.
In a town this size, neighbors are the best guide. Ask them anything.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Kansas), ordered by how far Silver Lake is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
The archive holds 5 old photos and papers going back to 1958.
Who provides power, water and the rest in Silver Lake, 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 Silver Lake.
In Silver Lake, 6.4% of adults 18 to 64 have no health insurance. This Kansas town does better than the Kansas average on 10 of 32 CDC measures and worse on 2. Among adults in the town, 12% report frequent physical distress and 30% feel lonely.
| Silver Lake | Kansas towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frequent mental distress (CDC PLACES) | 15% | 17% | 17% |
| Frequent physical distress (CDC PLACES) | 12% | 13% | 14% |
| Feel lonely (CDC PLACES) | 30% | 31% | 33% |
| Get no exercise (CDC PLACES) | 21% | 26% | 25% |
| What stands out | Silver Lake | KS |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 8.4% | 13% |
| Fewer uninsured adults | 6.4% | 9.9% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 10.1% | 8.1% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
The income of the median household for Silver Lake comes to $57,000, below both Kansas’ towns ($73,000) and U.S. towns ($80,000). Most working residents leave Silver Lake for work: only 7% work in town. Employers in Silver Lake added 85 jobs between 2013 and 2023, to 330. Silver Lake: 5.3% of residents live below the poverty line.
| Silver Lake | Kansas towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $57,000 | $73,000 | $80,000 |
| Below the poverty line | 5.3% | 9.1% | 9.6% |
| Working residents who work in town | 6.9% | 15% | 8% |
| Average trip to work | 21 minutes | 20 minutes | 25 minutes |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
A bachelor’s degree or higher: 32% of adults 25 and older, vs 36% across Kansas. Adults 35 to 64 are 26% of residents (36% statewide); people 65 and older are 26% of residents (17% statewide). Also worth knowing: a quarter of residents are under 18 in Silver Lake. Since 2020, Silver Lake has lost 2.3% of its people, to 1,316 in the Census Bureau’s 2025 estimate.
| Silver Lake | Kansas towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 18 | 25% | 24% | 22% |
| Bachelor’s degree or more, 25+ | 32% | 29% | 29% |
| Median age | 39.3 years | 38.1 years | 40.5 years |
Somewhere between 33% and 59% women
The Census survey reached too few of Silver Lake’s residents to say more: its margin here is ±13 points. Across Kansas, 49.8% of residents are women.
| Silver Lake | KS | U.S. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10 | 11.7% | 12.5% | 11.6% |
| 10 to 17 | 13.3% | 11.3% | 10.3% |
| 18 to 24 | 8.1% | 10.2% | 9.1% |
| 25 to 34 | 14.9% | 12.9% | 13.7% |
| 35 to 44 | 11.5% | 12.9% | 13.2% |
| 45 to 54 | 8.2% | 11.2% | 12.2% |
| 55 to 64 | 6.6% | 12.2% | 12.7% |
| 65 to 74 | 7.2% | 10.1% | 10.2% |
| 75 and older | 18.5% | 6.9% | 7% |
| No diploma | 1% | 8% | 10.4% |
| High school | 40.5% | 25.4% | 26% |
| Some college | 21.4% | 21.8% | 19.1% |
| Associate’s | 4.8% | 9.1% | 8.8% |
| Bachelor’s | 19.9% | 22.2% | 21.6% |
| Graduate | 12.4% | 13.4% | 14.1% |
Census population estimates, 2025 · U.S. Census Bureau · ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates · in a town of 1,300, single groups can be off by several points
Summer afternoons peak near 90° in July, and January nights bottom out around 18°; snowfall runs to about 12 inches a winter. Winters in Silver Lake are chilly and summers warm.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Silver Lake’s typical rent is $860 a month. Typical home values rose 2.1% in the year to September 2026.
| Silver Lake | Kansas towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $860 a month | $975 a month | $1,185 a month |
| Households that own their home | 73% | 72% | 73% |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
56% of Silver Lake’s expected losses from natural hazards come from inland flooding, followed by tornadoes at 17%. On expected storm and flood damage, Silver Lake sits above 55% of U.S. communities. The town has had 2 paid flood insurance claims since 1993.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Trails run 0.2 miles in 1 park or preserve. One park or preserve covers 4 acres in Silver Lake. The trail network density for Silver Lake comes to 0.3 miles per square mile, against 0.3 in Kansas’ towns and 0.4 across U.S. towns.
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Silver Lake Lions Club Community Park | — | 4 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Silver Lake. Close and well known come first.
11 mi National Historical ParkBrown v. Board of Education National Historical Park18K visitors a year5 mi MuseumKansas Historical Society
5 mi MuseumKansas Museum of History
14 mi MuseumCombat Air Museum
34 mi MuseumSpencer Museum of ArtBrown v. Board of Education National Historical Park: James Michael DuPont, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Kansas Museum of History: Sesamehoneytart, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Combat Air Museum: Eric Friedebach, CC BY 3.0 · Spencer Museum of Art: Alan Islas, CC BY-SA 4.0
2 within 15 miles of the center of Silver Lake
About 4 of every 100 Silver Lake residents are enrolled in college, against 7 across Kansas.
Where Silver Lake’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
City in Shawnee County, Kansas
Silver Lake is a city in Shawnee County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 1,345.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Not for the area. Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades A−.
2 notable people were born here, including Lon Kruger and Chad Taylor.
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