Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Valley Center is a solid, middle-of-the-road choice. It grades A overall, ranked 14th of 150 in Kansas, with no subject far below average. Its best mark is health: CDC estimates put its residents' health ahead of 81% of the country. It also does better than most on incomes: the median household earns $77K. A typical home there costs about $260K, 3.7 years of the Wichita metro’s $71K median household income. 34% of residents are under 18 in Valley Center, against 24% in Kansas’ towns and 22% across U.S. towns. Dawson Farmstead is on the National Register of Historic Places. Valley Center's schools outperform 77% of the state's.
Where Valley Center beats most towns.
Where Valley Center’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Kansas), ordered by how far Valley Center is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 71 in 1880, 7,340 in 2020. The archive holds 6 old photos and papers going back to 1909 and 5 maps from 1941 on.
1 place on the National Register of Historic Places.
Who provides power, water and the rest in Valley Center, 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 Valley Center.
Valley Center is healthier than Park City and its other neighbors, but it has commutes longer than most of Kansas.
Its A− for health tops all 3 graded neighbors; Park City (B−) comes closest.
74% of adults had a checkup this year in Valley Center. Valley Center beats the Kansas average on 13 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 0. 11% of adults report frequent physical distress in Valley Center.
| Valley Center | Kansas towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yearly checkup (CDC PLACES) | 74% | 77% | 79% |
| Frequent physical distress (CDC PLACES) | 11% | 13% | 14% |
| Get no exercise (CDC PLACES) | 20% | 26% | 25% |
| Diabetes (CDC PLACES) | 9.4% | 11% | 12% |
| What stands out | Valley Center | KS |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 9.2% | 13% |
| Fewer uninsured adults | 7.4% | 9.9% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
The average commute for its 3,425 working residents takes 29.2 minutes, against 19.7 across Kansas.
Most working residents leave Valley Center for work: only 9% work in town. Valley Center’s average trip to work is 29 minutes. Jobs based in Valley Center fell to 1,806 in 2023, 114 fewer than in 2013.
| Valley Center | Kansas towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average trip to work | 29 minutes | 20 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Below the poverty line | 3.6% | 9.2% | 9.6% |
| Work from home | 5.8% | 8.8% | 11% |
| Working residents who work in town | 9.3% | 15% | 8% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
The median age in Valley Center is 33.8 years. Valley Center has grown 4.6% since 2020, to 7,685 residents in the Census Bureau’s 2025 estimate. 36% of Valley Center adults 25 and older hold a bachelor’s degree or more.
| Valley Center | Kansas towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median age | 33.8 years | 38.2 years | 40.5 years |
| Bachelor’s degree or more, 25+ | 36% | 29% | 29% |
50% women, 50% men
That’s an even split within the survey’s margin of ±4.7 points. Across Kansas, 49.8% of residents are women.
| Valley Center | KS | U.S. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10 | 20.1% | 12.5% | 11.6% |
| 10 to 17 | 14.1% | 11.3% | 10.3% |
| 18 to 24 | 6.2% | 10.2% | 9.1% |
| 25 to 34 | 10.6% | 12.9% | 13.7% |
| 35 to 44 | 13.2% | 12.9% | 13.2% |
| 45 to 54 | 10.4% | 11.2% | 12.2% |
| 55 to 64 | 8.3% | 12.2% | 12.7% |
| 65 to 74 | 9.3% | 10.1% | 10.2% |
| 75 and older | 7.8% | 6.9% | 7% |
| No diploma | 7.3% | 8% | 10.4% |
| High school | 23% | 25.4% | 26% |
| Some college | 23.3% | 21.8% | 19.1% |
| Associate’s | 10.3% | 9.1% | 8.8% |
| Bachelor’s | 24.9% | 22.2% | 21.6% |
| Graduate | 11.2% | 13.4% | 14.1% |
Census population estimates, 2025 · U.S. Census Bureau · ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates
Valley Center has chilly winters and hot summers. July afternoons reach 92°, January nights drop to 22° and about 13 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Valley Center's reported crime rate is well below Kansas's. Most reported incidents are property crimes, mainly thefts. 7 violent crimes were reported in 2023.
| Valley Center | Kansas towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Property crimes per 1,000 (2023) | 5.4 per 1,000 residents | 14.2 | 13.1 |
| Violent crimes per 1,000 (2023) | 1 per 1,000 residents | 2.6 | 1.8 |
FBI crime data, 2023 · crimes reported to police
Expected storm and flood damage is higher than in 56% of U.S. communities. Since 1993, 7 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Valley Center.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
The typical Valley Center home is worth about $260,000, up 2.1% in a year, 6% above the Kansas typical home.
| Valley Center | Kansas towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $883 a month | $977 a month | $1,185 a month |
| Households that own their home | 72% | 72% | 73% |
Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
0.8 miles of trail in 4 parks and preserves.
| Valley Center | Kansas towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.1 miles per square mile | 0.3 | 0.4 |
| Conserved land | 0.9% | 2.1% | 4.3% |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. McLaughlin Park | 0.5 mi | 11 |
| 2. Wetland Park | — | 16 |
| 3. Lions Park | — | 11 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Valley Center. Close and well known come first.
34 mi MuseumKansas Cosmosphere and Space Center150K visitors a year
8 mi Zoo & aquariumSedgwick County Zoo
10 mi MuseumExploration Place15 mi Zoo & aquariumTanganyika Wildlife Park
15 mi MuseumKansas Aviation Museum
10 mi MuseumWichita Art MuseumKansas Cosmosphere and Space Center: Patrick Pelletier (Ppelleti (talk)), CC BY-SA 3.0 · Sedgwick County Zoo: Patrick Pelletier, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Exploration Place: 04stx, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Kansas Aviation Museum: David G. Keith, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wichita Art Museum: FUBAR007, CC BY-SA 3.0
5 within 15 miles of the center of Valley Center
About 5 of every 100 Valley Center residents are enrolled in college, against 7 across Kansas.
City in Sedgwick County, Kansas
Valley Center is a city in Sedgwick County, Kansas, United States, and a suburb of Wichita. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 7,340.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
3 towns share a border with Valley Center.
At #14 in KS, it grades higher overall than all 3 graded towns on its borders; Kechi Township (C+) comes closest.
| Town | KS rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Valley Center | #14 | A | B | — | A− | A− |
| Park City | #121 | C− | B | C− | D | B− |
| Kechi Township | #98 | C+ | B | — | D | B− |
| Wichita | #149 | D | B | D− | D | C+ |
Valley Center and Kechi Township report no FBI crime data of their own. Compare Valley Center with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
By most measures, yes. Valley Center grades A overall, better than 86% of U.S. towns and #14 of 150 in Kansas. It grades A− for health and A− for schools.
Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades B.
