Elk City vs Independence

A side-by-side comparison of Elk City and Independence: population, income, housing, and more.

Elk City and Independence are places in Kansas. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Independence has the higher population (8,469 vs 281 in Elk City). Independence has the higher median household income ($49,164 vs $35,417 in Elk City). Independence has the higher median home value ($78,500 vs $22,300 in Elk City).

Population, income & housing

	Elk City	Independence
Population	281	8,469
Median age	46.0 yrs	38.3 yrs
Median household income	$35,417	$49,164
Median home value	$22,300	$78,500
Median gross rent	$921	$790
Housing units	137	4,648
Homeownership rate	77.5%	69.9%
Bachelor's degree or higher	13.7%	26.4%
Unemployment rate	10.9%	3.8%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Elk City	Independence
Population	288 → 281 (-2.4%)	8,698 → 8,469 (-2.6%)
Median household income	$24,750 → $35,417 (+43.1%)	$41,778 → $49,164 (+17.7%)
Median home value	$24,800 → $22,300 (-10.1%)	$80,700 → $78,500 (-2.7%)
Median gross rent	$730 → $921 (+26.2%)	$680 → $790 (+16.2%)

Elk City

Population

288281

Median household income

$24,750$35,417

Median home value

$24,800$22,300

Median gross rent

$730$921

Independence

Population

8,6988,469

Median household income

$41,778$49,164

Median home value

$80,700$78,500

Median gross rent

$680$790

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Elk City	Independence
Under 5	1.8%	4.8%
5 to 17	11.7%	18.8%
18 to 24	13.9%	9.4%
25 to 34	9.3%	13.2%
35 to 44	12.1%	11.1%
45 to 54	14.2%	8.8%
55 to 64	9.6%	13.1%
65 to 74	8.2%	13.4%
75 and over	19.2%	7.5%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Elk City	Independence
White (non-Hispanic)	78.3%	79.2%
Black or African American	0.0%	2.4%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	1.1%
Asian	0.0%	0.3%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	4.6%	0.0%
Some other race	1.4%	0.9%
Two or more races	11.4%	7.6%
Hispanic or Latino	4.3%	8.6%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Elk City	Independence
No high school diploma	8.3%	8.2%
High school graduate	27.0%	29.7%
Some college or associate's	51.0%	35.7%
Bachelor's degree	4.4%	15.8%
Graduate or professional degree	9.3%	10.6%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Elk City	Independence
Drove alone	78.8%	82.4%
Carpooled	18.8%	9.8%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	0.0%	3.3%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	2.4%	3.5%
Other means	0.0%	1.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Elk City	Independence
1-unit, detached	75.9%	79.7%
1-unit, attached	0.0%	1.4%
2 to 4 units	0.0%	1.6%
5 to 19 units	0.0%	6.8%
20 or more units	0.0%	5.7%
Mobile home & other	24.1%	4.8%

Poverty & households

	Elk City	Independence
Poverty rate	26.7%	16.3%
Average household size	3.16	2.20
Mean commute (minutes)	22	15
Median year structure built	1938	1952