Barber County vs Meade County

A side-by-side comparison of Barber County and Meade County: population, income, housing, and more.

Barber County and Meade County are counties in Kansas. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Barber County has the higher population (4,153 vs 3,949 in Meade County). Meade County has the higher median household income ($74,868 vs $57,615 in Barber County). Meade County has the higher median home value ($122,000 vs $92,700 in Barber County).

Population, income & housing

	Barber County	Meade County
Population	4,153	3,949
Median age	42.6 yrs	37.5 yrs
Median household income	$57,615	$74,868
Median home value	$92,700	$122,000
Median gross rent	$743	$799
Housing units	2,461	1,869
Homeownership rate	81.3%	72.7%
Bachelor's degree or higher	27.1%	22.8%
Unemployment rate	2.3%	1.2%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Barber County	Meade County
Population	4,624 → 4,153 (-10.2%)	4,180 → 3,949 (-5.5%)
Median household income	$50,174 → $57,615 (+14.8%)	$59,316 → $74,868 (+26.2%)
Median home value	$72,300 → $92,700 (+28.2%)	$96,800 → $122,000 (+26.0%)
Median gross rent	$563 → $743 (+32.0%)	$633 → $799 (+26.2%)

Barber County

Population

4,6244,153

Median household income

$50,174$57,615

Median home value

$72,300$92,700

Median gross rent

$563$743

Meade County

Population

4,1803,949

Median household income

$59,316$74,868

Median home value

$96,800$122,000

Median gross rent

$633$799

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Barber County	Meade County
Under 5	5.9%	7.1%
5 to 17	19.0%	19.5%
18 to 24	7.1%	8.9%
25 to 34	10.5%	11.6%
35 to 44	9.5%	11.0%
45 to 54	10.9%	12.4%
55 to 64	14.0%	12.8%
65 to 74	14.4%	9.7%
75 and over	8.8%	7.0%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Barber County	Meade County
White (non-Hispanic)	88.8%	72.9%
Black or African American	0.2%	1.3%
American Indian & Alaska Native	2.0%	0.1%
Asian	0.5%	0.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.2%	0.1%
Two or more races	2.1%	2.5%
Hispanic or Latino	6.1%	23.2%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Barber County	Meade County
No high school diploma	6.0%	15.4%
High school graduate	32.3%	24.7%
Some college or associate's	34.6%	37.2%
Bachelor's degree	21.8%	13.5%
Graduate or professional degree	5.3%	9.2%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Barber County	Meade County
Drove alone	85.1%	78.7%
Carpooled	8.4%	11.0%
Public transit	0.5%	0.3%
Walked	1.9%	1.3%
Bicycle	0.8%	0.0%
Worked from home	2.8%	8.0%
Other means	0.5%	0.7%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Barber County	Meade County
1-unit, detached	90.9%	86.9%
1-unit, attached	0.7%	0.1%
2 to 4 units	1.3%	3.4%
5 to 19 units	2.1%	1.0%
20 or more units	1.4%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	3.7%	8.6%

Poverty & households

	Barber County	Meade County
Poverty rate	17.6%	6.6%
Average household size	2.27	2.58
Mean commute (minutes)	15	17
Median year structure built	1956	1961