Cowley County vs Ford County

A side-by-side comparison of Cowley County and Ford County: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Cowley County has the higher population (34,487 vs 34,133 in Ford County). Ford County has the higher median household income ($70,495 vs $58,263 in Cowley County). Ford County has the higher median home value ($132,700 vs $111,600 in Cowley County).

Population, income & housing

	Cowley County	Ford County
Population	34,487	34,133
Median age	38.1 yrs	31.9 yrs
Median household income	$58,263	$70,495
Median home value	$111,600	$132,700
Median gross rent	$779	$960
Housing units	15,647	12,638
Homeownership rate	70.5%	64.5%
Bachelor's degree or higher	24.3%	20.7%
Unemployment rate	5.0%	4.7%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Cowley County	Ford County
Population	35,351 → 34,487 (-2.4%)	34,179 → 34,133 (-0.1%)
Median household income	$50,102 → $58,263 (+16.3%)	$51,711 → $70,495 (+36.3%)
Median home value	$89,000 → $111,600 (+25.4%)	$112,500 → $132,700 (+18.0%)
Median gross rent	$694 → $779 (+12.2%)	$778 → $960 (+23.4%)

Cowley County

Population

35,35134,487

Median household income

$50,102$58,263

Median home value

$89,000$111,600

Median gross rent

$694$779

Ford County

Population

34,17934,133

Median household income

$51,711$70,495

Median home value

$112,500$132,700

Median gross rent

$778$960

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Cowley County	Ford County
Under 5	5.4%	8.9%
5 to 17	18.2%	21.9%
18 to 24	10.4%	10.3%
25 to 34	10.9%	13.4%
35 to 44	12.4%	12.2%
45 to 54	11.2%	11.1%
55 to 64	12.7%	11.0%
65 to 74	10.5%	6.7%
75 and over	8.3%	4.6%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Cowley County	Ford County
White (non-Hispanic)	77.2%	36.4%
Black or African American	2.2%	2.2%
American Indian & Alaska Native	1.2%	0.1%
Asian	1.9%	0.4%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.2%	0.0%
Some other race	0.1%	0.3%
Two or more races	5.3%	2.4%
Hispanic or Latino	11.9%	58.2%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Cowley County	Ford County
No high school diploma	8.4%	23.0%
High school graduate	31.0%	28.0%
Some college or associate's	36.4%	28.3%
Bachelor's degree	15.5%	14.2%
Graduate or professional degree	8.8%	6.5%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Cowley County	Ford County
Drove alone	79.1%	81.6%
Carpooled	12.2%	14.0%
Public transit	0.1%	0.0%
Walked	1.7%	0.9%
Bicycle	0.3%	0.1%
Worked from home	4.8%	2.1%
Other means	1.8%	1.2%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Cowley County	Ford County
1-unit, detached	74.5%	70.3%
1-unit, attached	1.0%	3.9%
2 to 4 units	7.3%	9.4%
5 to 19 units	3.8%	3.4%
20 or more units	3.5%	2.6%
Mobile home & other	9.9%	10.4%

Poverty & households

	Cowley County	Ford County
Poverty rate	13.9%	14.4%
Average household size	2.42	2.84
Mean commute (minutes)	20	13
Median year structure built	1962	1972