Alma is a city in Wabaunsee County, Kansas, part of the Topeka, KS metro area. It has 1,063 residents. Alma, Kansas has a quality-of-life score of 65 out of 100 (high), ranking #5,410 of 15,651 US cities and towns. Within Kansas it ranks #69 of 202 cities and towns. It ranks best on child care cost burden (low), math scores (high) and public libraries (high). It ranks worst on access to exercise opportunities (low), pharmacies (low) and average weekly wage (low).
65High
Quality-of-life score
#5,410 of 15,651 cities and towns
Kansas
#69 of 202 in KS
Population
1,063 (2020-2024)
Land area
1 mi²
Density
1,818.2 /mi²
FIPS code
2001350
Percentile-based score (100 is the best in the country) from 71 of 80 indicators, with the default “Explorer” weights.
Each category averages its indicators' percentile scores among US cities and towns.
Safety52#7,500/15,637
Economy70#4,726/15,631
Housing97#516/14,977
Health70#4,752/15,609
Healthcare33#10,420/15,650
Environment22#12,106/15,453
Education91#1,406/15,649
Infrastructure39#9,513/15,650
Community70#4,740/15,651
Leisure & amenities42#9,106/15,651
Strengths · Weaknesses
Indicators where Alma, Kansas ranks highest and lowest among US cities and towns (score = percentile, 100 = best). Values marked “Wabaunsee County value” are the county’s: the source publishes no figure for this city or town, and the county holding most of its residents stands in.
How each measure moved between two periods about five years apart, read against whether more or less is better, the published margin of error and the same change in other places.
Cities and towns like Alma, Kansas five years ago that improved
The places whose measures looked most like those of Alma, Kansas in the earlier period, ranked by how many measures improved beyond the margin of error, minus how many declined. A comparison of published data, not a forecast and not advice.
Who lives here
Age, race and education of residents, from the American Community Survey. Shares are of all residents (age), residents of every origin (race) or adults 25 and over (education).
Income
How household income is spread, not just the middle: each bar is the share of households in that income range.
Homes
Who owns and who rents, what homes cost, and what the housing stock looks like.
Getting to work
How workers travel to their job and how long it takes them.
Jobs and pay
What the largest occupations here pay, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes pay by metro area, not by county or city. The metro area page lists its largest occupations and lets you look up any job.
Employer businesses and sole proprietors by industry, per resident and against the state and the nation. Counts of businesses next to counts of people, not a measure of demand.
Federal contracts performed here
Grants and other federal assistance are counted by county here, not split among cities: Alma is mostly in Wabaunsee County.
Over about five years, Alma, Kansas improved on 1 of 10 measures with a comparison and declined on 0. 9 moved within the margin of error and 0 barely changed.
Earlier (2015-2019)
Latest (2020-2024)
Lower standingHigher standing
Position is the place's standing among cities and towns: further right is better, whichever way the measure counts.
Improved1
Broadband+11 points73.1% → 84.2%
Broadband subscriptions
73.1% → 84.2%2015-2019 → 2020-2024
+11 pointsBeyond the margin of error (±10.2 points)
Standing among cities and towns: 22 → 18 (0 lowest, 100 highest)
More favourable than 65% of cities and towns
Declined0
No measure declined by more than its margin of error.
All 10 measures
Change of every measure of Alma, Kansas between two periods about five years apart
Measure
Before
After
Change
Reading
Favourable vs peers
Average commute time
25.7 min2015-2019
23.1 min2020-2024
−2.6 min
Within the margin of error
76%
Bachelor's degree or higher
20.2%2015-2019
23.4%2020-2024
+3.3 points
Within the margin of error
54%
Broadband subscriptions
73.1%2015-2019
84.2%2020-2024
+11 points
Improved
65%
Effective property tax rate
1.95%2015-2019
1.41%2020-2024
−0.5 points
Within the margin of error
92%
High school diploma or higher
92.2%2015-2019
97.2%2020-2024
+4.9 points
Within the margin of error
81%
Home price to income ratio
1.5×2015-2019
1.9×2020-2024
+0.4×
Within the margin of error
56%
Income inequality (Gini index)
0.3942015-2019
0.3462020-2024
−0.048
Within the margin of error
83%
Median household income
$60,4862015-2019
$71,8752020-2024
+19%
Within the margin of error
31%
Public transit commuters
0.0%2015-2019
0.0%2020-2024
0 points
Within the margin of error
60%
Rent as share of income
23.9%2015-2019
27.2%2020-2024
+3.3 points
Within the margin of error
31%
“Against peers” compares the change with the same change in the 14640 cities and towns that have the same two periods. It describes how common a change is, not why it happened.
Sources: American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates. Values are the latest and the one five years earlier of the same publisher dataset; datasets that changed publisher in between are never compared.
Survey estimates (American Community Survey) compare the two most recent 5-year windows that do not share years, so the margin of error of the difference holds. The 2015-2019 window predates the pandemic and 2020-2024 includes it.
A change counts only when it is larger than 1.645 times the square root of the two standard errors squared, summed (a 90% margin). Measures published without a margin must change by at least 5% to count.
“Against peers” compares the change with the same change in the 15651 cities and towns that have the same two periods. It describes how common a change is, not why it happened.
Standing is a percentile among the same places: 0 is the lowest value on the measure (or the worst when lower is better), 100 the best.
For comparison, Alma, Kansas itself moved +4.6 points in standing on average over the same 9 measures (standings of all places average about zero).
How the ranking works
Similarity is the root-mean-square difference of standings in the earlier period over the measures most places have. Places are ranked by measures that improved beyond the margin of error minus those that declined (a count that estimation noise in small places cannot inflate), then by the mean change of standing over the measures a place has in both periods. Only places with more improvements than declines and a rise in standing are listed. Standings are relative, so a place can improve in absolute terms and still lose standing.
Household income
374 households (±65)
Alma, Kansas
Kansas share
Under $25k11%†42
Under $25k
11%±5.5 points
42 households±22 (90% margin of error)
14%in Kansas
15%in United States
−8.7 pointssince 2015–2019
Wide margin of error: read with care
$25k–50k20%†74
$25k–50k
20%±7.6 points
74 households±31 (90% margin of error)
19%in Kansas
17%in United States
−6.7 pointssince 2015–2019, within the margin of error
Wide margin of error: read with care
$50k–75k21%†77
$50k–75k
21%±7.9 points
77 households±33 (90% margin of error)
18%in Kansas
16%in United States
+3.4 pointssince 2015–2019, within the margin of error
Wide margin of error: read with care
$75k–100k9.1%†34
$75k–100k
9.1%±5.7 points
34 households±22 (90% margin of error)
14%in Kansas
13%in United States
−11.4 pointssince 2015–2019, within the margin of error
Wide margin of error: read with care
$100k–150k32%†120
$100k–150k
32%±8.4 points
120 households±38 (90% margin of error)
18%in Kansas
18%in United States
+18.4 pointssince 2015–2019
Wide margin of error: read with care
$150k–200k5.9%†22
$150k–200k
5.9%±2.8 points
22 households±11 (90% margin of error)
8.8%in Kansas
9.6%in United States
+4.1 pointssince 2015–2019
Wide margin of error: read with care
$200k or more1.3%†5
$200k or more
1.3%±1.6 points
5 households±6 (90% margin of error)
9.6%in Kansas
13%in United States
+0.8 pointssince 2015–2019, within the margin of error
Wide margin of error: read with care
Biggest shift since 2015–2019: $100k–150k (+18.4 points).
† Wide margin of error (more than 30% of the estimate): read with care.
The Census Bureau publishes business counts by county, not by city, so these are the figures of Wabaunsee County, the county holding most of Alma's residents.
Wabaunsee County has 131 employer establishments, 185 for every 10,000 residents (0.75× the US rate of 248; 0.72× Kansas's), with 890 paid employees at an average annual pay of $42,067. The Census Bureau also counts 542 nonemployer businesses, mostly sole proprietors.
Establishments
131
542 nonemployers
Per 10,000 residents
185
US 248 · Kansas 258
Paid employees
890
Average annual pay
$42,067
US $68,342
Employer establishments, employees, average pay and nonemployers of Wabaunsee County by industry, with the density per resident against the nation
County Business Patterns (2023); Nonemployer Statistics (2024)
Per-resident figures divide by the population estimate of 2023: 7,081 residents here, 336,755,052 in the United States. County Business Patterns counts establishments in 2023; the Nonemployer Statistics count businesses in 2024.
“More than typical” is a density at least 1.25 times the nation's per resident, “fewer” at most 0.8 times, with at least 10 establishments. It compares counts of businesses with counts of people: it says nothing about demand, incomes, size, quality or profit, and visitors and commuters are not residents.
The Census Bureau adds noise to employment and payroll to protect confidentiality, and withholds some figures: an industry with few establishments can show employees or pay as unavailable.
Industries overlap: a narrower industry (full-service restaurants) is part of a broader one (restaurants), so the rows do not add up.
Industries follow the North American Industry Classification System; the two surveys use different editions (NAICS 2017 and 2022), which this page matches industry by industry.
No federal contract obligations recorded here in FY2026.
