Kansas Facts -- National Geographic

Fast Facts

Population:: 2,723,507
Capital:: Topeka; 122,103
Area:: 82,277 square miles (213,096 square kilometers)
Per Capita Income:: U.S. $28,838
Date Statehood Achieved:: January 29, 1861

Cattle towns such as Abilene have long since given way to manufacturing centers. Wichita turns out 70 percent of the general-aviation aircraft produced in the U.S.; Kansas City makes automobiles. Among the top states in crude-oil production, Kansas also banks on one of the nation's largest natural gas fields. Salt deposits near Hutchinson are the remnant of a shallow sea that once submerged the Great Plains. Although no other state grows more wheat—Mennonites from Europe introduced a hardy winter variety in the 1870s—livestock earns more for Kansas.

ECONOMY

Industry: Aircraft manufacturing, transportation equipment, construction, food processing, printing and publishing, health care
Agriculture: Cattle, wheat, sorghum, soybeans, hogs, corn

—Text From National Geographic Atlas of the World, Eighth Edition

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