These Are The 10 Laziest Places In Kansas

Everyone hates the lazy person in the office. The guy or gal who manages to offload all of their work to you, but somehow still takes the credit for it.

And if you live in one of these Kansas towns, you might look in the mirror and see that lazy person staring right back at you.

We’re not trying to be mean; it’s just that the lazy ethos can penetrate from the location into the workplace and no one wants to work with lazy people.

So we got to work late on a Friday night to figure out the places around Kansas that spend the day on Reddit and get by with the bare minimum. Using data from the latest American Community Survey, we identified criteria associated with laziness for each city.

After crunching all the numbers, here are the ten “Laziest Places in Kansas” based on data:

Read on to see where the couch potatoes call home or skip to the end to find where your town ranked.

Oh, and by the way, Andover is the hardest-working place in KS.

How We Determined The Laziest Places In The Sunflower State

Like all problems here at Zippia, we start with the data to answer the hard questions. Some might even consider us the hardest working data-crunchers this side of the Mississippi.

In this particular case, we went to the latest version of the American Community Survey looking for answers. As luck would have it, the Census Bureau just released the 2010-2014 5-Yr Estimate which would make this analysis the first of it’s kind with the new data.

After scrolling through what seemed like hundreds of criteria, we settled on this set for the laziest places in Kansas:

Lowest average hours worked
Shortest commute time
Fewest workers per household (Labor force divided by the number households)
Highest unemployment rate
Fewest adults with a college degree

Our thinking went something along the lines of if you can’t bother to go college, don’t spend any time at work, and have only one person per household bringing home the bacon, your town is probably pretty lazy.

After we got the data for the 59 places in Kansas over 5,000 people, we ranked each place from 1 to 59 for each of the criteria with 1 being the “laziest”.

Next, we averaged the rankings for each to create a lazy index.

Finally, we crowned the place with the lowest lazy index the “Laziest Place In Kansas”. And, at the end of the day, Iola slacked off its way to the top.

Read the detailed chart below to learn a bit more about why each place ranked where it did.

1. Iola

Population: 5,650College Educated: 16.8%
Unemployment Rate: 8.9%

2. Coffeyville

Population: 10,034College Educated: 13.0%
Unemployment Rate: 8.8%

3. Arkansas City

Population: 12,316College Educated: 15.7%
Unemployment Rate: 11.9%

4. Concordia

Population: 5,327College Educated: 19.3%
Unemployment Rate: 8.0%

5. Chanute

Population: 9,194College Educated: 18.1%
Unemployment Rate: 7.0%

6. Independence

Population: 9,282 College Educated: 20.3%
Unemployment Rate: 12.8%

7. Great Bend

Population: 15,942College Educated: 16.8%
Unemployment Rate: 9.4%

8. Parsons

Population: 10,307College Educated: 23.1%
Unemployment Rate: 8.0%

9. Wellington

Population: 8,028 College Educated: 17.7%
Unemployment Rate: 9.3%

10. Hutchinson

Population: 41,946College Educated: 19.6%
Unemployment Rate: 6.9%

Slacking Your Way Off To The Bottom

Like we said earlier, trying to determine the laziest places in Kansas is usually a subjective matter. But if you’re analyzing cities where people don’t work, where a good education is rare, and no one’s willing to put in the long hours, then this is an accurate list of laziness.

Detailed List Of The Laziest Places In Kansas

City	Rank	Population	College Educated	Unemployment Rate
Iola	1	5,650	16.8%	8.9%
Coffeyville	2	10,034	13.0%	8.8%
Arkansas City	3	12,316	15.7%	11.9%
Concordia	4	5,327	19.3%	8.0%
Chanute	5	9,194	18.1%	7.0%
Independence	6	9,282	20.3%	12.8%
Great Bend	7	15,942	16.8%	9.4%
Parsons	8	10,307	23.1%	8.0%
Wellington	9	8,028	17.7%	9.3%
Hutchinson	10	41,946	19.6%	6.9%
Winfield	11	12,324	23.0%	7.7%
Topeka	12	127,660	27.5%	8.2%
Kansas City	13	147,598	15.5%	12.7%
Pratt	14	6,889	23.1%	4.7%
El Dorado	15	12,931	20.2%	6.6%
Liberal	16	20,846	12.4%	8.7%
Ulysses	17	6,010	19.8%	9.2%
Emporia	18	24,787	25.5%	8.9%
Atchison	19	10,920	22.0%	9.3%
Fort Scott	20	7,957	22.2%	4.5%
Dodge City	21	27,950	15.9%	7.6%
Salina	22	47,894	23.9%	6.0%
Leavenworth	23	35,738	30.3%	8.8%
Pittsburg	24	20,336	34.0%	6.6%
Junction City	25	24,691	20.2%	9.0%
Augusta	26	9,239	22.8%	10.9%
Newton	27	19,144	24.0%	5.7%
Abilene	28	6,729	19.8%	4.7%
Ottawa	29	12,548	20.5%	8.0%
Wichita	30	385,518	28.8%	8.7%
Bonner Springs	31	7,420	20.6%	7.2%
McPherson	32	13,205	28.7%	2.8%
Hays	33	20,886	35.2%	5.2%
Haysville	34	11,235	17.5%	5.8%
Garden City	35	26,924	17.8%	4.5%
Park City	36	7,194	22.2%	7.7%
Paola	37	5,589	24.2%	6.1%
Colby	38	5,411	28.9%	2.7%
Lawrence	39	90,194	53.4%	6.8%
Manhattan	40	55,112	51.7%	5.2%
De Soto	41	5,888	25.1%	5.9%
Eudora	42	6,152	33.6%	11.5%
Mission	43	9,451	52.7%	4.1%
Bel Aire	44	6,923	52.4%	5.3%
Merriam	45	11,191	33.4%	5.0%
Valley Center	46	6,449	29.1%	4.1%
Lansing	47	11,535	31.6%	6.5%
Derby	48	23,419	37.6%	4.5%
Overland Park	49	178,945	57.4%	5.1%
Lenexa	50	49,573	54.3%	5.6%
Prairie Village	51	21,730	67.5%	3.4%
Mulvane	52	6,000	37.9%	4.5%
Gardner	53	20,128	29.0%	6.4%
Shawnee	54	63,597	43.1%	4.9%
Spring Hill	55	5,618	26.7%	5.4%
Roeland Park	56	6,799	49.2%	2.9%
Olathe	57	129,913	45.0%	5.3%
Leawood	58	32,842	74.3%	3.3%
Andover	59	12,113	47.8%	4.3%

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Author

Chris Kolmar

Chris Kolmar is a co-founder of Zippia and the editor-in-chief of the Zippia career advice blog. He has hired over 50 people in his career, been hired five times, and wants to help you land your next job. His research has been featured on the New York Times, Thrillist, VOX, The Atlantic, and a host of local news. More recently, he's been quoted on USA Today, BusinessInsider, and CNBC.

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