KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The U.S. Census Bureau released its 2017 population estimates late Thursday, and every county in a nine-county core grew from 2016 to 2017.
Every immediate Kansas City metro county – Jackson, Clay, Platte, Ray and Cass Counties in Missouri and Johnson, Wyandotte, Miami and Leavenworth Counties in Kansas – showed population growth over 2016, but some more than others.
Overall, the Census estimates that metro added 22,704 residents from 2016 to 2017 to a nine-county total of 2,040,557, or just more than 1 percent.
On a county level, Johnson County, Kansas, led the way in pure population numbers, adding 6,462 residents in the last year, a change of about 1.1 percent to 591,178.
On a percentage basis, Platte County, Missouri, led the way, adding 2.6 percent more residents in the last year and crossing the 100,000 mark to 101,187.
The metro’s largest county remained Jackson County, Missouri. The county added 5,780 residents to total 698,895.
On a city basis, Kansas City, Missouri, added 6,825 residents to total 488,943. It remains the largest city in Missouri (St. Louis proper lost 4,500 residents, dipping to 308,626).
On the Kansas side, Overland Park added 2,411 residents to total 191,278. Overland Park remains the second largest city in Kansas, trailing Wichita, which added just 475 residents in the same time period to total 390,591.
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