Population Data and Maps

Forecasting the Kansas City region’s population and employment levels allows leaders to predict future needs and take strategic action.

As the region's designated metropolitan planning organization, the Mid-America Regional Council must predict growth and traffic patterns for each update of the Metropolitan Transportation Plan, a plan that guides transportation investments that use federal funds. Major highways are planned years in advance and, to plan correctly, it’s important to know where population and employment will grow.

Long-range planning requires much more than just predictions of population growth and decline. To plan for efficient transportation systems, we must also predict how land will be used. Where will our employment centers be, our retail development, our green spaces, our hospitals and schools? Will our growth rate follow current trends? Or will changing forces such as climate change, globalization of the economy, technological change and demographic shifts cause us to grow faster than expected — or slower?

Statistics and mapping software are used to create models that weigh various factors — such as the age of housing, median income and road density — in a way that does the best job of predicting land-use change. These models help elected officials, the public and planners review land use and policy options for the Kansas City region and make informed assessments.