Strategic Planning Analysis: Bourbon County

Abstract

In the following sections, data will first be presented and analyzed in overview fashion for regional and national trends. Following this, data will be reviewed at a more local scale in the following eight areas: population and housing, employment/labor force, education, income and earnings, sectoral performance, tourism, business/financial environment, and quality of life.

Throughout the report, local-level materials will be presented relating Bourbon County's economic performance through the past decade with the State of Kansas and the counties neighboring Bourbon County. To facilitate comparisons, a "trade area" designation has been used to identify a nine-county grouping surrounding Bourbon County. These counties are Crawford, Neosho, Allen, Anderson, and Linn within Kansas, and Bates, Vernon, Cedar, and Barton within Missouri. Data for these counties is presented in detail in tables. Aggregate totals or averages are labelled "Trade Area" for presentation in graphs. In several cases, incompatibility or unavailability of comparable Kansas and Missouri county ­level data has made presentation of complete trade area data impossible. Where complete trade area data is not presented, the authors have attempted to label the data as "Trade-Area (Kansas)" to indicate that data from only the Kansas counties are being presented.