Kansas vs Nebraska: two economies side by side

Kansas and Nebraska share a border. Here are the two economies on the same measures, with the rank of each among 51 states and DC.

PlainsKansas leads on 4, Nebraska on 7 of 11 measures

Indicator	A · KS	B · NE	Ranks
GDP, 2025	$232.1B	$206.6B	33 · 34
Real GDP growth, 2025	+1.00%	+1.3%	43 · 41
Real growth a year since 2015	+1.2%	+2.7%	42 · 14
GDP per person	$77,961	$102,386	33 · 9
Income per person, 2025	$69,149	$76,055	33 · 20
Real income per person (2017 $)	$59,172	$65,297	21 · 6
Price level (US = 100)	90.1	90.1	42 · 41
Housing costs (US = 100)	71.2	75.2	40 · 35
Unemployment, September 2026	3.8%	2.9%	25 · 6
Population	2,977,220	2,018,006	34 · 38
Population growth a year since 2020	+0.26%	+0.55%	36 · 24

Highlighted: the higher value, or the lower one for prices and unemployment. BEA (GDP, income, price parities), BLS (unemployment).

Fig. 1Real GDP, index 2015 = 100Chained 2017 dollars

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Fig. 2Unemployment rateMonthly, seasonally adjusted, since 2015

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Industry mix, 2025

Share of each state’s GDP. Sorted by the gap between the two.

Industry	KS	NE	Gap, pp	Larger in
Finance & insurance	6.2%	19.1%	13.0	NE
Manufacturing	15.1%	9.2%	5.9	KS
Real estate	11.4%	8.5%	2.9	KS
Government	12.3%	10.2%	2.1	KS
Agriculture	3.0%	5.1%	2.1	NE
Professional services	6.0%	4.1%	1.9	KS
Utilities	1.8%	3.3%	1.5	NE
Retail trade	6.2%	4.9%	1.3	KS
Health care	8.2%	6.9%	1.3	KS
Transportation & warehousing	4.1%	5.0%	0.9	NE
Administrative & waste services	3.1%	2.3%	0.8	KS
Information	2.6%	3.3%	0.6	NE
Accommodation & food	2.8%	2.2%	0.6	KS
Other services	2.4%	1.9%	0.5	KS
Mining, oil & gas	0.5%	0.1%	0.4	KS
Management of companies	1.8%	1.6%	0.2	KS
Wholesale trade	6.5%	6.3%	0.2	KS
Construction	4.6%	4.7%	0.1	NE
Education	0.6%	0.6%	0.0
Arts & recreation	0.6%	0.5%	0.0