About Kansas City
A metropolitan area of 2.3 million people, Kansas City offers the diversity and excitement of a large city with the charm and convenience of Midwest living.
Walkable, tree-lined neighborhoods surround the KU Medical Center campus, which is within easy reach of the city's top destinations, including the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and the Country Club Plaza, a shopping district celebrated for its architecture and pedestrian-oriented design. The campus is less than five miles from downtown Kansas City, Missouri, which has been enhanced in recent years by the additions of an 18,000-seat arena, an entertainment district, a streetcar and a $326 million performing arts center.
Known nationally for bebop and barbecue, Kansas City is also a haven for visual artists, fashion designers and theater companies. The Kansas City Chiefs football team, Kansas City Royals baseball team and Sporting Kansas City soccer club compete in new and modernized stadiums. Parents find they have a number of attractive public and private school options for their children. Traffic moves freely on the metropolitan area's extensive network of highways.
In 2021, Travel and Leisure magazine identified Kansas City as a top-20 Best Places to Travel while in 2019 Thrillist named it 12th on its list of "The Best 25 Cities to Spend a Weekend." The 2021-2022 rankings from U.S. News and World Report recognized the lower cost to living in Kansas City versus other large metros, placing it #23 on Cheapest Places to Live in the nation. Also in 2021, Niche, a website that compiles ratings and reviews for places throughout the U.S., listed Overland Park, Kansas, as 4th on its 50 Best Places to Live in the U.S. The southwestern suburb is only 8 miles from the KU Medical Center campus.