The Northland counties of Clay and Platte are officially seeing the lion’s share of Kansas City’s population growth.
According to recent estimates, Platte County saw the largest percentage of growth in 2021, reaching a population of 108,569. This represented a 21 percent increase from 89,714 in 2010. During the same period, the U.S. population grew 7.3 percent, and Missouri’s population grew 2.9 percent during that period.
Larger to begin with, Clay County’s growth also included an increase in numbers of new residents: 255,518 in 2021, a 14.8 percent increase from the 222,649 who lived there in 2010. Like Platte County’s growth, these numbers are well above the 7.3 and 2.9 percent increases for the U.S. and Missouri respectively.
Of interest to local leaders, much of this growth appears to be spurred by migration of “southlanders,” residents of Jackson County, Mo., and even Johnson County, Ks., who have discovered the Northland. In a recent, subscriber-only article in the Kansas City Business Journal, writer Ellen Cagle interviewed real estate professionals and others, finding that a sizable number of these new Northland residents are transplants from south of the river. Among the motivating factors she cites are lower costs and more opportunity for development.
