Kansas City Map
There are two Kansas Cities facing each other across a state line, and the larger of them is in Missouri — about 516,000 people in 2024 at the mouth of the Kansas River.
Where is Kansas City?
Kansas City sits on the western edge of Missouri, at the point where the Missouri River stops running south along the state line, turns east across the state, and takes in the Kansas River from the west. Kansas City, Kansas, is a separate municipality directly across the line in Kansas. The Missouri city is about 250 miles west of St. Louis, roughly 185 miles south of Omaha, and some 200 miles northeast of Wichita.
Kansas City at a glance
| State | Missouri |
| Counties | Cass, Clay, Jackson, and Platte counties |
| Population | 516,032 (2024 Census estimate) |
| Rank among US cities | No. 38 of the 100 largest |
| Time zone | Central Time |
| Region | Midwest (West North Central division) |
No. 38 on the 2024 list is a margin of 1,119 people: that is how far Kansas City trails Mesa, while Raleigh is 16,207 further back. St. Louis is the only other Missouri city on the list. That is about 8% of Missouri's 6.25 million residents inside a single municipal line. It reaches into four counties, of which Jackson County is much the largest: the city holds about 71% of that county's 727,362 people.
Kansas City in Missouri
The city limits cover more than 300 square miles across four Missouri counties — Jackson, Clay, Platte and Cass — which is why the Missouri county map shows the city cutting across several lines at once. Jackson County holds the historic core; Wyandotte and Johnson counties in Kansas hold the rest of the metro. St. Louis anchors the opposite end of the state and Jefferson City, the capital, lies between them on the Missouri. The Missouri state page has the full picture.
The bend in the Missouri
The Missouri River runs east across the state from here, and westward-bound traffic had to leave the boats somewhere near this junction — which is why the Santa Fe, Oregon and California trails all started from landings within a few miles of the modern city. The bluffs on the Missouri side gave dry ground above the floodplain; the West Bottoms below them did not, as the flood of 1951 demonstrated. West of the city the land opens into the Great Plains, and the limestone under the bluffs has been quarried into enormous underground warehouse space.
Cities near Kansas City
Nearby cities: Omaha, Wichita, St. Louis, Tulsa and Oklahoma City. The Midwest region page puts Missouri with its neighbors.