Sterling, KS population, income and ZIP codes

Sterling city is a small town in Kansas, with 2,396 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #107 of 740 ranked by population — larger than 85% of them. The median age here is 27.7 years against 39.1 nationally, a distinctly younger profile, typical of places with students, military posts or a fast-growing family population. At this population the ACS sample is small, so the margin of error around every dollar figure below is wide — treat the numbers as a band, not a point, and expect them to move between annual releases without the place itself changing.

Households in Sterling city earn a median of $51,304 a year, 34.7% below the national figure of $78,538 and 20% below the $63,750 median for the 200 Kansas cities we cover. Median household income counts every pre-tax dollar arriving at an address — wages, self-employment, Social Security, pensions, interest and public assistance — for everyone living there, so multi-earner households pull the figure up even where individual pay is modest. Poverty reaches 4.9% of residents here, less than half the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in Sterling city is valued at $130,200, 57.1% below the national figure and within a couple of points of the $131,300 peer median, while median gross rent runs $618 a month, 56% below the national figure, or roughly $7,416 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 14.5% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is cheap relative to what people here earn. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 2.5×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is easier here than in the average US market. 75.3% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans toward owners. Gross rent folds in the utilities a tenant pays separately, so it is closer to the real monthly outlay than a headline rent figure.

A median age of 27.7 means a large student or early-career population; income medians in places like this understate household resources, since many residents are supported from outside the address.

No figure on this page is estimated by us; each one comes straight from the published ACS tables for this area. Small-area estimates still carry wider margins of error than state or national figures, so check the linked ACS tables before relying on them for lending, appraisal or legal work.