Kearney is also a college town, where lots of students live while attending area colleges. Because of the high percentage of people living in Kearney enrolled in college, Kearney has a number of services, amenities and opportunities geared towards the needs and activities of students.
Compared to the rest of the country, citizens of Kearney spend much less time in their cars: on average, their commute to work is only 14.47 minutes. This also means that noise and pollution levels in the city are less than they would otherwise be.
The education level of Kearney citizens is very high relative to the national average among all cities (21.84%): 37.89% of adults in Kearney have a bachelor's degree or even advanced degree.
The per capita income in Kearney in 2022 was $35,507, which is upper middle income relative to Nebraska and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $142,028 for a family of four. However, Kearney contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
Kearney is a somewhat ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Kearney home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Kearney residents report their race to be White, followed by Asian. Kearney also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 10.45% of the city’s residents. Important ancestries of people in Kearney include German, Irish, English, Swedish, and Czech.
The most common language spoken in Kearney is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Chinese.
