Johnson County, Kansas

**Johnson County** (county code **JO**) is a county in northeast Kansas. The county is part of the Kansas City metropolitan area. It contains many of the richer suburbs of Kansas City. As of the 2020 census, 609,863 people lived there.  Its county seat is Olathe. The most populous city is Overland Park.

In 2010, _Money_ magazine ranked Overland Park 7th and Shawnee 17th in its list of the 100 Best Cities in the United States in which to live.  In 2008 the same magazine had ranked Olathe 11th.

## History

Johnson County is named for Thomas Johnson. It was one of the first counties in the Kansas Territory in 1855. The well known gunfighter Wild Bill Hickok lived in the county for a time. He was the constable of Monticello Township in 1858. Johnson County was the site of many battles dealing with slavery during Bleeding Kansas.

The county was mostly rural until the early 20th century. There was a large amount of urban development from 1914 though  World War II.  After the war, the development grew even greater.

## Laws

Johnson County was a prohibition, or "dry", county until the Kansas Constitution was changed in 1986.

## Geography

The county has a total area of . Of this,  (or 99.30%) is land, and  (or 0.70%) is water.

### Adjacent counties

- Wyandotte County (north)
- Jackson County, Missouri (east)
- Cass County, Missouri (southeast)
- Miami County (south)
- Franklin County (southwest)
- Douglas County (west)
- Leavenworth County (northwest)

### Incorporated cities

Name and population (2020 Census):
- Overland Park,* 197,238
- Olathe, 141,290 (county seat)
- Shawnee,* 67,311
- Lenexa,* 57,434
- Leawood,* 33,902
- Gardner, 23,287
- Prairie Village,* 22,957
- Merriam,* 11,098
- Mission,* 9,954
- Spring Hill, 7,952
- Bonner Springs 7,837 (also in Wyandotte County and Leavenworth County)
- Roeland Park,* 6,871
- De Soto, 6,118
- Fairway,* 4,170
- Mission Hills,* 3,594
- Westwood,* 1,750
- Edgerton, 1,748
- Lake Quivira,* 1,014 (also in Wyandotte County)
- Westwood Hills,* 400
- Mission Woods,* 203

Cities included in Shawnee Mission. The main Shawnee Mission post office is in Mission.

### Unincorporated places

- Bonita
- Clare
- Ocheltree
- Stanley
- Stilwell

### Townships

Johnson County was divided into nine townships. Two of these no longer exist. They were made part of independent municipalities. All of the cities are considered _governmentally independent_. They are not included in the census numbers for the townships.

|Township|FIPS|Population center|Population (2020) !! Population density <small>/km² (/sq mi)</small>|Land area <small>km² (sq mi)</small> !! Water area <small>km² (sq mi)</small> !! Water %|Geographic coordinates||||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|Aubry|03225||4,650|54 (140)|86 (33)|1 (0)|1.29%||
|Gardner|25450||2,593|35 (92)|73 (28)|1 (0)|1.40%||
|Lexington|39800||1,497|11 (29)|133 (51)|4 (2)|3.03%||
|McCamish|43625||980|9 (24)|104 (40)|1 (0)|0.79%||
|Monticello|47950||-|-|-|-|-|-|
|Olathe|52600||894|34 (88)|26 (10)|0 (0)|0.70%||
|Oxford|53825||2,027|283 (732)|7 (3)|0 (0)|4.35%||
|Shawnee|64525||-|-|-|-|-|-|
|Spring Hill|67650||2,004|35 (89)|58 (22)|1 (0)|1.11%||

## Other websites

- Official sites
- Johnson County
- Johnson County History
- Johnson County Library
- Johnson County Genealogical Society and Library
- Frontier Military Historic Byway
- Additional information
- Blue Skyways
- Kansas Statistical Abstract
- Maps
- Johnson County Map , KDOT
- Kansas Highway Map , KDOT
- Kansas Railroad Map , KDOT
- Kansas School District Boundary Map , KSDE

## Infobox (u.s. county)

- **county**: Johnson County
- **state**: Kansas
- **type**: County (United States), County
- **ex image**: Johnson county kansas courthouse 2009.jpg
- **ex image cap**: Former Johnson County Courthouse in Olathe, Kansas, Olathe (2009). It opened in 1952, closed in 2020, then demolished in 2021 after a new courthouse was finished.
- **founded**: August 25, 1855
- **named for**: Thomas Johnson (Kansas politician), Thomas Johnson
- **seat wl**: Olathe
- **largest city wl**: Overland Park
- **area total sq mi**: 480
- **area land sq mi**: 473
- **area water sq mi**: 6.5
- **area percentage**: 1.4
- **population as of**: 2020
- **population total**: 609863
- **population density sq mi**: 1289.4
- **district**: 3rd
- **time zone**: Central