• Home to nearly 670,000 people Jackson County is one of the rare urban counties outside the sunbelt to show continued population growth.

• Jackson County contains most of Kansas City, Missouri and all of its major attactions as well as 17 other cities and towns.

• The county continues to add more attractions with a new Sprint arena and a performing arts center in the works in Downtown Kansas City and a Bass Pro Destination complex in Independence.

• When coupled with Kansas City Missouri’s parks, the county has arguably the best parks program in Amaerica.

• Jackson County government has launched many a notable political career but perhaps none more celebrated than President Harry Truman’s. He served as the county’s presiding judge from 1927-1935. His legacy is preserved at the Truman Presidential Museum & Library in Independence as well as at his historic home.

• In the 19th century, the county’s most notorious sometimes resident was the most famous man in the world, Jesse James. Some of his most daring heists took part in the eastern part of the county. His

accomplices, Cole Younger and his brothers, hailed from Lee’s Summit.

• Jackson County added 35,000 jobs in the 1990s.

• The Truman Sports Complex, located in the heart of the county and home of the Kansas City Royals and the Kansas City Chiefs, was the first two stadium complex in America, and the individual stadiums are still considered among the very best.

• The county has a nicely diverse population: 70% white, 23% black, 5% Hispanic, and 1% Asian.

• In 2001, the county listed 17,659 private nonfarm establishments with paid employees, 2001. There are farm jobs here as well, with 150,000 acres—roughly the size of Manhattan Island—still in cultivation within the county limits.

• 83% of the county’s adults are high school graduates, a figure higher than the state average, and 23% are college graduates, a rate much higher than the state’s.

• The average commute to work in Jackson County is only 23 minutes.