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Kansas also has a smaller propor-
tion of residents born in a foreign
country—almost exactly half the
national average. Mexico, Germany,
and Vietnam are the most common
countries of origin for foreign-born
Kansans.
Major Cities
More than 380,000 people make their
home in
Wichita
, Kansas’s largest city.
From being a major cowtown in the
19th century, Wichita turned into the
“Air Capital of the World.” The city
gave itself that grandiose title in the
1920s and 1930s, when a large num-
ber of aircraft companies set up busi-
ness here. During World War II,
Wichita was a manufacturing base for
Boeing B-29 bombers. Today, the city
remains an important hub of the U.S.
aircraft industry.
A whopping 2.34 million people
live in the Kansas City metropolitan
30
Lower Plains: Kansas, Nebraska
View of Wichita, Kansas, on the Arkansas River.