Kansas City, MO (population: 454,520) has four furniture design schools within a 100-mile radius of its city center. University of Central Missouri, the highest ranked school in this group with a furniture design program, has a total student population of 11,191. It is the 1871st highest ranked school in the USA and one of the highest in the state . To learn more about furniture design programs in Kansas City, ratemyprofessors.com has reviews of furniture design professors at University of Central Missouri such as Eric Carlson, Brian Donahue, John Guin, Andrew Katsourides, John Lynch, and Clint Orr.
Furniture Design students from Kansas City schools who go on to become furniture makers, craftsmen, furniture designers, furniture upholsterers, etc. have a good chance at finding employment. For example, there are 29,170 people working as commercial and industrial designers alone in the US, and their average annual salary is $61,400. Also, Textile, apparel, and furnishings workers make on average $29,010 per year and there are about 14,220 of them employed in the US today. In fact, in the Kansas City-KS area alone, there are ** employed textile, apparel, and furnishings workers earning an average salary of $28,500. Commercial and industrial designers in this area earn $*/yr and there are 150 employed.
Kansas City lies in Jackson county, which is one of the 39 counties in Missouri. Overall, the Kansas City-KS area has 988,100 total employed workers according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, with a 0.8% unemployment rate, $20.79/hr average worker wage, and a $43,240 average annual salary. Thus, about 0.150 out of every 1000 jobs in Kansas City are held by commercial and industrial designers, and **/1000 are held by textile, apparel, and furnishings workers.
Of the 4 furniture design schools with a 100-mile radius of Kansas City, only 3 have a student population over 10k. After taking into account tuition, living expenses, and financial aid, The Art Institutes International–Kansas City comes out as the most expensive ($35,813/yr) for furniture design students, with Park University as the lowest, reported at only $8,192/yr.
| Name | State | Population | # of Schools | Avg School Rank | Total Programs | Distance from Kansas City |
| North Kansas City | MO | - | 1 | 17.668 | 0 | 1.0 miles |
| Parkville | MO | - | 1 | 24.2346 | 91 | 8.8 miles |
| Independence | MO | 110,030 | 5 | 14.6026 | 91 | 10.9 miles |
| Blue Springs | MO | 57,147 | 1 | 22.3674 | 5 | 16.6 miles |
| Lees Summit | MO | - | 1 | 10.817 | 19 | 16.7 miles |
| Lenexa | KS | 49,185 | 2 | 9.677 | 29 | 17.0 miles |
| Olathe | KS | 125,326 | 3 | 26.6113 | 75 | 21.2 miles |
| Lawrence | KS | 92,060 | 4 | 30.1334 | 36 | 39.7 miles |
| Atchison | KS | - | 2 | 13.325 | 58 | 43.3 miles |
| Saint Joseph | MO | 76,371 | 4 | 37.3685 | 160 | 46.6 miles |
| Ottawa | KS | - | 1 | 45.4994 | 36 | 52.1 miles |
| Topeka | KS | 124,629 | 5 | 27.0429 | 163 | 61.5 miles |
| Sedalia | MO | - | 2 | 20.9991 | 46 | 76.7 miles |
| Fort Scott | KS | - | 1 | 19.5238 | 38 | 89.0 miles |
| Iola | KS | - | 1 | 14.0674 | 83 | 94.6 miles |