Kansas City, MO vs Denver, CO
Side-by-side fiscal comparison · U.S. Census Bureau data (2023)
Summary
Denver spends 32.0% more per capita than Kansas City ($10,762/person difference). Kansas City, MO has the stronger Fiscal Health Score (C, 52/100).
Fiscal Health Score
Key Metrics
Per Capita Spending by Department
Revenue Breakdown (Per Capita)
| Sales Tax | $623 | $2,070 |
| Income Tax | $0 | $236 |
| Intergovernmental | $7 | $44,661 |
| Charges & Fees | $3,794 | $5,207 |
| Other | $11,150 | $10,100 |
Spending Breakdown (Per Capita)
| Police | $0 | $2,455 |
| Fire Protection | $119 | $1,668 |
| Highways & Roads | $0 | $475 |
| Education | $0 | $821 |
| Public Welfare | $3,018 | $764 |
| Health | $0 | $693 |
| Hospitals | $1,849 | $2,855 |
| Parks & Recreation | $1,309 | $3,319 |
| Housing | $4,681 | $3,565 |
| Sewerage | $0 | $293 |
| Utilities | $3,123 | $4,292 |
| Interest on Debt | $0 | $7 |
| General Admin | $0 | $364 |
| Other | $8,721 | $12,011 |
Compare More Cities
The side-by-side above pulls the the Census Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances data for both entity A and entity B. What follows is the interpretation — which specific axes carry the most weight for entity A versus entity B, and which differences are large enough to influence a real decision.
Practical use of the comparison: read the data above, then drill into the individual entity A and entity B detail pages for the underlying breakdown. A pairwise comparison answers the relative question; the per-entity pages answer the absolute question.
Source: Census Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances, 2026.