Kearney, Nebraska

Kearney population, 2020 to 2024

Kearney added 859 residents from July 2020 to July 2024, a change of +2.5%. In the latest year it moved by +377. Among 32 Nebraska places of 5,000 or more, that growth ranks 9th; the median place changed by +0.4%. The median place of 5,000+ in Nebraska has 10,206 people, so Kearney is 3.4 times that size.

Kearney covers 15.04 square miles of land and 0.28 of water, for 2,310 people per square mile of land. The median Nebraska place of 5,000+ has 1,829, so Kearney is denser than the typical town.

What county Kearney is in

All of Kearney's residents live in Buffalo County, which had 51,156 residents in 2024. Kearney holds 67.9% of the county's population. The shaded shape is on the map above; dots mark the eight nearest places.

ZIP codes in Kearney

3 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas (ZCTAs) overlap Kearney by at least 10% of the ZCTA's or the city's land: 68845, 68847, 68849. ZCTAs are Census approximations of USPS ZIP code delivery areas. The list comes from the 2020 ZCTA to place relationship file, so a city that annexed land after 2020 may reach into ZIP codes not listed here.

Where Kearney is

The Census internal point of Kearney is at 40.701700, -99.082300. Lincoln, the capital, is 124.9 miles E in a straight line. The nearest larger place is Grand Island, NE (53,250 people), 40.8 miles away. The nearest city of 100,000 or more is Lincoln, NE, 126.2 miles away.

Daylight in Kearney

At 40.70° N, Kearney gets about 15 h 06 min of daylight around the June solstice and 9 h 15 min around the December solstice, a swing of 5 h 50 min. Figures are sunrise to sunset from the SunCalc model for June 21 and December 21, 2026.

Places near Kearney

The eight nearest incorporated places of 1,000+ in Nebraska, measured between internal points. The closest is Gibbon, 12.8 miles away, with 1,917 people.