in south-central kansas, the wichita metropolitan area has over 600,000 people. wichita is the biggest city in the state in terms of both land area and number of people. 'the air capital' is a major manufacturing area for the aircraft industry. it's also where wichita state university is. before wichita was 'the air capital' it was a cowtown. wichita's population growth has grown by more than 10%. the nearby suburbs are some of the fastest growing cities in kansas. the number of people in goddard has grown by more than 11% per year since 2000.