Almost five years ago, 24 Johnson County citizens from different areas of the county representing private industry, local government and the nonprofit sector presented to the Board of County Commissioners a report entitled “Living Our Vision.” A statement of both wish and determination, the document addressed a long-term strategy for the growth and sustained excellence of the county.

The timing of the document is telling—the county was nearing its peak in new building permits issued, in percentage of population with high-school diplomas, in assessed valuation of real and personal property, in tax base.

It would have been so easy to sit back and say, “Life is good.”

These 24 citizens realized, however, that no civilization can rest on its laurels without falling the way of Rome. This is the same point made by the Johnson Countians that Ingram’s invited to its recent Johnson County Economic Development forum. Even for a county that seemingly has all the benefits of wealth and education, the dialogue still focuses on how the infrastructure can be improved, how the schools can be more outstanding. The dialogue continues to ask, “How can we maintain?

How can we get better?”

The original 1997 plan has since evolved, but the intent has remained. And no matter how the name of the process changes—whether it’s “Bridge21” or “Preserving our Future,” it’s all about where the county wants to be in the year 2020. It’s all about vision.

In the last 15 years, the equivalent of the entire population of Topeka has moved to Johnson County.

In the next four years, the equivalent of the entire population of Jefferson City will move here as well.

Although Johnson County makes up only about one-half of 1 percent of the Kansas land mass,

it has accounted for 56 percent of the net population increase in Kansas over the last 20 years.

Johnson County has nearly 30 percent more licensed vehicles than it does people, children included.

On average, more than one new business establishment starts up every day in Johnson County, including Saturdays and Sundays.

The Johnson county economy has grown almost three times as quickly as the American economy over the last decade.

Johnson County’s Oak Park Mall contributes more in tax support to the state than do 61 of Kansas’ 105 counties.

Office space in Johnson County costs about half of what it would in New York, one-third of what it would in San Francisco.

The Johnson County library system was rated the second best in the nation for a system of its size.

The average work commute takes roughly 15 percent less time than the national average.

A four-bedroom home in Johnson County costs half of what a comparable home would cost in Boston, one-third of what it would cost in suburban New Jersey, one-fourth of what it would cost in Greenwich, Conn., and one-sixth of what it would cost in Palo Alto, Calif.

Although home prices in Johnson County are 50 percent less than the national average, per capita income is 45 percent higher, among the top 2 percent of all American counties.

The divorce rate in Johnson County is half as low as the lowest state, half as low as the 1950s’ American norm, and one-fourth the current national rate.

Of all the places surveyed by Fortune magazine, Johnson County ranked first in the nation in percentage of high-school graduates and fourth in percentage of college graduates.