40004Bardstown, Kentucky

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 40004.

Area Score unavailable

Missing required signal: growth. AreaProfile withholds a score rather than inferring the missing dimensions.

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity5392nd of 6,210 ZIP areas measured35
Schools2900th of 4,422 ZIP areas measured39
Housing affordabilityTop 30% of 6,685 ZIP areas measured91
ClimateTop 31% of 6,789 ZIP areas measured75
Physical resilienceTop 31% of 6,709 ZIP areas measured73
Access4916th of 6,791 ZIP areas measured84
Economic stability3408th of 6,742 ZIP areas measured59
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published ZIP profiles: unemployment is 5.5% and the Opportunity signal places 40004 in the bottom 13%.

In the public schools here, 24% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 17.1 students for every teacher.

Rent takes 19% of median household income here, below the 30% threshold conventionally called cost-burdened, and the median home is 3.6 times that income.

At a glance

Population
30,601
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$66,578
Bottom 41% nationally
Density
210/sq mi
145.5 sq mi of land
Median age
39.6
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Bardstown
Kentucky
Metro area
Louisville/Jefferson County, KY-IN
Nearest major airport
SDF
30 mi · Louisville Muhammad Ali Intl
Median home value
$242,200
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 5.5% is lower than 14% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

Employment fell 1.8% over the past year, to 22,183 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$4,309$66,578Bottom 41%of 31,2952024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,255$35,246Bottom 45%of 32,8222024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate11.4%Top 46%of 32,9702024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute27.5 minBottom 49%of 32,8872024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher25.3%Top 45%of 33,1932024 ACS 5-Year
Employment22,183Bottom 22%of 6,544June 2026
Employment change (3 years)0.6%Top 42%of 6,542June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.8%Bottom 25%of 6,544June 2026
Labor force23,465Bottom 22%of 6,544June 2026
Labor force participation63.3%Top 39%of 33,2522024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$62,310Bottom 28%of 6,0722025 OEWS
Median annual wage$48,370Bottom 28%of 6,0722025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)0.9%Top 7%of 6,544June 2026
Unemployment rate5.5%Top 14%of 6,544June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202467k63k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $66,578 in the 2024 ACS 5-Year. Consecutive releases share four years of sample, so AreaProfile shows them as a record of successive estimates and does not compute a year-over-year change from them.
Largest occupations — Louisville/Jefferson County, KY-IN
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand29,400$46,830
Miscellaneous Assemblers and Fabricators20,920$48,440
Registered Nurses18,180$84,850
Retail Salespersons17,540$30,660
General and Operations Managers16,830$89,140
Stockers and Order Fillers16,410$37,610

Occupational employment and wages are published for metropolitan areas rather than for individual cities or ZIP areas, so these describe the wider labor market this location sits in. 2025 OEWS, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish labor-force data for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Bardstown, KY, the city containing this ZIP code.

24% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 46% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 17.1 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
12
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
17.1
across all schools here
Math proficiency
23.7%
Bottom 27% in Kentucky
Reading proficiency
45.6%
Top 42% in Kentucky
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Bardstown Elementary SchoolBardstown Independent84715.737%46%
Nelson County High SchoolNelson County75616.4
Bardstown High SchoolBardstown Independent70318.5
Thomas Nelson High SchoolNelson County62919.7
Old Kentucky Home Middle SchoolNelson County59419.212%52%
Bardstown Middle SchoolBardstown Independent59116.927%57%
Foster Heights Elementary SchoolNelson County58813.712%27%
Bardstown Primary SchoolBardstown Independent43415.5
Bardstown Early Childhood CenterBardstown Independent26326.3
Nelson County Early Learning CenterNelson County15050.0
The Academy at HorizonsNelson County384.8
THE UP CENTERNelson County0

51.7% of students here are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. That describes the circumstances families arrive with rather than how the schools perform, which is why AreaProfile shows it and does not score it.

Public schools only, from the NCES Common Core of Data. Schools are placed by ZIP code, so this is which schools are in this place rather than which one a particular address is zoned for — district boundaries do not follow municipal ones, and enrollment zones change. Fully virtual schools are excluded: they enroll students from across the state while reporting one administrative address, and counting them here would describe a school population this place does not have. The assessment covers grades 3 through 8, so a high school shows no proficiency figure — a dash in those columns means the test was not given at that school, not that it performed badly. Proficiency is measured against Kentucky’s own standard, so it compares cleanly within the state and only broadly against other states; AreaProfile therefore ranks it within state. The directory is current, while the proficiency figures are from the last school year with national coverage before the pandemic interrupted testing.

Housing & affordability

How it’s calculated →

Median rent of $1,037 takes 19% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.6 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
18.7%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.6×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,037
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$242,200
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income3.64Top 36%of 30,4042024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate73.3%Bottom 36%of 32,9102024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±40713,130Top 11%of 33,7722024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$61$1,037Top 48%of 26,6182024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$15,273$242,200Top 44%of 30,9412024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income18.7%Top 43%of 26,4702024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate4.7%Bottom 21%of 33,0282024 ACS 5-Year

Both affordability measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with, so the comparison is like for like. They describe housing cost against local earnings and are not a cost-of-living index — transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not included, and a place can look affordable here and still be expensive to live in for reasons this does not capture.

Growth & development

How it’s calculated →

No building-permit activity is published for this location by the Census Building Permits Survey.

Weather & climate

7 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 87°F and January a low of 26°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 51.6 inches, including 11.9 inches of snow.

20°40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station BARDSTOWN 5E, 4.8 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND5.5"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation51.6"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall11.9"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low26°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high87°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months71991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing42°F1991-2020 Normals

Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. They describe what a typical year looks like rather than what the weather is doing today.

Physical risk

73 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are inland flooding, tornado and strong wind.

Strong windModerate
EarthquakeElevated
TornadoModerate
Cold waveModerate
Inland floodingModerate

Low or minimal exposure: lightning, winter weather, ice storm, heat wave, hail, landslide, drought, hurricane, wildfire.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. ZIP values are the land-area-weighted mean of the counties the ZIP Code Tabulation Area intersects. Expected annual loss is not allocated below county level. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.

These are deaths, not offences. AreaProfile does not publish reported crime, and this is not a substitute for it — it says nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Nelson County records 3.3 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, near the middle of counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 16.9 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 12.6 per 100,000 residents in Nelson County.

Homicide
3.3
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
16.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
12.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
21.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths

Firearm deaths count every intent together, and nationally the majority are suicides rather than homicides. The two columns overlap and should not be added.

Age-adjusted rates from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC for Nelson County as a whole — these rates are not published below county level. A county can hold both a dense city centre and a suburb whose experience of it is nothing alike, so this describes the county around 40004 rather than 40004 itself. That is why AreaProfile shows these figures and does not put them in the Area Score. Where fewer than ten deaths were recorded the count is suppressed at source, and a rate built on single figures moves sharply between releases. What this measure has that reported crime does not: a death certificate is filed whether or not the local police agency submitted a return that year, so the figures stay comparable between places and over time.

What this profile does not cover

Three things people look for are missing from every AreaProfile page, and each is missing for a reason rather than by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them and the weighting is documented on the methodology page.

Reported crime
Offences reported to police are published by department rather than by town, and only where a department reported every month of the year. No municipal department reports for this place — many smaller communities are policed by the county — so there is no figure to show. A partial year is never scaled up to look complete, and arrest counts or news volume are never substituted for it.
Taxes and full cost of living
No public source publishes either with national coverage and a method open enough to check. Housing affordability above is computed from published rent, price and income, and excludes transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes — commuting cost in particular tends to offset suburban housing savings. Nothing here is individualised tax advice.
Anything about a specific address
Every figure describes an area, not a street or a house. School attendance zones, insurance pricing and the character of a neighbourhood all vary within the places measured here.

Access

3 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 30 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Louisville Muhammad Ali IntlSDF30 mi11,887 ft
Owensboro/Daviess County RgnlOWB93 mi8,000 ft
Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky IntlCVG96 mi10,000 ft

Airport identity, position and runway data come from the FAA. “Major airport” is an AreaProfile classification — a public-use civil airport with a paved runway of at least 8,000 feet — not an FAA hub designation. Distances are straight-line, not driving distance.

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Data & methodology

Used forSourceSource periodUpdated
AccessFederal Aviation Administration
Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service
NASR current cycle28-day NASR cycle
Physical riskFederal Emergency Management Agency
National Risk Index
National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0)Periodic dataset versions (v1.20.0 current)
ClimateNOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly)
1991-2020 NormalsEvery ten years (next release follows the 2001–2030 period)
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Local Area Unemployment Statistics
June 2026Monthly
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
2025 OEWSAnnual (spring release)
DemographicsU.S. Census Bureau
Population Estimates Program
July 1, 2024 estimateAnnual (vintage released each spring)
Demographics, Housing, Income, JobsU.S. Census Bureau
American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File)
2024 ACS 5-YearAnnual (5-year estimates released each December)
safetyU.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics
Provisional county-level mortality by intent
April, 2025 to March, 2026Quarterly, with a rolling twelve-month window alongside complete calendar years
schoolsU.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics
Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments
2019-20 school year; 2024-25 school yearDirectory annually; assessment results as EDFacts releases them

Profile recalculated August 30, 2026. Recalculation is not the same as new source data — each figure above shows the period its source actually covers. Read the full methodology or browse every source.

40004 vs Bardstown

How this ZIP area compares with Bardstown as a whole. Both figures come from the same ACS release, so the comparison is like for like.

40004
Bardstown
Median household income
$66,578
vs
$51,381
Per capita income
$35,246
vs
$31,358
Population density
210/sq mi
vs
1,140/sq mi
Median home value
$242,200
vs
$203,500
Median gross rent
$1,037
vs
$977
Homeownership rate
73.3%
vs
61.1%
Bachelor's degree or higher
25.3%
vs
26.7%
Poverty rate
11.4%
vs
14.7%
Median age
39.6
vs
38.1

Some demographic statistics use Census ZIP Code Tabulation Areas, which approximate but do not exactly match USPS ZIP delivery geography. See the methodology for how AreaProfile maps between them.