Bourbon County, KY

County Profile

20,240 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Bourbon County, KY.

Several figures AreaProfile publishes are measured by county and nowhere finer — death rates by intent among them. On this page those describe the geography they are printed on, which is not true of the city and ZIP pages that inherit them.

53out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 17% of 1,225 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity1161st of 1,255 counties measured28
Schools959th of 973 counties measured7
GrowthTop 29% of 1,226 counties measured62
Housing affordability666th of 1,255 counties measured92
ClimateTop 25% of 1,254 counties measured74
Physical resilienceTop 48% of 1,255 counties measured63
Access1016th of 1,255 counties measured63
Economic stability843rd of 1,255 counties measured51
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published profiles: unemployment is 5.3% and the Opportunity signal places Bourbon County in the bottom 7%.

In the public schools here, 22% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 16.6 students for every teacher.

109 housing units were authorized over the past twelve months, within 14% of the prior year — steady rather than turning.

At a glance

Population
20,240
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$61,354
Bottom 40% nationally
Density
70/sq mi
289.8 sq mi of land
Median age
41.8
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Bourbon County
Kentucky
Metro area
Lexington-Fayette, KY
Nearest major airport
CVG
63 mi · Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Intl
Median home value
$229,300
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 5.3% is lower than 15% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment fell 4.3% over the past year, to 9,209 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$7,041$61,354Bottom 40%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,116$33,889Bottom 45%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate14.2%Top 44%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute26.9 minTop 41%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher26.3%Top 33%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Employment9,209Bottom 3%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-0.8%Bottom 35%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-4.3%Bottom 4%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force9,724Bottom 3%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force participation58.6%Bottom 49%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)0.9%Top 9%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate5.3%Top 15%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/065.32.9
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 5.3% in June 2026. A break in the line is a month the Bureau of Labor Statistics did not publish for this area — it is left empty rather than estimated.
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202461k53k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $61,354 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 — Lexington-Fayette, KY
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Miscellaneous Assemblers and Fabricators8,650$59,730
General and Operations Managers8,100$80,440
Registered Nurses8,070$79,040
Retail Salespersons7,810$30,100
Fast Food and Counter Workers5,500$27,990
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand5,500$41,910

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.

22% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 33% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 16.6 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
10
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
16.6
across all schools here
Math proficiency
22.4%
Bottom 3% in Kentucky
Reading proficiency
32.8%
Bottom 1% in Kentucky
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Bourbon County High SchoolBourbon County76417.0
Bourbon County Middle SchoolBourbon County55515.922%47%
Bourbon Central Elementary SchoolBourbon County45914.832%27%
Cane Ridge Elementary SchoolBourbon County45314.626%27%
Paris Elementary SchoolParis Independent34619.216%29%
Paris High SchoolParis Independent26717.8
Bourbon County Preschool HeadstartBourbon County19822.0
Paris Middle SchoolParis Independent18018.08%32%
North Middletown Elementary SchoolBourbon County12814.216%23%
Paris Preschool CenterParis Independent6622.0

65.9% 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 $822 takes 16% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.7 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
16.1%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.7×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$822
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$229,300
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income3.74Top 25%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate63.7%Bottom 12%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±309,181Bottom 40%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$48$822Bottom 39%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$17,967$229,300Top 34%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income16.1%Bottom 38%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate11.4%Bottom 37%of 3,2222024 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 →
Development Momentum
62/ 100
Top 29% of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing — 2 consecutive years, measured from 2020 to 2025.

An AreaProfile calculation combining permit volume per resident, its direction over one and three years, population change and employment growth. Permit volume alone is not the measure.

Population has been broadly flat since 2020, at 20,333 in 2024.

New construction is predominantly single-family: only 0% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 5.4 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
109
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
5.4
Top 28% nationally
Year over year
+14%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202420k20k
Census Population Estimates Program, July 1 of each year. These annual estimates are designed for year-over-year comparison, unlike the ACS five-year figure shown as this profile's population.
Housing units permitted per year
20202021202220232024202510932
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2020 (+106%).

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 25°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 49.8 inches, including 14.5 inches of snow.

10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station LEXINGTON BLUEGRASS AP, 24.3 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND5.4"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation49.8"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall14.5"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low25°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high87°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months71991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing43°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

63 / 100
Physical resilience

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

Strong windModerate
TornadoModerate
EarthquakeModerate
HailModerate
Inland floodingModerate
Cold waveElevated

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

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA National Risk Index county record. 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.

Bourbon County records 4.1 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 15.2 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 23.8 per 100,000 residents in Bourbon County.

Homicide
4.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
15.2
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
23.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
18.0
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 Bourbon 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 Bourbon County rather than Bourbon County 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 63 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky IntlCVG63 mi10,000 ft
Louisville Muhammad Ali IntlSDF83 mi11,887 ft
Wilmington Air ParkILN88 mi10,701 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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Area Score
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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
DemographicsU.S. Census Bureau
Population Estimates Program
July 1, 2024 estimateAnnual (vintage released each spring)
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month
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.

Cities in Bourbon County, KY