Fayette County, KY

County Profile

323,725 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Fayette 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.

68out of 100
Area Score
Top 28% of 1,225 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 45% of 1,255 counties measured58
SchoolsTop 39% of 973 counties measured60
GrowthTop 23% of 1,226 counties measured65
Housing affordability936th of 1,255 counties measured81
ClimateTop 25% of 1,254 counties measured74
Physical resilienceTop 25% of 1,255 counties measured77
Access1084th of 1,255 counties measured56
Economic stabilityTop 36% of 1,255 counties measured71
The quick read

Unemployment is 4.7% and median household income $69,479, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published profiles.

In the public schools here, 34% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 14.1 students for every teacher.

Rent takes 20% of median household income here, below the 30% threshold conventionally called cost-burdened, and the median home is 4.2 times that income.

At a glance

Population
323,725
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$69,479
Top 38% nationally
Density
1,140/sq mi
283.9 sq mi of land
Median age
35.3
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Fayette County
Kentucky
Metro area
Lexington-Fayette, KY
Nearest major airport
SDF
70 mi · Louisville Muhammad Ali Intl
Median home value
$293,500
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.7% is lower than 31% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment fell 0.7% over the past year, to 171,671 employed residents.

48% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 96% of measured US locations.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$1,691$69,479Top 38%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$977$43,790Top 15%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate14.9%Top 40%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute22.5 minBottom 28%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher48.3%Top 4%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Employment171,671Top 16%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (3 years)2.9%Top 21%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.7%Top 50%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force180,216Top 16%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force participation68.4%Top 6%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)0.5%Top 27%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate4.7%Top 31%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/064.72.8
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 4.7% 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
202120222023202469k62k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $69,479 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.

34% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 45% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 14.1 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
78
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
14.1
across all schools here
Math proficiency
33.6%
Top 37% in Kentucky
Reading proficiency
45.0%
Top 47% in Kentucky
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Lafayette High SchoolFayette County2,37018.8
Bryan Station High SchoolFayette County2,03017.4
Henry Clay High SchoolFayette County1,93916.4
Paul Laurence Dunbar High SchoolFayette County1,82817.7
Frederick Douglass High SchoolFayette County1,77018.1
Tates Creek High SchoolFayette County1,72317.6
Edythe Jones Hayes Middle SchoolFayette County1,12515.050%66%
Leestown Middle SchoolFayette County1,08414.627%47%
Jessie M Clark Middle SchoolFayette County1,00216.737%62%
Winburn Middle SchoolFayette County76813.022%37%
Tates Creek Middle SchoolFayette County76713.532%42%
Sandersville ElementaryFayette County76513.739%53%

50.3% 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 $1,164 takes 20% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 4.2 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
20.1%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
4.2×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,164
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$293,500
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income4.22Top 17%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate53.8%Bottom 3%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±115148,959Top 7%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$18$1,164Top 19%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$5,552$293,500Top 21%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income20.1%Top 21%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate6.2%Bottom 11%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
65/ 100
Top 23% of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is broadly steady, 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 grown 2% since 2020, reaching 329,437 in 2024.

65% of recently permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes, so new supply is concentrated in apartments and condominiums rather than detached houses.

At 4.3 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
1,377
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
4.3
Top 35% nationally
Year over year
+55%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
65.3%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
20202021202220232024329k320k
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
2020202120222023202420252k1k
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2020 (−27%).

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.

Air quality measures a median index of 41, in the Good band, and no day in the year passed 100.

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, 8.0 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND5.4"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index54.02024 calendar year
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
Days above AQI 10002024 calendar year
Median air quality index41.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing43°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
41
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
54
90th percentile index
Days above 100
0
unhealthy for sensitive groups

A comfortable median and a bad tail are different problems. Wildfire smoke and summer ozone show up in the worst tenth of days, not in the middle of the year.

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. Air quality is measured rather than modelled, by EPA monitors, and published by county only where a monitor sits — roughly half the counties AreaProfile publishes have one, and the rest show nothing rather than an estimate. Air masses are regional, so a county reading describes the air over a place reasonably well, but it is still the county reading.

Physical risk

77 / 100
Physical resilience

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

TornadoModerate
LightningModerate
Strong windModerate
EarthquakeModerate

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

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 — they say nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Fayette County records 6.6 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, higher than most counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 17.2 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 19.1 per 100,000 residents in Fayette County.

Homicide
6.6
per 100,000 residents
Firearm deaths, all intents
17.2
per 100,000 residents
Drug overdose
19.1
per 100,000 residents
Suicide
19.4
per 100,000 residents

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 Fayette 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 Fayette County rather than Fayette 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

2 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 70 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Louisville Muhammad Ali IntlSDF70 mi11,887 ft
Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky IntlCVG71 mi10,000 ft
Wilmington Air ParkILN102 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
68
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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
ClimateU.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Air Quality System
Daily Air Quality Index by county
2024 calendar yearAnnually, once a calendar year is complete

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.