McCracken County, KY

County Profile

67,564 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for McCracken 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.

58out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 35% of 1,225 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity854th of 1,255 counties46
SchoolsTop 34% of 973 counties63
Growth1047th of 1,226 counties30
Housing affordabilityTop 22% of 1,255 counties100
ClimateTop 30% of 1,254 counties73
Physical resilience877th of 1,255 counties46
Access875th of 1,255 counties71
Economic stability935th of 1,255 counties45
The quick read

Unemployment is 5.3% and median household income $64,373, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published profiles.

In the public schools here, 36% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 15.7 students for every teacher.

Residential permitting has slowed: 136 units authorized over the past twelve months, 42% below the prior year.

At a glance

Population
67,564
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$64,373
Bottom 48% nationally
Density
272/sq mi
248.8 sq mi of land
Median age
42.3
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
McCracken County
Kentucky
Metro area
Paducah, KY-IL
Nearest major airport
MWA
51 mi · Veterans Airport of Southern Illinois
Median home value
$188,100
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

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

Employment fell 0.7% over the past year, to 29,885 employed residents.

29% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 74% of measured US locations.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$2,581$64,373Bottom 48%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,491$39,193Top 29%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate15.2%Top 39%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute18.9 minBottom 11%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher29.0%Top 26%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment29,885Bottom 39%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)2.2%Top 27%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.7%Top 50%June 2026
Labor force31,568Bottom 40%June 2026
Labor force participation58.6%Bottom 49%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)0.3%Top 37%June 2026
Unemployment rate5.3%Top 15%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/065.63.5
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
202120222023202464k53k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $64,373 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 — Paducah, KY-IL
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Retail Salespersons1,800$28,390
Registered Nurses1,720$79,920
General and Operations Managers1,440$75,470
Cashiers1,400$28,550
Fast Food and Counter Workers1,160$27,640
Sailors and Marine Oilers1,070$47,550

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.

36% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 47% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 15.7 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
20
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
15.7
across all schools here
Math proficiency
35.9%
Top 33% in Kentucky
Reading proficiency
47.3%
Top 27% in Kentucky
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
McCracken County High SchoolMcCracken County1,88218.5
Paducah Tilghman High SchoolPaducah Independent86015.4
Lone Oak Middle SchoolMcCracken County70214.932%57%
Paducah Middle SchoolPaducah Independent63215.417%37%
Clark Elementary SchoolPaducah Independent61516.235%49%
Concord Elementary SchoolMcCracken County60615.554%66%
Reidland Elementary SchoolMcCracken County54814.422%32%
Heath Elementary SchoolMcCracken County49813.846%47%
Hendron Lone Oak Elementary SchoolMcCracken County49815.652%47%
Lone Oak Elementary SchoolMcCracken County49516.052%52%
Lone Oak Intermediate SchoolMcCracken County43716.847%54%
Heath Middle SchoolMcCracken County43318.837%57%

57.2% 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 $898 takes 17% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 2.9 times median household income here, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.

Rent as a share of income
16.7%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
2.9×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$898
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$188,100
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income2.92Bottom 48%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate68.9%Bottom 25%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±5232,280Top 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$40$898Top 45%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$8,553$188,100Top 48%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income16.7%Bottom 46%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate14.5%Top 49%2024 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
30/ 100
Ranks 1047 of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is decreasing, 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 fallen 1% since 2020, reaching 67,550 in 2024.

Permitting has turned downward after moving the other way the year before.

New construction is predominantly single-family: only 4% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 2.0 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
136
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
2.0
Bottom 35% nationally
Year over year
−42%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
4.4%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202468k67k
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
202020212022202320242025187116
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2020 (+47%).

Weather & climate

7 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 90°F and January a low of 27°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 50.3 inches, including 8.9 inches of snow.

Air quality measures a median index of 42, in the Good band, and one day a year passes 100, the threshold at which the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups.

20°40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station PADUCAH, 3.4 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND5.2"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index56.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation50.3"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall8.9"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low27°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high90°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months71991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10012024 calendar year
Median air quality index42.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing44°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
42
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
56
90th percentile index
Days above 100
1
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

46 / 100
Physical resilience

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

EarthquakeElevated
Ice stormModerate
Winter weatherModerate
Strong windModerate
HailModerate
Inland floodingElevated
DroughtModerate
LandslideModerate

Low or minimal exposure: heat wave, tornado, cold wave, lightning, hurricane, 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.

McCracken County records 4.0 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 22.2 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 14.2 per 100,000 residents in McCracken County.

Homicide
4.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
22.2
per 100,000 residents
Drug overdose
14.2
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
22.2
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 McCracken 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 McCracken County rather than McCracken 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
The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer is the only source for reported offences with national coverage and a published method, and it requires an API key AreaProfile does not hold. Arrest counts, news volume and commercial “safety scores” are not substituted in the meantime. What is published above under Safety is a different measurement — deaths rather than offences, from death certificates rather than police returns — and it covers no property crime at all.
Taxes
No tax dataset has met the source admission test for coverage, transparent methodology and update cadence. Nothing here is individualized tax advice.
Full cost of living
No public source publishes one with national coverage and a documented method. 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.

Access

3 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 51 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Veterans Airport of Southern IllinoisMWA51 mi8,012 ft
Evansville RgnlEVV94 mi8,021 ft
Owensboro/Daviess County RgnlOWB97 mi8,000 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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Area Score
58
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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.

Cities in McCracken County, KY