Simpson County, KY
County Profile
19,972 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Simpson 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.
Employment conditions sit below most comparable published profiles: unemployment is 5.7% and the Opportunity signal places Simpson County in the bottom 1%.
In the public schools here, 29% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 15.7 students for every teacher.
Residential permitting has slowed: 300 units authorized over the past twelve months, 15% below the prior year.
At a glance
Jobs & opportunity
Unemployment of 5.7% is lower than 9% of the 1,255 measured US locations.
Employment fell 5.8% over the past year, to 8,099 employed residents.
| Metric | Value | Compared nationally | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income ±$5,221 | $59,858 | Bottom 35%of 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Per capita income ±$2,216 | $31,249 | Bottom 31%of 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Poverty rate | 15.5% | Top 36%of 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Average commute | 22.5 min | Bottom 28%of 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Bachelor's degree or higher | 18.8% | Bottom 31%of 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Employment | 8,099 | Bottom 2%of 1,255 | June 2026 |
| Employment change (3 years) | -4.9% | Bottom 6%of 1,255 | June 2026 |
| Employment change (year over year) | -5.8% | Bottom 3%of 1,255 | June 2026 |
| Labor force | 8,593 | Bottom 2%of 1,255 | June 2026 |
| Labor force participation | 60.7% | Top 40%of 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Unemployment change (year over year) | 0.8% | Top 14%of 1,255 | June 2026 |
| Unemployment rate | 5.7% | Top 9%of 1,255 | June 2026 |
Schools
How it’s calculated →29% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 39% 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.
| School | District | Students | Per teacher | Math | Reading |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Franklin-Simpson High School | Simpson County | 830 | 14.1 | — | — |
| Simpson Elementary School | Simpson County | 731 | 16.2 | 27% | 27% |
| Franklin-Simpson Middle School | Simpson County | 662 | 18.4 | 32% | 47% |
| Lincoln Elementary School | Simpson County | 463 | 14.5 | 29% | 45% |
| Franklin Elementary School | Simpson County | 324 | 16.2 | — | — |
| Franklin-Simpson High School West Campus | Simpson County | 70 | 17.5 | — | — |
64.7% 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 $1,012 takes 20% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.
A median home costs 3.8 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.
| Metric | Value | Compared nationally | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home price to income | 3.83 | Top 23%of 3,219 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Homeownership rate | 66.7% | Bottom 19%of 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Housing units ±25 | 8,627 | Bottom 38%of 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Median gross rent ±$69 | $1,012 | Top 30%of 3,216 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Median home value ±$21,713 | $229,400 | Top 34%of 3,219 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Rent as a share of income | 20.3% | Top 19%of 3,216 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Vacancy rate | 7.0% | Bottom 14%of 3,222 | 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 →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 4% since 2020, reaching 20,350 in 2024.
Population is still rising, but more slowly than in the preceding year.
At 15.0 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US locations.
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 28°F.
Normal annual precipitation is 50.1 inches, including 8.5 inches of snow.
Air quality measures a median index of 43, in the Good band, and no day in the year passed 100.
| Metric | Value | Source period |
|---|---|---|
| 90th percentile air quality index | 58.0 | 2024 calendar year |
| Annual precipitation | 50.1" | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Annual snowfall | 8.5" | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Average January low | 28°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Average July high | 90°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Comfortable months | 7 | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Days above AQI 100 | 0 | 2024 calendar year |
| Median air quality index | 43.0 | 2024 calendar year |
| Seasonal temperature swing | 42°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
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
The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are earthquake, hail and strong wind.
Overall hazard risk is lower than 73% of measured US locations.
Low or minimal exposure: tornado, lightning, drought, cold wave, heat wave, winter weather, hurricane, inland flooding, 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.
Safety
How it’s measured →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.
Simpson County records 0.0 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, lower than most counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.
Drug overdose deaths run at 14.5 per 100,000 residents in Simpson County.
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 Simpson 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 Simpson County rather than Simpson 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 43 miles away.
| Airport | Code | Distance | Longest runway |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nashville Intl | BNA | 43 mi | 11,030 ft |
| Smyrna | MQY | 51 mi | 8,038 ft |
| Owensboro/Daviess County Rgnl | OWB | 76 mi | 8,000 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.
Customize your score
What matters to you?
Choose what you weight most heavily. Nothing is saved to an account — your preferences stay in this browser, and the Area Score never changes.
Select one or more priorities to see how this location scores against them.
Similar places
Matched on AreaProfile signals, not geographyCompare
Put Simpson County side by side with a similar place.
Data & methodology
| Used for | Source | Source period | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|
| Access | Federal Aviation Administration Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service | NASR current cycle | 28-day NASR cycle |
| Physical risk | Federal Emergency Management Agency National Risk Index | National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0) | Periodic dataset versions (v1.20.0 current) |
| Climate | NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly) | 1991-2020 Normals | Every ten years (next release follows the 2001–2030 period) |
| Jobs | U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Local Area Unemployment Statistics | June 2026 | Monthly |
| Demographics | U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program | July 1, 2024 estimate | Annual (vintage released each spring) |
| Development | U.S. Census Bureau Building Permits Survey | 12 months ending July 2026 | Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month |
| Demographics, Housing, Income, Jobs | U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File) | 2024 ACS 5-Year | Annual (5-year estimates released each December) |
| safety | U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics Provisional county-level mortality by intent | April, 2025 to March, 2026 | Quarterly, with a rolling twelve-month window alongside complete calendar years |
| schools | U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments | 2019-20 school year; 2024-25 school year | Directory annually; assessment results as EDFacts releases them |
| Climate | U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Air Quality System Daily Air Quality Index by county | 2024 calendar year | Annually, 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.