Woodford County, KY

County Profile

27,279 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Woodford 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.

70out of 100
Area Score
Top 22% of 1,225 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity756th of 1,255 counties measured51
SchoolsTop 11% of 973 counties measured82
GrowthTop 22% of 1,226 counties measured65
Housing affordabilityTop 48% of 1,255 counties measured94
ClimateTop 27% of 1,254 counties measured74
Physical resilienceTop 43% of 1,255 counties measured67
Access970th of 1,255 counties measured66
Economic stabilityTop 25% of 1,255 counties measured78
The quick read

Unemployment is 4.5% and median household income $83,788, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published profiles.

Rent takes 16% of median household income here, below the 30% threshold conventionally called cost-burdened, and the median home is 3.6 times that income.

A typical July reaches 84°F and a typical January falls to 25°F, on thirty-year normals.

At a glance

Population
27,279
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$83,788
Top 14% nationally
Density
144/sq mi
189.6 sq mi of land
Median age
42.2
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Woodford County
Kentucky
Metro area
Lexington-Fayette, KY
Nearest major airport
SDF
54 mi · Louisville Muhammad Ali Intl
Median home value
$299,700
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.5% is lower than 38% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment fell 3.3% over the past year, to 14,128 employed residents.

41% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 92% of measured US locations.

Household income is higher than at least 86% of measured US locations.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$5,985$83,788Top 14%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,272$43,877Top 15%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate10.5%Bottom 28%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute25.8 minTop 49%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher40.7%Top 8%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Employment14,128Bottom 11%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (3 years)0.1%Bottom 48%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-3.3%Bottom 6%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force14,798Bottom 11%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force participation64.9%Top 19%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)0.5%Top 27%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate4.5%Top 38%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/064.52.5
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 4.5% 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
202120222023202484k73k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $83,788 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.

46% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 56% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 16.0 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
6
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
16.0
across all schools here
Math proficiency
46.2%
Top 7% in Kentucky
Reading proficiency
55.6%
Top 3% in Kentucky
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Woodford County High SchoolWoodford County1,22317.0
Woodford County Middle SchoolWoodford County89716.939%67%
Southside Elementary SchoolWoodford County60716.947%53%
Huntertown Elementary SchoolWoodford County44314.352%54%
Simmons Elementary SchoolWoodford County41514.349%43%
Northside Elementary SchoolWoodford County36014.452%47%

46.3% 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 $1,138 takes 16% 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
16.3%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.6×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,138
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$299,700
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income3.58Top 29%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate71.7%Bottom 36%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±2811,686Bottom 48%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$50$1,138Top 20%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$14,253$299,700Top 19%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income16.3%Bottom 40%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate7.5%Bottom 16%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 22% 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 grown 3% since 2020, reaching 27,728 in 2024.

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

Population is still rising, but more slowly than in the preceding year.

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

At 4.2 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
114
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
4.2
Top 36% nationally
Year over year
+15%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202428k27k
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
20202021202220232024202512469
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was close to 2020 (−4%).

Weather & climate

7 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 84°F and January a low of 25°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 48.1 inches.

10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station VERSAILLES 3 NNW, 3.5 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND5.7"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation48.1"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low25°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high84°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

67 / 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, ice storm, lightning, 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.

Woodford 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.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 16.6 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 26.5 per 100,000 residents in Woodford County.

Homicide
0.0
per 100,000 residents
Firearm deaths, all intents
16.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
26.5
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
19.5
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 Woodford 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 Woodford County rather than Woodford 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 54 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Louisville Muhammad Ali IntlSDF54 mi11,887 ft
Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky IntlCVG70 mi10,000 ft
Wilmington Air ParkILN109 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
70
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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 Woodford County, KY