42724Elizabethtown, Kentucky

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 42724.

64out of 100
Area Score
Top 35% of 5,298 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity5334th of 6,210 published ZIP areas35
SchoolsTop 29% of 4,422 published ZIP areas68
GrowthTop 40% of 5,428 published ZIP areas56
Housing affordabilityTop 9% of 6,685 published ZIP areas100
ClimateTop 28% of 6,789 published ZIP areas76
Physical resilienceTop 38% of 6,709 published ZIP areas69
Access5467th of 6,791 published ZIP areas78
Economic stability4318th of 6,742 published ZIP areas52
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published ZIP profiles: unemployment is 6.4% and the Opportunity signal places 42724 in the bottom 14%.

Residential permitting has slowed: 164 units authorized over the past twelve months, 74% below the prior year.

Housing is more affordable relative to local incomes than in most published city profiles: rent takes 16% of median household income and the median home is 2.7 times it.

At a glance

Population
5,345
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$73,465
Top 47% nationally
Density
70/sq mi
76.4 sq mi of land
Median age
43.2
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Elizabethtown
Kentucky
Metro area
Elizabethtown, KY
Nearest major airport
SDF
39 mi · Louisville Muhammad Ali Intl
Median home value
$197,400
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 6.4% is lower than 6% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

Employment fell 2.3% over the past year, to 15,111 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$17,943$73,465Top 47%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$7,914$36,615Top 50%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate11.9%Top 44%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute23.9 minBottom 29%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher19.3%Bottom 38%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment15,111Bottom 11%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)5.9%Top 3%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-2.3%Bottom 14%June 2026
Labor force16,143Bottom 11%June 2026
Labor force participation60.2%Bottom 48%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$56,110Bottom 7%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$46,810Bottom 19%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)1.7%Top 1%June 2026
Unemployment rate6.4%Top 6%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202475k68k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $73,465 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 — Elizabethtown, KY
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Miscellaneous Assemblers and Fabricators2,140$50,510
Retail Salespersons1,570$28,650
General and Operations Managers1,420$76,770
Cashiers1,340$28,270
Fast Food and Counter Workers1,330$27,260
Human Resources Specialists1,060$78,850

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.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish labor-force data for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Elizabethtown, KY, the city containing this ZIP code.

40% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 50% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 17.2 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
4
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
17.2
across all schools here
Math proficiency
40.1%
Top 22% in Kentucky
Reading proficiency
50.1%
Top 25% in Kentucky
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Central Hardin High SchoolHardin County1,83119.5
Cecilia Valley Elementary SchoolHardin County49014.457%51%
West Hardin Middle SchoolHardin County47615.432%57%
Lakewood Elementary SchoolHardin County46315.431%42%

45.6% 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 $989 takes 16% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 2.7 times median household income here, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.

Rent as a share of income
16.2%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
2.7×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$989
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$197,400
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income2.69Bottom 36%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate83.3%Top 37%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±3292,290Top 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$187$989Bottom 48%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$49,379$197,400Bottom 43%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income16.2%Bottom 39%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate6.4%Bottom 30%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
56/ 100
Top 40% of 5,428 published city profiles

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.

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

At 5.0 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US ZIP areas.

Units permitted
164
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
5.0
Top 30% nationally
Year over year
−74%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings

The Building Permits Survey is not published for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Elizabethtown, KY, the city containing this ZIP code.

Weather & climate

7 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 86°F and January a low of 27°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 53.0 inches.

20°40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station BOWLING GREEN 21 NNE, 30.7 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND5.5"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation53.0"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low27°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high86°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months71991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing41°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

69 / 100
Physical resilience

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

Ice stormModerate
HailElevated
EarthquakeElevated
TornadoModerate

Low or minimal exposure: strong wind, lightning, winter weather, cold wave, inland flooding, heat wave, hurricane, landslide, wildfire, drought.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. ZIP values are the land-area-weighted mean of the counties the ZIP Code Tabulation Area intersects. Expected annual loss is not allocated below county level. 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.

Hardin County records 5.2 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 26.7 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 17.8 per 100,000 residents in Hardin County.

Homicide
5.2
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
26.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
17.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
27.6
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 Hardin 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 42724 rather than 42724 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 39 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Louisville Muhammad Ali IntlSDF39 mi11,887 ft
Owensboro/Daviess County RgnlOWB60 mi8,000 ft
Evansville RgnlEVV83 mi8,021 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
64
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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
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
2025 OEWSAnnual (spring release)
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.

42724 vs Elizabethtown

How this ZIP area compares with Elizabethtown as a whole. Both figures come from the same ACS release, so the comparison is like for like.

42724
Elizabethtown
Median household income
$73,465
vs
$60,760
Per capita income
$36,615
vs
$35,019
Population density
70/sq mi
vs
1,163/sq mi
Median home value
$197,400
vs
$245,900
Median gross rent
$989
vs
$909
Homeownership rate
83.3%
vs
49.3%
Bachelor's degree or higher
19.3%
vs
28.3%
Poverty rate
11.9%
vs
17.0%
Median age
43.2
vs
35.7

Some demographic statistics use Census ZIP Code Tabulation Areas, which approximate but do not exactly match USPS ZIP delivery geography. See the methodology for how AreaProfile maps between them.