40504Lexington-Fayette urban county, Kentucky

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 40504.

60out of 100
Area Score
Top 49% of 5,298 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity4003rd of 6,210 ZIP areas measured48
Schools2565th of 4,422 ZIP areas measured46
GrowthTop 25% of 5,428 ZIP areas measured65
Housing affordability4948th of 6,685 ZIP areas measured63
ClimateTop 32% of 6,789 ZIP areas measured74
Physical resilienceTop 30% of 6,709 ZIP areas measured74
Access6362nd of 6,791 ZIP areas measured59
Economic stability4967th of 6,742 ZIP areas measured45
The quick read

Unemployment is 4.7% and median household income $46,055, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published ZIP profiles.

In the public schools here, 25% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 12.3 students for every teacher.

Rent takes 25% of median household income here, below the 30% threshold conventionally called cost-burdened, and the median home is 4.8 times that income.

At a glance

Population
25,816
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$46,055
Bottom 11% nationally
Density
4,188/sq mi
6.2 sq mi of land
Median age
29.6
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Lexington-Fayette urban county
Kentucky
Metro area
Lexington-Fayette, KY
Nearest major airport
SDF
65 mi · Louisville Muhammad Ali Intl
Median home value
$222,600
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.7% is lower than 40% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

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

33% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 71% of measured US ZIP areas.

Median household income of $46,055 is below 89% of measured US ZIP areas.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$5,147$46,055Bottom 11%of 31,2952024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,340$29,991Bottom 27%of 32,8222024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate28.6%Top 8%of 32,9702024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute20.7 minBottom 15%of 32,8872024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher33.1%Top 29%of 33,1932024 ACS 5-Year
Employment171,671Top 24%of 6,544June 2026
Employment change (3 years)2.9%Top 15%of 6,542June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.7%Top 47%of 6,544June 2026
Labor force180,216Top 24%of 6,544June 2026
Labor force participation66.1%Top 28%of 33,2522024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$62,210Bottom 28%of 6,0722025 OEWS
Median annual wage$48,620Bottom 31%of 6,0722025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)0.5%Top 31%of 6,544June 2026
Unemployment rate4.7%Top 40%of 6,544June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202446k39k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $46,055 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.

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

25% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 40% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 12.3 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
8
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
12.3
across all schools here
Math proficiency
24.9%
Bottom 32% in Kentucky
Reading proficiency
40.2%
Bottom 39% in Kentucky
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Beaumont Middle SchoolFayette County74314.937%67%
Cardinal Valley Elementary SchoolFayette County64312.17%14%
Picadome Elementary SchoolFayette County43412.135%38%
James Lane Allen Elementary SchoolFayette County42911.310%22%
Garden Springs Elementary SchoolFayette County41811.936%54%
Family Care CenterFayette County227.3
Audrey Grevious CenterFayette County214.2
Southside Technical CenterFayette County0

52.4% 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 $970 takes 25% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 4.8 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
25.3%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
4.8×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$970
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$222,600
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income4.83Top 18%of 30,4042024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate34.0%Bottom 4%of 32,9102024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±62013,312Top 11%of 33,7722024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$46$970Bottom 46%of 26,6182024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$13,230$222,600Top 49%of 30,9412024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income25.3%Top 14%of 26,4702024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate6.8%Bottom 32%of 33,0282024 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 25% 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.

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 ZIP areas.

Units permitted
1,377
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
4.3
Top 37% nationally
Year over year
+55%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
65.3%
units in 5+ unit buildings

The Building Permits Survey is not published for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Lexington-Fayette urban county, 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 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, 3.4 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

74 / 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 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.

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 · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
17.2
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
19.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
19.4
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 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 40504 rather than 40504 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 65 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Louisville Muhammad Ali IntlSDF65 mi11,887 ft
Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky IntlCVG70 mi10,000 ft
Wilmington Air ParkILN104 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
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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
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.

40504 vs Lexington-Fayette urban county

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

40504
Lexington-Fayette urban county
Median household income
$46,055
vs
$69,479
Per capita income
$29,991
vs
$43,790
Population density
4,188/sq mi
vs
1,140/sq mi
Median home value
$222,600
vs
$293,500
Median gross rent
$970
vs
$1,164
Homeownership rate
34.0%
vs
53.8%
Bachelor's degree or higher
33.1%
vs
48.3%
Poverty rate
28.6%
vs
14.9%
Median age
29.6
vs
35.3

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.