AreaProfile

40356Nicholasville, Kentucky

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 40356.

66
Area Score
Top 28% of 5,298 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity3573rd of 6,210 published ZIP areas51
Schools2337th of 4,422 published ZIP areas50
GrowthTop 15% of 5,428 published ZIP areas70
Housing affordabilityTop 28% of 6,685 published ZIP areas92
ClimateTop 32% of 6,789 published ZIP areas74
Physical resilienceTop 29% of 6,709 published ZIP areas75
Access6388th of 6,791 published ZIP areas58
Economic stability3798th of 6,742 published ZIP areas56
The quick read

Residential permitting has slowed: 267 units authorized over the past twelve months, 27% below the prior year.

Its Area Score of 66 places 40356 in the top 28% of published ZIP profiles.

At a glance

Population
45,849
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$74,495
Top 46% nationally
Density
329/sq mi
139.4 sq mi of land
Median age
39.8
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Nicholasville
Kentucky
Metro area
Lexington-Fayette, KY
Nearest major airport
SDF
67 mi · Louisville Muhammad Ali Intl
Median home value
$268,100
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 5.1% is lower than 25% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

Employment fell 0.9% over the past year, to 15,719 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$3,722$74,495Top 46%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$4,190$43,672Top 30%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate11.1%Top 47%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute26.4 minBottom 42%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher32.0%Top 31%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment15,719Bottom 12%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)3.3%Top 12%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.9%Bottom 47%June 2026
Labor force16,563Bottom 12%June 2026
Labor force participation61.6%Top 47%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$62,210Bottom 28%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$48,620Bottom 31%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)0.6%Top 27%June 2026
Unemployment rate5.1%Top 25%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202475k65k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $74,495 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 Nicholasville, KY, the city containing this ZIP code.

29% 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
12
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
15.7
across all schools here
Math proficiency
28.8%
Bottom 39% in Kentucky
Reading proficiency
46.6%
Top 36% in Kentucky
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
West Jessamine High SchoolJessamine County1,27218.2
East Jessamine High SchoolJessamine County1,22220.4
East Jessamine Middle SchoolJessamine County94416.917%52%
West Jessamine Middle SchoolJessamine County88716.128%60%
Jessamine Early Learning VillageJessamine County78513.5
Hattie C. Warner Elementary SchoolJessamine County57013.629%42%
Rosenwald Dunbar Elementary SchoolJessamine County54213.939%45%
Red Oak Elementary SchoolJessamine County51914.437%44%
Brookside Elementary SchoolJessamine County51514.735%31%
Nicholasville Elementary SchoolJessamine County46512.227%38%
Ashgrove AcademyJessamine County73.5
Jessamine Career and Technology CenterJessamine County0

55.8% 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 $1,154 takes 19% 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
18.6%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.6×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,154
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$268,100
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.60Top 37%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate67.5%Bottom 25%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±27618,288Top 5%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$64$1,154Top 38%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$18,404$268,100Top 38%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income18.6%Top 43%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate5.5%Bottom 25%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
70/ 100
Top 15% 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 8.3 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US ZIP areas.

Units permitted
267
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
8.3
Top 16% nationally
Year over year
−27%
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 Nicholasville, 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.

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, 11.8 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND5.4"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
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
Seasonal temperature swing43°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

75 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are tornado, strong wind and cold wave.

Overall hazard risk is lower than 80% of measured US ZIP areas.

Strong windModerate
TornadoModerate
HailModerate
EarthquakeModerate
Cold waveModerate

Low or minimal exposure: lightning, winter weather, ice storm, inland flooding, heat wave, hurricane, landslide, drought, wildfire.

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.

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.

Crime
The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer is the only source 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. Reported crime is also easy to misread: agency participation varies year to year, and a city that draws a large daytime workforce carries incidents its residents did not generate.
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

2 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 67 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Louisville Muhammad Ali IntlSDF67 mi11,887 ft
Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky IntlCVG81 mi10,000 ft
Wilmington Air ParkILN115 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
66
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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)
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 29, 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.

40356 vs Nicholasville

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

40356
Nicholasville
Median household income
$74,495
vs
$68,503
Per capita income
$43,672
vs
$31,714
Population density
329/sq mi
vs
2,117/sq mi
Median home value
$268,100
vs
$226,800
Median gross rent
$1,154
vs
$1,147
Homeownership rate
67.5%
vs
58.2%
Bachelor's degree or higher
32.0%
vs
26.9%
Poverty rate
11.1%
vs
13.1%
Median age
39.8
vs
37.7

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.