Richmond, Kentucky

Area Profile

37,111 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Richmond, in Madison County.

63out of 100
Area Score
Top 42% of 2,944 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity2929th of 3,904 cities measured44
SchoolsTop 47% of 2,668 cities measured54
GrowthTop 21% of 2,973 cities measured67
Housing affordability2297th of 4,223 cities measured78
ClimateTop 30% of 4,223 cities measured74
Physical resilienceTop 29% of 4,182 cities measured77
Access4092nd of 4,226 cities measured47
Economic stability2921st of 4,226 cities measured49
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published city profiles: unemployment is 6.5% and the Opportunity signal places Richmond in the bottom 25%.

In the public schools here, 30% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 16.4 students for every teacher.

235 housing units were authorized over the past twelve months, within 7% of the prior year — steady rather than turning.

At a glance

Population
37,111
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$50,870
Bottom 24% nationally
Density
1,690/sq mi
22.0 sq mi of land
Median age
28.4
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Madison County
Kentucky
Metro area
Richmond-Berea, KY
Nearest major airport
SDF
84 mi · Louisville Muhammad Ali Intl
Median home value
$214,900
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 6.5% is lower than 5% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 0.4% over the past year, to 19,129 employed residents.

35% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 76% of measured US cities.

Median household income of $50,870 is below 76% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$1,692$50,870Bottom 24%of 29,5732024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,377$29,276Bottom 34%of 31,4202024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate19.5%Top 25%of 31,9002024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute25.4 minBottom 43%of 31,5432024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher34.9%Top 24%of 31,9192024 ACS 5-Year
Employment19,129Bottom 23%of 3,904June 2026
Employment change (3 years)5.6%Top 4%of 3,903June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.4%Top 38%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force20,455Bottom 24%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force participation67.8%Top 25%of 31,9332024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)1.3%Top 2%of 3,904June 2026
Unemployment rate6.5%Top 5%of 3,904June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/066.53.3
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 6.5% 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
202120222023202451k40k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $50,870 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.

30% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 49% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 16.4 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
12
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
16.4
across all schools here
Math proficiency
29.9%
Bottom 42% in Kentucky
Reading proficiency
49.2%
Top 24% in Kentucky
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Madison Central High SchoolMadison County2,10718.8
Kirksville Elementary SchoolMadison County66215.833%43%
Madison Middle SchoolMadison County58617.817%57%
Clark Moores Middle SchoolMadison County55816.917%57%
B. Michael Caudill Middle SchoolMadison County51716.737%62%
Glenn R Marshall Elementary SchoolMadison County48015.034%46%
Daniel Boone Elementary SchoolMadison County46913.820%32%
Kit Carson Elementary SchoolMadison County44515.331%45%
Boonesborough ElementaryMadison County40614.543%44%
Madison Kindergarten AcademyMadison County40316.1
White Hall Elementary SchoolMadison County36413.546%56%
Ignite Academy NorthMadison County0

54.6% 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 $917 takes 22% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 4.2 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
21.6%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
4.2×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$917
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$214,900
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income4.22Top 24%of 28,4732024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate38.3%Bottom 4%of 31,8432024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±43716,738Top 3%of 32,3302024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$27$917Bottom 43%of 23,4322024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$15,154$214,900Top 43%of 29,3422024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income21.6%Top 31%of 23,2012024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate9.2%Bottom 47%of 32,0012024 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
67/ 100
Top 21% of 2,973 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 12% since 2020, reaching 39,581 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.

64% 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 6.3 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
235
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
6.3
Top 24% nationally
Year over year
−7%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
64.3%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202440k35k
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
20202022202320242025632257
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2020 (+7%).

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, 27.3 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

77 / 100
Physical resilience

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

HailModerate
EarthquakeModerate

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

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. City values are the population-weighted mean of the counties the city overlaps, using AreaProfile place-to-county land-area weights. 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.

Madison County records 2.8 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 12.8 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 36.2 per 100,000 residents in Madison County.

Homicide
2.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
12.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
36.2
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
15.5
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 Madison 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 Richmond rather than Richmond 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

2 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 84 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Louisville Muhammad Ali IntlSDF84 mi11,887 ft
Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky IntlCVG93 mi10,000 ft
Wilmington Air ParkILN121 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
63
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Other cities in Richmond-Berea, KY

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
BereaMadison County15,78664vs Richmond

Every city here is measured on the same scale from the same source releases, so the comparison is like for like. A higher Area Score reflects AreaProfile’s standardized weighting rather than a judgment about which is the better place to live.

Compare

Put Richmond side by side with a similar place.

Richmond vs SalisburyRichmond vs ClevelandRichmond vs SedaliaRichmond vs Belton

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.

ZIP codes in Richmond

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
4047565,961$63,05065