Shelbyville, Kentucky

Area Profile

17,668 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Shelbyville, in Shelby County.

Area Score unavailable

Missing required signal: growth. AreaProfile withholds a score rather than inferring the missing dimensions.

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity3253rd of 3,904 published cities39
Schools2252nd of 2,668 published cities24
Housing affordabilityTop 18% of 4,223 published cities95
ClimateTop 31% of 4,223 published cities74
Physical resilienceTop 26% of 4,182 published cities79
Access3103rd of 4,226 published cities83
Economic stability2389th of 4,226 published cities57
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published city profiles: unemployment is 4.8% and the Opportunity signal places Shelbyville in the bottom 17%.

In the public schools here, 25% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 16.9 students for every teacher.

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 3.4 times it.

At a glance

Population
17,668
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$75,610
Top 38% nationally
Density
1,770/sq mi
10.0 sq mi of land
Median age
34.8
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Shelby County
Kentucky
Metro area
Louisville/Jefferson County, KY-IN
Nearest major airport
SDF
28 mi · Louisville Muhammad Ali Intl
Median home value
$257,100
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.8% is lower than 32% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 2.8% over the past year, to 24,155 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$6,042$75,610Top 38%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$3,163$33,587Bottom 49%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate14.5%Top 37%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute28.1 minTop 43%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher26.7%Top 36%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment24,155Bottom 31%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-0.7%Bottom 38%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-2.8%Bottom 12%June 2026
Labor force25,384Bottom 31%June 2026
Labor force participation65.5%Top 32%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$62,310Bottom 23%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$48,370Bottom 24%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)0.7%Top 19%June 2026
Unemployment rate4.8%Top 32%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202476k71k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $75,610 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 — Louisville/Jefferson County, KY-IN
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand29,400$46,830
Miscellaneous Assemblers and Fabricators20,920$48,440
Registered Nurses18,180$84,850
Retail Salespersons17,540$30,660
General and Operations Managers16,830$89,140
Stockers and Order Fillers16,410$37,610

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 publishes city-level labor data only for places of 25,000 or more. This is the figure for Shelby County, KY, which contains this city.

25% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 37% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 16.9 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
12
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
16.9
across all schools here
Math proficiency
24.6%
Bottom 21% in Kentucky
Reading proficiency
37.1%
Bottom 21% in Kentucky
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Martha Layne Collins High SchoolShelby County1,15718.7
Shelby County High SchoolShelby County1,00319.3
Marnel C. Moorman SchoolShelby County80316.723%37%
Shelby County West Middle SchoolShelby County56316.122%42%
Shelby County East Middle SchoolShelby County50516.837%52%
Wright ElementaryShelby County48915.828%32%
Painted Stone ElementaryShelby County45813.925%30%
Clear Creek ElementaryShelby County42514.222%36%
Southside ElementaryShelby County41216.514%27%
Northside Early Childhood CenterShelby County22832.6
Ascension AcademyShelby County325.3
Shelby County Area Technology CenterKentucky Tech System0

45.8% 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 $1,033 takes 16% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.4 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
16.4%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.4×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,033
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$257,100
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.40Top 38%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate56.1%Bottom 15%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±3046,993Top 9%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$60$1,033Top 45%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$17,777$257,100Top 34%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income16.4%Bottom 34%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate4.6%Bottom 27%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 →

Population has grown 4% since 2020, reaching 18,048 in 2024.

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

Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202418k17k
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.

No building-permit activity is published for this location by the Census Building Permits Survey.

Weather & climate

7 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 88°F and January a low of 25°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 47.3 inches.

10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station FRANKFORT CAPITAL CITY AP, 17.8 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND5.1"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation47.3"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low25°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high88°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

79 / 100
Physical resilience

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

Strong windModerate
TornadoModerate
EarthquakeModerate
Cold waveModerate

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

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.

Shelby County records 4.0 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 18.2 per 100,000 residents in Shelby County.

Homicide
4.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
12.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
18.2
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
14.3
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 Shelby 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 Shelbyville rather than Shelbyville 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 28 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Louisville Muhammad Ali IntlSDF28 mi11,887 ft
Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky IntlCVG66 mi10,000 ft
Owensboro/Daviess County RgnlOWB110 mi8,000 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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Other cities in Louisville/Jefferson County, KY-IN

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
Louisville/Jefferson CountyJefferson County631,818vs Shelbyville
JeffersonvilleClark County51,04369vs Shelbyville
New AlbanyFloyd County37,58164vs Shelbyville
JeffersontownJefferson County29,19957vs Shelbyville
ClarksvilleClark County22,01666vs Shelbyville
Mount WashingtonBullitt County18,480vs Shelbyville
St. MatthewsJefferson County17,577vs Shelbyville
ShivelyJefferson County15,638vs Shelbyville
ShepherdsvilleBullitt County14,533vs Shelbyville
BardstownNelson County13,804vs Shelbyville
LyndonJefferson County11,030vs Shelbyville
La GrangeOldham County10,311vs Shelbyville

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.

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)
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 Shelbyville

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
4006532,160$77,869