Winchester, Kentucky

Area Profile

19,213 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Winchester, in Clark 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
Opportunity2741st of 3,904 published cities47
Schools2040th of 2,668 published cities31
Housing affordabilityTop 32% of 4,223 published cities90
ClimateTop 30% of 4,223 published cities74
Physical resilienceTop 35% of 4,182 published cities71
Access4048th of 4,226 published cities52
Economic stability3550th of 4,226 published cities39
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published city profiles: unemployment is 5.0% and the Opportunity signal places Winchester in the bottom 30%.

In the public schools here, 25% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 14.9 students for every teacher.

Rent takes 20% of median household income here, below the 30% threshold conventionally called cost-burdened, and the median home is 3.5 times that income.

At a glance

Population
19,213
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$54,378
Bottom 30% nationally
Density
2,082/sq mi
9.2 sq mi of land
Median age
40.1
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Clark County
Kentucky
Metro area
Lexington-Fayette, KY
Nearest major airport
CVG
77 mi · Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Intl
Median home value
$188,300
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 5.0% is lower than 25% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 0.4% over the past year, to 17,199 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$3,710$54,378Bottom 30%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,830$32,859Bottom 47%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate17.3%Top 30%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute24.2 minBottom 36%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher22.4%Top 45%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment17,199Bottom 20%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)2.5%Top 17%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.4%Top 38%June 2026
Labor force18,108Bottom 20%June 2026
Labor force participation58.4%Bottom 43%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$62,210Bottom 23%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$48,620Bottom 27%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)0.3%Top 40%June 2026
Unemployment rate5.0%Top 25%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202458k47k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $54,378 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 publishes city-level labor data only for places of 25,000 or more. This is the figure for Clark County, KY, which contains this city.

25% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 38% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 14.9 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
10
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
14.9
across all schools here
Math proficiency
24.9%
Bottom 24% in Kentucky
Reading proficiency
38.2%
Bottom 24% in Kentucky
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
George Rogers Clark High SchoolClark County1,57818.1
Rev. Henry E. Baker Sr. Interm. SchoolClark County76716.727%52%
Robert D. Campbell Jr. HighClark County75314.824%51%
Strode Station Elementary SchoolClark County54213.232%30%
William G. Conkwright ElementaryClark County49911.910%20%
Willis H. Justice Elementary SchoolClark County48113.427%25%
Shearer Elementary SchoolClark County41314.827%38%
Clark County PreschoolClark County28818.0
Phoenix AcademyClark County191.7
Clark County Area Technology CenterKentucky Tech System0

61.7% 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 $916 takes 20% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.5 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
20.2%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.5×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$916
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$188,300
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.46Top 37%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate60.5%Bottom 21%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±2469,538Top 6%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$35$916Bottom 43%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$13,917$188,300Top 50%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income20.2%Top 39%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate10.3%Top 48%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 1% since 2020, reaching 19,413 in 2024.

Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202419k19k
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 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, 22.8 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

71 / 100
Physical resilience

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

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

Strong windModerate
TornadoModerate
EarthquakeModerate
Inland floodingModerate

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

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.

Clark County records 4.7 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 19.3 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 37.5 per 100,000 residents in Clark County.

Homicide
4.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
19.3
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
37.5
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
19.8
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 Clark 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 Winchester rather than Winchester 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 77 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky IntlCVG77 mi10,000 ft
Louisville Muhammad Ali IntlSDF85 mi11,887 ft
Wilmington Air ParkILN101 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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Other cities in Lexington-Fayette, KY

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
Lexington-Fayette urban countyFayette County323,72567vs Winchester
GeorgetownScott County39,117vs Winchester
NicholasvilleJessamine County32,19765vs Winchester
VersaillesWoodford County10,492vs Winchester
ParisBourbon County10,160vs Winchester

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 Winchester

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
4039136,796$64,144