Kurtz Restaurant and Bardstown-Parkview Motel-Office · Photo: Kybluegrass · CC BY-SA 3.0A job hub: Bardstown has 2.1 jobs per working resident, and 11,383 people come in to work
Jobs and income earn Bardstown C; getting around on foot earns it B−. Employers in Bardstown report 13,574 jobs for 6,423 working residents. Household incomes here are lower than in 86% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Bardstown at work: what stands out
Bardstown draws workers from far and wide
The 13,574 jobs in Bardstown are filled from a wide area. Bardstown’s own residents hold 16% and the ten next-biggest home towns 11%; the other 73% come from many towns beyond those. The commute map ↓
Bardstown is where the jobs are
Bardstown has 13,574 jobs, 2.1 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 21,000 people are in town, 50% more than the 14,000 who live here. Day and night ↓
Bardstown’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Bardstown is Louisville, 28 miles away as the crow flies. 10% of working residents (628) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Bardstown makes and builds things
38% of the jobs based in Bardstown are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Bardstown residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 30%. The jobs ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey.
What’s behind Bardstown’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Bardstown is better than 34% of U.S. towns, #77 of 142 in Kentucky. Job access by car holds Bardstown’s grade up (ahead of 60% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($51,381, U.S. $80,734). It also does well on unemployment.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Bardstown could be anywhere from C− to B.
The daily trip into Bardstown
Where Bardstown clocks in
3% of workers
3% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
Who works in Bardstown, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 4,232 residents head out to work and 2,191 work right here.
About 21,000 people are in Bardstown on a workday afternoon, 50% more than live here.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Short hops and long hauls from Bardstown
Straight-line distance from each worker’s home block to their main job’s block. LEHD 2023.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
In Bardstown, 38% of jobs are in factories, building or farming
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Bardstown, 2013 → 2023: 11,096 → 13,574. Big swings can come from how a large employer reports its locations, not only from real openings or closings.
Primary jobs covered by unemployment insurance (not the self-employed). Pay is monthly earnings. LEHD 2023.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Bardstown’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How long Bardstown spends getting to work: about 21 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Bardstown workers work from home, vs 10% across Kentucky. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 6,113 commuters (the 4% who work from home are left out). Across Kentucky: 85% drive alone, 1% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Bardstown is a driving town
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Bardstown is more walkable than 51% of U.S. towns, #77 of 142 in Kentucky. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 3.1% across Kentucky.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 6,372 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service: no data. EPA’s transit file has no stops for most of this county (its agencies had not published schedules in the format EPA used in 2020). That is missing data, not a finding that there is no bus or train.
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 4.1% of Bardstown households have no vehicle (Kentucky 6.8%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Bardstown’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Bardstown is 1,681st among 2,227 U.S. towns of 10,000 to 19,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Beverly Hills MI | 10,449 | $177K | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | New Albany OH | 11,803 | $238K | 1.4% | 0.9% | 11% | A+ |
| 3 | Plain Township OH | 13,257 | $219K | 2.1% | 0.8% | 10% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 22 | Francisville KY | 10,565 | $159K | 1.7% | 1.3% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 148 | Oakbrook KY | 10,211 | $95K | 2.5% | 1.6% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 328 | Burlington KY | 18,008 | $109K | 5.5% | 2.5% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,679 | Justice IL | 12,285 | $57K | 19.4% | 6.7% | 3% | C |
| 1,680 | Gatesville TX | 16,422 | $57K | 9.1% | 4.5% | 22% | C |
| 1,681 | Bardstown KY | 14,161 | $51K | 14.7% | 4.0% | 34% | C |
| 1,682 | Huron SD | 14,607 | $61K | 16.1% | 2.6% | 57% | C |
| 1,683 | Bethel Township OH | 17,987 | $67K | 14.1% | 7.6% | 9% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 2,227 | Douglas AZ | 16,038 | $42K | 27.8% | 12.3% | 29% | D− |
Census ACS 2020–24 (income, poverty, unemployment), Census LEHD (work in town), TownRatings Jobs & income grades. Each town links to its Work & commute page.
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Bardstown, the top three, the last and three more from Kentucky.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Two sources, two years. Trips, distances and jobs based here: Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs, where the employer reports them. Income, poverty, unemployment, commute time and how people travel: Census ACS 2020–24 averages.
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Bardstown: questions
What is the median household income in Bardstown?
$51,381 (±$7,022) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $63,726 across Kentucky and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Bardstown?
14.7%, against 16.1% across Kentucky and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Bardstown?
21 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Kentucky and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Bardstown work?
34% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Louisville (10%, 28 mi), Elizabethtown (3%, 24 mi), Shepherdsville (3%, 18 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Bardstown walkable?
Bardstown is more walkable than 51% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 7.8 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Bardstown without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Bardstown, from the people who make the trip.
More of Bardstown
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2023, primary jobs. Commute time, working from home and working out of state: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates. Distances are straight lines between home and work; real drives run longer. Walkability index, job access and transit service: U.S. EPA Smart Location Database. The two grades are our own summaries of these figures, not official ratings.