Photo: OPMaster · CC BY-SA 3.0Bowling Green has 2.1 jobs for every working resident: 42,423 people commute in to work
Household incomes here are lower than in 89% of U.S. towns. There are 58,106 jobs in Bowling Green, and 27,385 of its residents work somewhere. For jobs and income Bowling Green is better than 23% of U.S. towns (C−); for walkability it is more walkable than 82% of U.S. towns (A−).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Bowling Green stands out on work
Bowling Green is where the jobs are
Bowling Green has 58,106 jobs, 2.1 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Bowling Green draws workers from far and wide
The 58,106 jobs in Bowling Green are filled from a wide area. Bowling Green’s own residents hold 27% and the ten next-biggest home towns 8%; the other 65% come from many towns beyond those. The commute map ↓
Commutes from Bowling Green are quick
The average trip to work takes 18 minutes, against 24 across Kentucky. That’s about 46 hours a year less on the road than the typical Kentucky worker. Time on the road ↓
A young workforce
30% of Bowling Green’s working residents are 29 or younger. 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.
The four measures behind Bowling Green’s grade
Job access by car holds Bowling Green’s grade up (ahead of 65% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (25.6%, U.S. 12.5%).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Bowling Green could be anywhere from C− to C.
The workday shuffle in and out of Bowling Green
On a workday 11,702 residents head out to work and 15,683 work right here.
About 109,000 people are in Bowling Green on a workday afternoon, 39% 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.
The towns that send workers to Bowling Green
Where Bowling Green clocks in
Lines 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.
About 18 minutes each way for Bowling Green’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Bowling Green workers work from home, vs 10% across Kentucky. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 33,217 commuters (the 6% 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.
The kinds of work in Bowling Green
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Bowling Green, 2013 → 2023: 50,207 → 58,106. 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 Bowling Green’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The commute from Bowling Green, by distance
About 24% show a job over 50 miles away. Some of that is real, and some is employers that report every worker at a head office, so a few long commutes are on paper only.
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.
Walkable streets, thin transit: Bowling Green
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 35,469 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). 10.5% of Bowling Green households have no vehicle (Kentucky 6.8%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Bowling Green’s commuters take a bus or train.
Bowling Green next to U.S. towns of 55,000 to 106,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lakeville MN | 79,270 | $139K | 2.9% | 2.0% | 11% | A+ |
| 2 | Fulshear TX | 64,630 | $187K | 1.6% | 2.8% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Plymouth MN | 78,942 | $137K | 4.3% | 2.3% | 12% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 511 | Owensboro KY | 60,892 | $56K | 18.9% | 5.3% | 51% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 537 | Portage Township IN | 94,293 | $53K | 23.2% | 6.7% | 26% | C− |
| 538 | New Bedford MA | 101,834 | $57K | 20.6% | 8.3% | 31% | C− |
| 539 | Bowling Green KY | 78,505 | $49K | 25.6% | 4.9% | 57% | C− |
| 540 | Hemet CA | 93,649 | $58K | 14.9% | 8.0% | 12% | C− |
| 541 | Apple Valley CA | 75,247 | $70K | 16.6% | 7.5% | 15% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 573 | Albany GA | 66,907 | $47K | 27.5% | 11.2% | 51% | 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 Bowling Green, the top three, the last and three more from Kentucky.
Bowling Green and its neighbors
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Bowling Green workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bowling Green | – | C− | A− | 18 min | $48,873 |
| Plum Springs | under 1% | — | — | 18 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Plum Springs: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Bowling Green’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
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 Bowling Green: questions
What is the median household income in Bowling Green?
$48,873 (±$2,044) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $63,726 across Kentucky and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Bowling Green?
25.6%, against 16.1% across Kentucky and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Bowling Green?
18 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Kentucky and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Bowling Green work?
57% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Franklin (4%, 19 mi), Nashville (2%, 59 mi), Louisville (2%, 94 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Bowling Green walkable?
Bowling Green is more walkable than 82% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 8.1 out of 20, and 6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Bowling Green without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 10% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Bowling Green, from the people who make the trip.
More of Bowling Green
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.