Photo: W.marsh · CC BY-SA 3.0Household incomes in Carlisle are lower than in 89% of U.S. towns
About one in ten work in Carlisle itself; outside it, Lexington draws the most (20%, 30 miles). Poverty touches 14.8% of residents; Kentucky has 16.1%. For jobs and income Carlisle is better than 14% of U.S. towns (D); for walkability it is more walkable than 56% of U.S. towns (B).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Carlisle in brief
Carlisle’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Carlisle is Lexington, 30 miles away as the crow flies. 20% of working residents (147) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Carlisle workers spend longer getting to work
The average trip takes 30 minutes each way, against 24 across Kentucky. Over a year that’s about 230 hours of commuting, 46 more than the state’s typical worker. Time on the road ↓
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; with 747 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Carlisle’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
Job access by car holds Carlisle’s grade up (ahead of 32% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($49,201, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (3.0%) is left out: Carlisle’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Carlisle could be anywhere from D to C+.
The distance from Carlisle to work
About 22% 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.
About 30 minutes each way for Carlisle’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Carlisle workers work from home, vs 10% across Kentucky. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 863 commuters (the 5% 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.
Who works in Carlisle, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 664 residents head out to work, 83 work right here, and 467 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
0.74 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute out.
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 employ Carlisle’s residents
Where Carlisle clocks in
13% of workers
6% 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.
What the 550 jobs in Carlisle are
550 jobs are based in Carlisle.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Carlisle, 2013 → 2023: 660 → 550. 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 Carlisle’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Most of Carlisle commutes by car
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 4.0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.1% across Kentucky, on an EPA index of 6.3.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 905 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). 16.3% of Carlisle households have no vehicle (Kentucky 6.8%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Carlisle’s commuters take a bus or train.
Carlisle is 4,360th of 5,404 U.S. towns of 1,500 to 2,900 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 15 | Lakeside Park KY | 2,847 | $129K | 1.5% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 25 | Pewee Valley KY | 1,668 | $157K | 3.0% | 2.7% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 102 | Windy Hills KY | 2,476 | $131K | 5.1% | 1.9% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,358 | England AR | 2,409 | $47K | 27.3% | 2.4% | 20% | D |
| 4,359 | Rangely CO | 2,304 | $66K | 14.6% | 6.0% | 44% | D |
| 4,360 | Carlisle KY | 2,122 | $49K | 14.8% | 3.0% | 11% | D |
| 4,361 | Homer MI | 1,603 | $55K | 18.7% | 5.9% | 14% | D |
| 4,362 | Cassopolis MI | 1,707 | $41K | 20.5% | 7.3% | 8% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,404 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Carlisle, 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 Carlisle: questions
What is the median household income in Carlisle?
$49,201 (±$12,311) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $63,726 across Kentucky and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Carlisle?
14.8%, against 16.1% across Kentucky and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Carlisle?
30 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Kentucky and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Carlisle work?
11% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Lexington (20%, 30 mi), Paris (13%, 15 mi), Cynthiana (6%, 15 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Carlisle walkable?
Carlisle is more walkable than 56% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 6.3 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Carlisle without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 16% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Carlisle, from the people who make the trip.
More of Carlisle
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.