Photo: Brian Stansberry · CC BY 4.0Clay’s household incomes are lower than in 72% of U.S. towns
9.6% of residents live below the poverty line (Kentucky 16.1%). Jobs and income earn Clay C−; getting around on foot earns it D. Home is the office for 3% of workers, where Kentucky as a whole has 10%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The work figures that set Clay apart
Clay’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
On income, poverty and job access, Clay is better than 23% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Clay’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 15% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (3.7%) is left out: Clay’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, Clay could be anywhere from D to C+.
About 35 minutes to work from Clay
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 11.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Clay workers work from home, vs 10% across Kentucky. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 454 commuters (the 3% 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 leaves Clay for work, and who comes in
On a workday 358 residents head out to work, 28 work right here, and 218 people come in from elsewhere.
About 860 people are in Clay on a workday afternoon, 14% fewer than live here.
0.64 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.
11% of working residents work in Madisonville
Where Clay clocks in
9% 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.
A place that makes things: 84% of Clay’s jobs are in goods
246 jobs are based in Clay.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Clay, 2013 → 2023: 223 → 246. 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 Clay’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Where in the region Clay works
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.
Driving is how Clay gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Clay is more walkable than 14% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Clay near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 466 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). 8.7% of Clay households have no vehicle (Kentucky 6.8%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Clay’s commuters take a bus or train.
1,988th of 3,133: where Clay ranks among U.S. towns of 700 to 1,400
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 46 | Coldstream KY | 1,325 | $109K | 2.8% | 0.8% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 58 | Heritage Creek KY | 1,244 | $100K | 2.4% | 1.6% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 78 | Verona KY | 1,394 | $145K | 3.2% | 2.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,986 | Waterflow NM | 1,140 | $61K | 12.7% | 10.5% | 5% | C− |
| 1,987 | San Rafael NM | 1,039 | $83K | 13.4% | 11.2% | <1% | C− |
| 1,988 | Clay KY | 1,004 | $61K | 9.6% | 3.7% | 7% | C− |
| 1,989 | Elwood Township IL | 1,383 | $54K | 8.3% | 7.0% | 6% | C− |
| 1,990 | Posey Township IN | 1,051 | $52K | 7.2% | 0.0% | 1% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,133 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 0% | 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 Clay, 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 Clay: questions
What is the median household income in Clay?
$61,250 (±$8,999) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $63,726 across Kentucky and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Clay?
9.6%, against 16.1% across Kentucky and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Clay?
35 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Kentucky and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Clay work?
7% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Madisonville (11%, 20 mi), Dixon (9%, 8 mi), Henderson (6%, 28 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Clay walkable?
Clay is more walkable than 14% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 4.6 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Clay without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 9% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Clay, from the people who make the trip.
More of Clay
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.