Photo: User:Campaigner444 · CC BY-SA 3.0With 0.4 jobs for every working resident, most of Flatwoods works elsewhere
Employers in Flatwoods report 1,282 jobs; 2,995 of its residents have a job. The two grades for Flatwoods are C− for jobs and income and B+ for walkability. Only 6% stay in Flatwoods for work; outside it, Ashland is the main destination (28%, 6 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Flatwoods, in a few figures
The better-paid jobs are outside Flatwoods
53% of Flatwoods residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, but only 27% of the jobs based in Flatwoods pay that much. Most residents work elsewhere: 94% leave town for their job. The jobs ↓
Many jobs in Flatwoods pay little
29% of the jobs based in Flatwoods pay $1,250 a month or less, under $15,000 a year. Young workers hold many of them: 31% of all the jobs here go to people 29 or younger. The jobs ↓
Most Flatwoods residents work close to home
60% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home. How far ↓
28% of Flatwoods works in Ashland
836 working residents, 28%, have their main job in Ashland, 6.4 miles away. That’s 5 times as many as work in Flatwoods itself. The commute map ↓
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 drives the Jobs & income grade in Flatwoods
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Flatwoods is better than 22% of U.S. towns, #94 of 142 in Kentucky. Job access by car holds Flatwoods’ grade up (ahead of 56% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (18.4%, U.S. 12.5%).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Flatwoods could be anywhere from D to B−.
What Flatwoods’ employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Flatwoods, 2013 → 2023: 1,159 → 1,282. 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 Flatwoods’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How far Flatwoods goes to work
About 19% 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.
Commuting out of Flatwoods: the destinations
Where Flatwoods clocks in
28% of workers
5% 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.
The workday shuffle in and out of Flatwoods
On a workday 2,806 residents head out to work, 189 work right here, and 1,093 people come in from elsewhere.
About 5,700 people are in Flatwoods on a workday afternoon, 23% fewer 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.
From Flatwoods, about 20 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Flatwoods workers work from home, vs 10% across Kentucky. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,534 commuters (the 7% 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 commute in Flatwoods is mostly behind the wheel
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Flatwoods is more walkable than 72% of U.S. towns, #44 of 142 in Kentucky. Both inputs place Flatwoods 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 2,718 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). 4.5% of Flatwoods households have no vehicle (Kentucky 6.8%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Flatwoods’ commuters take a bus or train.
How Flatwoods ranks: 2,542nd of 3,083 U.S. towns of 5,200 to 10,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 73 | Union KY | 7,937 | $137K | 2.9% | 1.5% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 184 | Edgewood KY | 8,503 | $119K | 3.8% | 2.4% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 290 | Fort Wright KY | 6,240 | $105K | 3.0% | 3.4% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 2,540 | Southport NY | 8,740 | $63K | 14.8% | 6.6% | 6% | C− |
| 2,541 | Center Township OH | 5,663 | $46K | 23.0% | 4.2% | 15% | C− |
| 2,542 | Flatwoods KY | 7,439 | $60K | 18.4% | 6.4% | 6% | C− |
| 2,543 | Harrodsburg KY | 9,576 | $48K | 14.5% | 6.1% | 26% | C− |
| 2,544 | Menominee MI | 8,175 | $49K | 16.4% | 2.7% | 32% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,083 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 14% | 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 Flatwoods, the top three, the last and three more from Kentucky.
Flatwoods and the towns next door
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
The biggest share goes to Russell. Darker towns draw more of Flatwoods’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 Flatwoods: questions
What is the median household income in Flatwoods?
$59,972 (±$7,798) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $63,726 across Kentucky and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Flatwoods?
18.4%, against 16.1% across Kentucky and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Flatwoods?
20 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Kentucky and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Flatwoods work?
6% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Ashland (28%, 6 mi), Russell (6%, 2 mi), Huntington (5%, 18 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Flatwoods walkable?
Flatwoods is more walkable than 72% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 8.3 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Flatwoods 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 Flatwoods, from the people who make the trip.
More of Flatwoods
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.