Photo: FloNight (Sydney Poore) and Russell Poore · CC BY-SA 3.0Jobs, income and commuting in Georgetown, KY
The trip to work takes 22 minutes on average; Kentucky averages 24, the U.S. 26. Georgetown grades B for jobs and income and B for walkability. About one in four stay in Georgetown for work; outside it, Lexington is the main destination (31%, 16 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Georgetown apart on work
Georgetown and Lexington trade workers both ways
Lexington is the top workplace for Georgetown residents (31%) and also where the most people who work in Georgetown come from (18% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Georgetown makes and builds things
48% of the jobs based in Georgetown are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Georgetown residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 25%. 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.
Where Georgetown’s Jobs & income grade comes from
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Georgetown is better than 57% of U.S. towns, #49 of 142 in Kentucky. Job access by car holds Georgetown’s grade up (ahead of 73% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (12.1%, U.S. 12.5%). It also does well on household income and unemployment.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Georgetown could be anywhere from B− to B+.
Out of Georgetown to work: where people go
Where Georgetown clocks in
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.
In Georgetown, 48% of jobs are in factories, building or farming
22,797 jobs are based in Georgetown.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Georgetown, 2013 → 2023: 16,978 → 22,797. 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 Georgetown’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The daily flow of workers through Georgetown
On a workday 12,990 residents head out to work, 5,245 work right here, and 17,552 people come in from elsewhere.
About 45,000 people are in Georgetown on a workday afternoon, 11% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.25 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Georgetown’s commute takes about 22 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Georgetown workers work from home, vs 10% across Kentucky. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 17,641 commuters (the 10% 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.
How many miles Georgetown commutes
About 16% 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 Georgetown gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Georgetown is more walkable than 64% of U.S. towns, #60 of 142 in Kentucky. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.7% 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 19,674 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 38% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 11% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 0.4 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 48% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 4.5% of Georgetown households have no vehicle (Kentucky 6.8%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Georgetown’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Georgetown ranks: 638th of 1,019 U.S. towns of 29,000 to 55,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | McLean VA | 49,627 | $250K | 2.9% | 2.3% | 6% | A+ |
| 2 | Southlake TX | 31,175 | $250K | 1.5% | 2.7% | 11% | A+ |
| 3 | Leawood KS | 34,093 | $186K | 3.1% | 2.0% | 9% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 320 | Jeffersontown KY | 29,193 | $82K | 6.5% | 2.8% | 12% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 451 | Independence KY | 30,198 | $102K | 8.8% | 4.3% | 4% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 519 | Florence KY | 34,018 | $71K | 9.5% | 3.1% | 17% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 636 | Reynoldsburg OH | 43,350 | $73K | 12.0% | 4.7% | 5% | B |
| 637 | Concord Township OH | 32,597 | $74K | 11.2% | 4.0% | 27% | B |
| 638 | Georgetown KY | 40,883 | $80K | 12.1% | 4.2% | 29% | B |
| 639 | Lakewood OH | 49,027 | $69K | 10.3% | 5.0% | 9% | B |
| 640 | Middle River MD | 31,712 | $78K | 14.7% | 4.4% | 5% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 1,019 | Bullhead City AZ | 43,987 | $51K | 18.7% | 11.5% | 26% | 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 Georgetown, 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 Georgetown: questions
What is the median household income in Georgetown?
$80,088 (±$3,111) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $63,726 across Kentucky and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Georgetown?
12.1%, against 16.1% across Kentucky and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Georgetown?
22 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Kentucky and 26 nationally. 10% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Georgetown work?
29% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Lexington (31%, 16 mi), Frankfort (3%, 18 mi), Louisville (2%, 61 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Georgetown walkable?
Georgetown is more walkable than 64% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 9.1 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Georgetown without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. 11% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Georgetown, from the people who make the trip.
More of Georgetown
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.