Photo: Plazak · CC BY-SA 3.0Grand Rivers has 5.3 jobs for every working resident: 784 people commute in to work
Only 7% work in Grand Rivers itself; outside it, Paducah draws the most (13%, 23 miles). Grand Rivers has 795 jobs for 150 working residents. A typical one-way commute lasts 18 minutes; Kentucky averages 24, the U.S. 26.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Grand Rivers by day and by night
On a workday 139 residents head out to work and 11 work right here.
About 990 people are in Grand Rivers on a workday afternoon, 187% 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 2024, primary jobs.
Commuting in to Grand Rivers: where workers come from
Where Grand Rivers clocks in
13% of workers
7% 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.
Making and building: 42% of jobs based in Grand Rivers
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Grand Rivers, 2014 → 2024: 667 → 795. 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 2024.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Grand Rivers’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 18 minutes each way for Grand Rivers’ commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Grand Rivers workers work from home, vs 10% across Kentucky. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 149 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.
The commute from Grand Rivers, by distance
About 28% 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 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Two sources, two years. Trips, distances and jobs based here: Census LEHD 2024, 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 Grand Rivers: questions
What is the median household income in Grand Rivers?
$70,000 (±$34,056) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $63,726 across Kentucky and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Grand Rivers?
15.1%, against 16.1% across Kentucky and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Grand Rivers?
18 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Kentucky and 26 nationally. 10% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Grand Rivers work?
7% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Paducah (13%, 23 mi), Smithland (7%, 13 mi), Calvert City (6%, 9 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Can you get around Grand Rivers without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Grand Rivers, from the people who make the trip.
More of Grand Rivers
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2024, 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.