Guthrie’s household incomes are lower than in 98% of U.S. towns
Guthrie grades D for jobs and income and C for walkability. 33.0% of residents live below the poverty line, where Kentucky as a whole has 16.1%. Only 8% work in Guthrie; the top destination outside it is Clarksville (13%, 12 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Guthrie and work: the main findings
The jobs in Guthrie pay better than its residents’ jobs
69% of the jobs based in Guthrie pay over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year), against 48% of the jobs Guthrie residents hold. 92% of the jobs here are held by people who live outside Guthrie. The jobs ↓
Guthrie makes and builds things
41% of the jobs based in Guthrie are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Guthrie residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 30%. 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; with 381 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Inside Guthrie’s Jobs & income grade
Job access by car holds Guthrie’s grade up (ahead of 49% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($35,952, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (16.5%) is left out: Guthrie’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, Guthrie could be anywhere from D to C−.
Making and building: 41% of jobs based in Guthrie
369 jobs are based in Guthrie.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Guthrie, 2013 → 2023: 221 → 369. 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 Guthrie’s own residents hold wherever they work.
A workday in Guthrie: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 351 residents head out to work, 30 work right here, and 339 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.
About as many jobs as working residents (0.97 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.
Where Guthrie goes to work
Where Guthrie clocks in
13% of workers
12% 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.
Each way, about 27 minutes from Guthrie
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Guthrie workers work from home, vs 10% across Kentucky. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 468 commuters (the 12% 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.
Where in the region Guthrie works
About 23% 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.
For most of Guthrie, work means a drive
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Guthrie is more walkable than 34% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Guthrie 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 531 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). 7.1% of Guthrie households have no vehicle (Kentucky 6.8%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Guthrie’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 1,000 to 1,900, Guthrie ranks 4,982nd of 5,877 on jobs and income
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 44 | Pewee Valley KY | 1,668 | $157K | 3.0% | 2.7% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 65 | Audubon Park KY | 1,457 | $101K | 1.6% | 1.3% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 95 | Coldstream KY | 1,325 | $109K | 2.8% | 0.8% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,980 | West Carroll Township PA | 1,140 | $51K | 24.5% | 8.9% | 2% | D |
| 4,981 | London CA | 1,800 | $49K | 44.4% | 12.4% | 1% | D |
| 4,982 | Guthrie KY | 1,395 | $36K | 33.0% | 16.5% | 8% | D |
| 4,983 | Sarcoxie MO | 1,429 | $42K | 25.4% | 5.8% | 6% | D |
| 4,984 | Ellendale ND | 1,129 | $55K | 13.2% | 5.4% | 39% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,877 | 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 Guthrie, 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 Guthrie: questions
What is the median household income in Guthrie?
$35,952 (±$14,871) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $63,726 across Kentucky and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Guthrie?
33.0%, against 16.1% across Kentucky and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Guthrie?
27 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Kentucky and 26 nationally. 12% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Guthrie work?
8% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Clarksville (13%, 12 mi), Hopkinsville (12%, 22 mi), Elkton (11%, 12 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Guthrie walkable?
Guthrie is more walkable than 34% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 5.8 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Guthrie without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 7% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Guthrie, from the people who make the trip.
More of Guthrie
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.