Unknown Confederate Soldier Monument in Horse Cave · Photo: The original uploader was Bedford at English Wikipedia. · Public domainThere are 4.0 jobs in Horse Cave for every working resident, and 3,033 people commute in
Household incomes here are lower than in 87% of U.S. towns. Employers in Horse Cave report 3,232 jobs, and 801 of its residents work somewhere. For jobs and income Horse Cave is better than 8% of U.S. towns (D); for walkability it is more walkable than 24% of U.S. towns (C−).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jobs and commuting in Horse Cave: the gist
Horse Cave fills up on a workday
Horse Cave has 3,232 jobs, 4.0 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 4,700 people are in town, more than double the 2,300 who live here. Day and night ↓
Horse Cave makes and builds things
80% of the jobs based in Horse Cave are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Horse Cave residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 35%. The jobs ↓
Horse Cave’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Horse Cave is Bowling Green, 31 miles away as the crow flies. 11% of working residents (88) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2024, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; with 801 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Horse Cave’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
Job access by car holds Horse Cave’s grade up (ahead of 36% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (34.8%, U.S. 12.5%).
Unemployment (5.1%) is left out: Horse Cave’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, Horse Cave could be anywhere from D− to C−.
How a workday changes Horse Cave
On a workday 602 residents head out to work and 199 work right here.
About 4,700 people are in Horse Cave on a workday afternoon, 107% more than live here.
4.0 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2024, primary jobs.
Making and building: 80% of jobs based in Horse Cave
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Horse Cave, 2014 → 2024: 2,516 → 3,232. 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 Horse Cave’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Where in the region Horse Cave works
About 24% 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.
The towns that send workers to Horse Cave
Where Horse Cave clocks in
11% of workers
11% 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.
From Horse Cave, about 18 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Horse Cave workers work from home, vs 10% across Kentucky. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 566 commuters (the 5% 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.
Getting around Horse Cave: mostly by car
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 1.9% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.1% across Kentucky, on an EPA index of 4.7.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 595 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). 11.3% of Horse Cave households have no vehicle (Kentucky 6.8%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Horse Cave’s commuters take a bus or train.
Horse Cave is 4,732nd of 5,328 U.S. towns of 1,600 to 3,100 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 15 | Lakeside Park KY | 2,847 | $129K | 1.5% | 0.0% | <1% | A+ |
| 16 | Indian Hills KY | 2,939 | $192K | 2.6% | 0.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 25 | Pewee Valley KY | 1,668 | $157K | 3.0% | 2.7% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,730 | Judsonia AR | 1,906 | $43K | 29.0% | 3.0% | 4% | D |
| 4,731 | Versailles IN | 2,203 | $46K | 17.6% | 3.5% | 15% | D |
| 4,732 | Horse Cave KY | 2,276 | $51K | 34.8% | 5.1% | 25% | D |
| 4,733 | Sheffield Township PA | 1,755 | $58K | 15.8% | 0.0% | 13% | D |
| 4,734 | Kearny AZ | 1,849 | $47K | 11.5% | 4.4% | 9% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,328 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 61% | 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 Horse Cave, 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 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 Horse Cave: questions
What is the median household income in Horse Cave?
$51,118 (±$17,789) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $63,726 across Kentucky and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Horse Cave?
34.8%, against 16.1% across Kentucky and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Horse Cave?
18 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Kentucky and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Horse Cave work?
25% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Bowling Green (11%, 31 mi), Glasgow (11%, 11 mi), Munfordville (5%, 8 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Horse Cave walkable?
Horse Cave is more walkable than 24% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 4.7 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Horse Cave without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 11% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Horse Cave, from the people who make the trip.
More of Horse Cave
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. 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.