Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Louisa gives you more for your money than most places: homes are within reach, about $147K for a typical one, or 2.5 years of the Huntington metro’s $60K median household income. It grades C overall, 90th among Kentucky's 138 graded towns. The low prices come with trade-offs. The median household income is $40K, and 22% of residents live below the poverty line, and FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk higher than 89% of U.S. communities, with inland flooding at the top. 34% of working residents work locally in Louisa, above both Kentucky’s towns (15%) and U.S. towns (8%). Louisa's civic life (library use, community groups, volunteering) trails 93% of U.S. towns. Louisa is easier to get around on foot or by transit than 69% of U.S. towns.
Where Louisa beats most towns, and one thing worth knowing.
Census counts: 87 in 1830, 2,679 in 2020. The archive holds 6 old photos and papers going back to 1840 and 6 maps from 1939 on.
8 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Kentucky), ordered by how far Louisa is from typical.
Its grades run from A for cost of living (better than 91% of comparable towns) to D− for jobs and income (better than 3%), so the C overall blends very different results.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Who provides power, water and the rest in Louisa, and how to reach them.
EPA SDWIS (Oct 9, 2026) · HIFLD + EIA-861 2025 · Census 2020 ZCTAs · NCES 2024–25 · registration: vote.gov, updated Nov 18, 2024.
Ordered by what stands out in Louisa.
Louisa trades lower home prices for longer drives to work and draws workers from Ashland and beyond, but it carries more natural-hazard risk than most of Kentucky (mostly inland flooding).
3,034 jobs are based in Louisa, 3.6 for every working resident, so most of the people who work here commute in. Jobs based here grew from 1,889 in 2013 to 3,034.
About one in 3 of Louisa’s working residents works in town. Since 2013, Louisa has added 1,145 jobs, to 3,034 in 2023. The average trip to work in Louisa is 19 minutes.
| Louisa | Kentucky towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $40,000 | $60,000 | $80,000 |
| Average trip to work | 19 minutes | 22 minutes | 25 minutes |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Its public schools are run by the Lawrence County school district. Two of its 5 schools are below, each with why it’s listed. The largest public high school is Lawrence County High School, with 757 students.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Louisa East Elementary SchoolLargest public elementary schoolGrades 2–5 | Grades 2–5 | 512 | B |
| Lawrence County High SchoolLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 757 | B+ |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within KY on state tests and graduation
FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk higher than 94% of Kentucky towns; that rating is what its D for hazard risk is built on.
Only 8 of the 141 Kentucky towns we compare have a higher FEMA risk score than Louisa. One flood insurance claim has been paid in Louisa since 2019.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Against the 2,399 U.S. towns with household incomes like Louisa’s, it is healthier than 73%, so its C− isn’t only a matter of income.
Louisa beats the Kentucky average on 0 of 31 CDC measures and trails it on 4. 20% of adults smoke cigarettes in Louisa.
| Louisa | Kentucky towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Smoke cigarettes (CDC PLACES) | 20% | 18% | 14% |
| High blood pressure (CDC PLACES) | 41% | 38% | 35% |
| Binge drink (CDC PLACES) | 13% | 14% | 16% |
| Depression (CDC PLACES) | 28% | 27% | 23% |
| What stands out | Louisa | KY |
|---|---|---|
| More uninsured adults | 8% | 5.4% |
| More older adults who have lost all their teeth | 26.2% | 18.9% |
| More adults facing food insecurity | 19.2% | 15.5% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Homes are within reach (about $147K for the typical one, A for cost of living), but half of working residents commute more than 22 miles. At 2.5 years of the Huntington metro’s $60K median household income, the typical home (about $147K) costs less against local pay than in 91% of Kentucky towns; that ratio is one input to its A for cost of living.
Louisa’s median rent is $488 a month. The typical Louisa home is worth about $147,000, up 0.6% in a year, 36% below the Kentucky typical home. 58% of Louisa households own their home.
| Louisa | Kentucky towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $488 a month | $937 a month | $1,185 a month |
| Households that own their home | 58% | 59% | 73% |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Adults 35 to 64 are 28% of residents (38% statewide); adults 18 to 34 are 27% of residents (22% statewide). Louisa has lost 5.4% of its people since 2020, down to 2,520 in the Census Bureau’s 2025 estimate. 23% of adults 25 and older have a bachelor’s degree or more, vs 28% across Kentucky.
| Louisa | Kentucky towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median age | 33.2 years | 37.6 years | 40.5 years |
| Bachelor’s degree or more, 25+ | 23% | 26% | 29% |
| Aged 65 or older | 19% | 17% | 18% |
54% women, 46% men
That’s an even split within the survey’s margin of ±4.4 points. Across Kentucky, 50.5% of residents are women.
| Louisa | KY | U.S. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10 | 21.7% | 12.1% | 11.6% |
| 10 to 17 | 4.3% | 10.5% | 10.3% |
| 18 to 24 | 7.3% | 9.1% | 9.1% |
| 25 to 34 | 19.3% | 13.1% | 13.7% |
| 35 to 44 | 5.2% | 12.6% | 13.2% |
| 45 to 54 | 9.5% | 12.3% | 12.2% |
| 55 to 64 | 13.2% | 13% | 12.7% |
| 65 to 74 | 9.6% | 10.5% | 10.2% |
| 75 and older | 9.7% | 6.8% | 7% |
| No diploma | 11.9% | 11.1% | 10.4% |
| High school | 42.4% | 32.6% | 26% |
| Some college | 16.8% | 19.7% | 19.1% |
| Associate’s | 5.9% | 9% | 8.8% |
| Bachelor’s | 15.4% | 16.2% | 21.6% |
| Graduate | 7.6% | 11.3% | 14.1% |
Census population estimates, 2025 · U.S. Census Bureau · ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates · in a town of 2,500, single groups can be off by several points
Louisa has chilly winters and warm summers. July afternoons reach 87°, January nights drop to 25° and about 20 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
Just 1 of its 1,439 acres are conserved, so there is little public open land in Louisa itself; its outdoors grade is D.
0.1 miles of trail in 1 park or preserve. Among 121 Kentucky towns, just 10 have a lower share of conserved land than Louisa.
| Louisa | Kentucky towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.1 miles per square mile | 0.3 | 0.4 |
| Conserved land | 0.1% | 1.8% | 4.3% |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Lockview Park | — | 3 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
None within 15 miles of Louisa; the nearest are
About 6 of every 100 Louisa residents are enrolled in college, about the same as Kentucky.
Where Louisa’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
8 places in Louisa on the National Register of Historic Places.
6 notable people were born in Louisa.
City in Kentucky, United States
Louisa is a home-rule class city in Lawrence County, Kentucky, United States, of which it is the county seat. It is at the merger of the Levisa and Tug Forks into the Big Sandy River, which forms part of the state's border with West Virginia. The population was 2,679 at the 2020 census.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Louisa grades C overall, better than 31% of U.S. towns and #90 of 138 in Kentucky. It grades C− for health, B− for safety and C+ for schools. Jobs & income is its weak spot, with a D−.
Not for the area. Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades A.
6 notable people were born here, including Chandler Shepherd and Dustin Hazelett.
