Virginia Corey Goodridge House · Photo: Nyttend · Public domainHouseholds in Midway earn less than those in 71% of U.S. towns
Poverty touches 8.2% of residents, where Kentucky as a whole has 16.1%. For jobs and income Midway is better than 55% of U.S. towns (B); for walkability it is more walkable than 75% of U.S. towns (A−). About one in ten work in Midway itself; outside it, Lexington draws the most (29%, 14 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Midway, in brief
Midway and Lexington trade workers both ways
Lexington is the top workplace for Midway residents (29%) and also where the most people who work in Midway come from (26% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Midway is where the jobs are
Midway has 1,180 jobs, 1.7 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Midway has added jobs fast
Jobs based in Midway went from 675 in 2013 to 1,180 in 2023, +75%. 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 679 working residents, small shifts move the shares; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
What’s behind Midway’s Jobs & income grade
Job access by car holds Midway’s grade up (ahead of 72% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($61,650, U.S. $80,734). It also does well on the poverty rate.
Unemployment (8.8%) is left out: Midway’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Midway could be anywhere from C to A−.
Who travels to work in Midway, and from where
Where Midway clocks in
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.
The daily flow of workers through Midway
On a workday 613 residents head out to work, 66 work right here, and 1,114 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,300 people are in Midway on a workday afternoon, 28% more than live here.
1.7 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 2023, primary jobs.
Inside Midway’s 1,180 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Midway, 2013 → 2023: 675 → 1,180. 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 Midway’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How long Midway spends getting to work: 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 Midway workers work from home, vs 10% across Kentucky. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 681 commuters (the 16% 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.
Short hops and long hauls from Midway
About 19% 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.
Midway is more walkable than most U.S. towns, with limited transit
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 5.1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.1% across Kentucky, on an EPA index of 7.6.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 813 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). 6.5% of Midway households have no vehicle (Kentucky 6.8%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Midway’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Midway ranks: 1,788th of 5,343 U.S. towns of 1,300 to 2,400
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Hewlett Harbor NY | 1,332 | $250K | 1.9% | 7.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 32 | Pewee Valley KY | 1,668 | $157K | 3.0% | 2.7% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 59 | Audubon Park KY | 1,457 | $101K | 1.6% | 1.3% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 101 | Coldstream KY | 1,325 | $109K | 2.8% | 0.8% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,786 | Wabasso Beach FL | 2,262 | $116K | 10.2% | 0.0% | 3% | B |
| 1,787 | New Paris IN | 1,549 | $75K | 10.5% | 0.0% | 7% | B |
| 1,788 | Midway KY | 1,787 | $62K | 8.2% | 8.8% | 10% | B |
| 1,789 | Coloma MI | 1,415 | $69K | 7.4% | 0.8% | 7% | B |
| 1,790 | Jermyn PA | 2,109 | $63K | 7.8% | 3.6% | 3% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 5,343 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 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 Midway, 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 Midway: questions
What is the median household income in Midway?
$61,650 (±$13,488) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $63,726 across Kentucky and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Midway?
8.2%, against 16.1% across Kentucky and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Midway?
22 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Kentucky and 26 nationally. 16% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Midway work?
10% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Lexington (29%, 14 mi), Frankfort (7%, 10 mi), Versailles (6%, 7 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Midway walkable?
Midway is more walkable than 75% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 7.6 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Midway 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 Midway, from the people who make the trip.
More of Midway
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.