Photo: W.marsh · CC BY-SA 3.0Households in Monticello have lower incomes than those in 93% of U.S. towns
Monticello grades C− for jobs and income and B for walkability. The poverty rate is 30.4%, against 16.1% across Kentucky. For 20% of workers, the job is at home, against 10% across Kentucky.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Monticello, in brief
Fewer than half of Monticello workers earn over $40,000 a year
34% of Monticello’s working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 17% earn $1,250 a month or less. The jobs ↓
Monticello is where the jobs are
Monticello has 3,324 jobs, 1.6 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
A lot of Monticello works from home
20% of Monticello workers work from home, against 10% across Kentucky. Time on the road ↓
A young workforce
30% of Monticello’s working residents are 29 or younger. 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.
How Monticello earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Monticello is better than 21% of U.S. towns, #96 of 142 in Kentucky. Unemployment holds Monticello’s grade up (2.0%, U.S. 5.2%); the poverty rate pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Monticello could be anywhere from D to C.
What work there is in Monticello: 3,324 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Monticello, 2013 → 2023: 3,978 → 3,324. 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 Monticello’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who commutes out of Monticello, and who commutes in
On a workday 1,541 residents head out to work, 609 work right here, and 2,715 people come in from elsewhere.
About 6,900 people are in Monticello on a workday afternoon, 21% more than live here.
1.5 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.
Each way, about 23 minutes from Monticello
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Monticello workers work from home, vs 10% across Kentucky. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,095 commuters (the 20% 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 Monticello’s workforce comes from
Where Monticello clocks in
9% of workers
2% 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.
Half of Monticello commutes less than 13 miles
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.
The commute in Monticello is mostly behind the wheel
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Monticello is more walkable than 63% of U.S. towns, #62 of 142 in Kentucky. Both inputs place Monticello 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 2,624 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). 9.2% of Monticello households have no vehicle (Kentucky 6.8%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Monticello’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 3,476 U.S. towns of 4,000 to 7,700, Monticello comes 2,840th on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Ho-Ho-Kus NJ | 4,313 | $250K | 0.0% | 1.7% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 75 | Buckner KY | 4,119 | $164K | 0.1% | 2.1% | 10% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 276 | Fort Wright KY | 6,240 | $105K | 3.0% | 3.4% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 293 | Prospect KY | 4,705 | $163K | 2.4% | 4.2% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 2,838 | Redstone Township PA | 4,831 | $60K | 12.0% | 10.6% | 5% | C− |
| 2,839 | Nassau Village-Ratliff FL | 4,737 | $62K | 16.1% | 10.9% | 2% | C− |
| 2,840 | Monticello KY | 5,721 | $45K | 30.4% | 2.0% | 28% | C− |
| 2,841 | Zephyrhills South FL | 5,008 | $42K | 13.8% | 7.5% | 1% | C− |
| 2,842 | Cameron MO | 7,341 | $62K | 15.7% | 5.4% | 25% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,476 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 18% | 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 Monticello, 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 Monticello: questions
What is the median household income in Monticello?
$44,952 (±$11,358) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $63,726 across Kentucky and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Monticello?
30.4%, against 16.1% across Kentucky and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Monticello?
23 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Kentucky and 26 nationally. 20% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Monticello work?
28% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Somerset (9%, 22 mi), Lexington (3%, 86 mi), Albany (2%, 19 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Monticello walkable?
Monticello is more walkable than 63% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 7.4 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Monticello without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 9% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Monticello, from the people who make the trip.
More of Monticello
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.