Photo: W.marsh · CC BY-SA 3.0Morehead is a college town: 50% of residents are students
Morehead grades C− for jobs and income and A for walkability. About one in three work in Morehead; the top destination outside it is Lexington (11%, 56 miles). Not counting college students, poverty touches 28.8% of residents, next to 15.5% for Kentucky as a whole.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Morehead, in a few figures
Morehead has far more jobs than workers
Morehead has 7,179 jobs, 3.5 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 12,000 people are in town, 75% more than the 6,800 who live here. Day and night ↓
Morehead draws workers from far and wide
The 7,179 jobs in Morehead are filled from a wide area. Morehead’s own residents hold 9% and the ten next-biggest home towns 8%; the other 83% come from many towns beyond those. The commute map ↓
Morehead’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Morehead is Lexington, 56 miles away as the crow flies. 11% of working residents (234) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
A big share show a job far from home
40% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. How far ↓
A young workforce
32% of Morehead’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 Morehead earns its Jobs & income grade
On family income, poverty and job access, Morehead is better than 20% of U.S. towns, #99 of 142 in Kentucky. Family income holds Morehead’s grade up ($96,708, U.S. $99,999); the poverty rate pulls it down.
Where students are 15% or more of the people the Census checks for poverty (26% here), the grade uses the rate without them: 28.8%, against 38.0% for all residents. Unemployment (5.4%) is left out here: students looking for part-time work count as unemployed. Income is ranked as median family income ($96,708), since student households pull the household median down ($36,741).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for family income and poverty, Morehead could be anywhere from D to C+.
How a workday changes Morehead
On a workday 1,416 residents head out to work, 664 work right here, and 6,515 people come in from elsewhere.
About 12,000 people are in Morehead on a workday afternoon, 75% more than live here.
3.5 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.
The daily trip into Morehead
Where Morehead clocks in
1% 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 commute from Morehead, by distance
About 40% 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 kinds of work in Morehead
7,179 jobs are based in Morehead.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Morehead, 2013 → 2023: 6,833 → 7,179. 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 Morehead’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 19 minutes each way for Morehead’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Morehead workers work from home, vs 10% across Kentucky. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,587 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.
Morehead is more walkable than most U.S. towns, with limited transit
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Morehead is more walkable than 93% of U.S. towns, #6 of 142 in Kentucky. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 28.7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.1% across Kentucky, on an EPA index of 8.8.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 2,925 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). 11.4% of Morehead households have no vehicle (Kentucky 6.8%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Morehead’s commuters take a bus or train.
Morehead places 2,740th of 3,253 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 4,700 to 9,100
| # | 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 | Norwood NJ | 5,817 | $178K | 2.8% | 0.9% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 66 | Union KY | 7,937 | $137K | 2.9% | 1.5% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 178 | Edgewood KY | 8,503 | $119K | 3.8% | 2.4% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 281 | Fort Wright KY | 6,240 | $105K | 3.0% | 3.4% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 2,738 | Raton NM | 5,952 | $53K | 25.1% | 1.8% | 58% | C− |
| 2,739 | Cusseta GA | 8,465 | $61K | 13.9% | 9.1% | 9% | C− |
| 2,740 | Morehead KY | 6,776 | $37K | 38.0% | 5.4% | 32% | C− |
| 2,741 | Eldon MO | 4,785 | $42K | 12.8% | 4.6% | 19% | C− |
| 2,742 | Cranberry Township PA | 6,241 | $61K | 12.8% | 5.7% | 20% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,253 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 14% | 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 Morehead, 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.
- Students. 50% of residents are college students; the poverty input leaves off-campus students out (above).
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Morehead: questions
What is the median household income in Morehead?
$36,741 (±$8,053) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $63,726 across Kentucky and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Morehead?
38.0% of residents live below the poverty line; leaving out college students, 28.8%. Kentucky: 16.1%.
How long is the commute from Morehead?
19 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Kentucky and 26 nationally. 12% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Morehead work?
32% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Lexington (11%, 56 mi), Louisville (2%, 120 mi), Winchester (1%, 42 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Morehead walkable?
Morehead is more walkable than 93% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 8.8 out of 20, and 29% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Morehead without a car?
<1% 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 Morehead, from the people who make the trip.
More of Morehead
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.