Olive Hill C & O Depot · Photo: CoryClaxon · CC BY-SA 3.0Work and commuting in Olive Hill
Olive Hill grades C− for jobs and income and B+ for walkability. 1% of workers work from home, where Kentucky as a whole has 10%. About one in ten work in Olive Hill; the top destination outside it is Grayson (15%, 13 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Olive Hill
Commutes from Olive Hill are quick
The average trip to work takes 16 minutes, against 24 across Kentucky. That’s about 61 hours a year less on the road than the typical Kentucky worker. Time on the road ↓
Fewer jobs are based in Olive Hill than ten years ago
Jobs counted in Olive Hill fell from 778 in 2013 to 531 in 2023, −32%. That can be real closings or a large employer now reporting its workers at another address; the data can’t tell the two apart. The jobs ↓
The better-paid jobs are outside Olive Hill
49% of Olive Hill residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, but only 29% of the jobs based in Olive Hill pay that much. Most residents work elsewhere: 89% leave town for their job. 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 456 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Breaking down the Jobs & income grade for Olive Hill
Household income holds Olive Hill’s grade up ($70,682, U.S. $80,734); the poverty rate pulls it down (19.8%, U.S. 12.5%).
Unemployment (0.7%) is left out: Olive Hill’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, Olive Hill could be anywhere from D− to C+.
About 16 minutes to work from Olive Hill
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Olive Hill workers work from home, vs 10% across Kentucky. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 691 commuters (the 1% 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.
The kinds of work in Olive Hill
531 jobs are based in Olive Hill.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Olive Hill, 2013 → 2023: 778 → 531. 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 Olive Hill’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How many people are in Olive Hill by day
On a workday 407 residents head out to work, 49 work right here, and 482 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.16 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Commuting out of Olive Hill: the destinations
Where Olive Hill clocks in
15% of workers
12% 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.
How many miles Olive Hill commutes
About 22% 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.
Most trips from Olive Hill start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Olive Hill is more walkable than 70% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 12.6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.1% across Kentucky, on an EPA index of 6.0.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 700 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). 12.7% of Olive Hill households have no vehicle (Kentucky 6.8%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Olive Hill’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 1,100 to 2,100, Olive Hill ranks 4,383rd of 5,794 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 40 | Pewee Valley KY | 1,668 | $157K | 3.0% | 2.7% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 65 | Audubon Park KY | 1,457 | $101K | 1.6% | 1.3% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 101 | Coldstream KY | 1,325 | $109K | 2.8% | 0.8% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,381 | Guyan Township OH | 1,123 | $69K | 14.9% | 6.7% | 4% | C− |
| 4,382 | Golden Shores AZ | 1,555 | $44K | 6.9% | 0.0% | 3% | C− |
| 4,383 | Olive Hill KY | 1,536 | $71K | 19.8% | 0.7% | 11% | C− |
| 4,384 | Bessemer MI | 1,787 | $54K | 12.9% | 4.9% | 23% | C− |
| 4,385 | Flemington PA | 1,256 | $54K | 17.6% | 1.8% | 5% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,794 | 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 Olive Hill, 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 Olive Hill: questions
What is the median household income in Olive Hill?
$70,682 (±$29,688) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $63,726 across Kentucky and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Olive Hill?
19.8%, against 16.1% across Kentucky and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Olive Hill?
16 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Kentucky and 26 nationally. 1% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Olive Hill work?
11% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Grayson (15%, 13 mi), Morehead (12%, 17 mi), Ashland (5%, 30 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Olive Hill walkable?
Olive Hill is more walkable than 70% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 6.0 out of 20, and 13% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Olive Hill without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 13% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Olive Hill, from the people who make the trip.
More of Olive Hill
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.