Photo: Nyttend · Public domainWork means Bowling Green for about half of Smiths Grove’s working residents
Employers in Smiths Grove report 282 jobs for 300 working residents. Only 1% work in Smiths Grove; the top destination outside it is Bowling Green (50%, 13 miles). The trip to work takes 27 minutes on average, next to 24 for Kentucky and 26 for the U.S.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The work figures that set Smiths Grove apart
Commuting out of Smiths Grove: the destinations
Where Smiths Grove clocks in
50% of workers
3% 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.
Smiths Grove by day and by night
On a workday 297 residents head out to work, 3 work right here, and 279 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 (0.94 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.
Jobs in Smiths Grove: what the 282 are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Smiths Grove, 2013 → 2023: 303 → 282. 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 Smiths Grove’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Each way, about 27 minutes from Smiths Grove
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Smiths Grove workers work from home, vs 10% across Kentucky. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 340 commuters (the 8% 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.
How far Smiths Grove goes to work
About 25% 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.
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 Smiths Grove: questions
What is the median household income in Smiths Grove?
$53,098 (±$8,638) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $63,726 across Kentucky and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Smiths Grove?
9.9%, against 16.1% across Kentucky and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Smiths Grove?
27 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Kentucky and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Smiths Grove work?
1% work in town.
Can you get around Smiths Grove without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Smiths Grove, from the people who make the trip.
More of Smiths Grove
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.