ThrustonKY
A town of 2,581, settled in 1886.
Is Thruston a good place to live?
Thruston gives you more for your money than most places: homes are within reach, about $188K for a typical one, or 2.8 years of the Owensboro metro’s $68K median household income. It grades B− overall, ranked 55th of 138 in Kentucky. The low prices come with trade-offs. FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk higher than 79% of U.S. communities, with inland flooding at the top, and the median household income is $70K, and 22% of residents live below the poverty line. On the plus side, 11% of its land is conserved. On walkability, just 4 of Kentucky’s 237 towns do worse. 11% of the land in Thruston is conserved, against 1.7% in Kentucky’s towns and 4.3% across U.S. towns. Among 142 Kentucky towns, just 1 have a lower share of working residents who work in town than Thruston.
99% of working residents leave Thruston for work
Where Thruston’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
How Thruston grades
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Kentucky), ordered by how far Thruston is from typical.
Its grades run from A for cost of living (better than 88% of comparable towns) to D− for walkability (better than 4%), so the B− overall blends very different results.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Moving to Thruston: who provides what
Thruston is unincorporated, so Daviess County and regional agencies provide most services.
EPA SDWIS (Oct 9, 2026) · HIFLD + EIA-861 2025 · Census 2020 ZCTAs · NCES 2024–25 · registration: vote.gov, updated Nov 18, 2024.
The data
Ordered by what stands out in Thruston.
Thruston is healthier than towns with similar incomes and has homes that are cheap against local pay, but it carries more natural-hazard risk than most of Kentucky (mostly inland flooding).
Thruston has set aside 11.2% of its land for conservation
Its A for the outdoors ranks #4 of 142 in Kentucky.
1.1 miles of trail in 1 park or preserve. Yellow Creek Park, at 128 acres with 1.1 miles of trail, is the biggest park or preserve. At 0.6 miles per square mile, Thruston’s trail density is where Kentucky’s towns sit at 0.3 and U.S. towns at 0.4.
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Yellow Creek Park | 1.1 mi | 128 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
High risk in Thruston, with inland flooding at the top
FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk higher than 85% of Kentucky towns, with expected losses of about $1,141 per resident a year; that rating is what its D for hazard risk is built on.
Since 1997, 6 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Thruston.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
About two in five of Thruston’s working residents commute to Owensboro
Thruston has 90 jobs for its 897 working residents: even if every job went to a resident, most would still commute out.
Most working residents leave Thruston for work: only 1% work in town. Since 2013, Thruston has added 47 jobs, to 90 in 2023. The average trip to work in Thruston is 21 minutes.
Where working residents work
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Thruston has four seasons and hot summers
Thruston has chilly winters and warm summers, with plenty of rain. Thruston’s July high is 88°F.
Typical low → high °F
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
More young adults than Kentucky overall
Adults 18 to 34 are 30% of residents (22% statewide); people 65 and older are 11% of residents (17% statewide). 18% of Thruston adults 25 and older hold a bachelor’s degree or more. 23% never finished high school.
| Thruston | Kentucky towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median age | 33.7 years | 37.6 years | 40.5 years |
| Bachelor’s degree or more, 25+ | 18% | 26% | 29% |
| Under 18 | 24% | 22% | 22% |
Ages · share of residents
Education · adults 25 and older
Women and men · all residents
50% women, 50% men
That’s an even split within the survey’s margin of ±6.5 points. Across Kentucky, 50.5% of residents are women. Among residents 25 to 34, 70% are men (KY 51%).
| Thruston | KY | U.S. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10 | 16.6% | 12.1% | 11.6% |
| 10 to 17 | 7.9% | 10.5% | 10.3% |
| 18 to 24 | 6.3% | 9.1% | 9.1% |
| 25 to 34 | 23.8% | 13.1% | 13.7% |
| 35 to 44 | 3.8% | 12.6% | 13.2% |
| 45 to 54 | 10.2% | 12.3% | 12.2% |
| 55 to 64 | 20.9% | 13% | 12.7% |
| 65 to 74 | 9.9% | 10.5% | 10.2% |
| 75 and older | 0.6% | 6.8% | 7% |
| No diploma | 22.7% | 11.1% | 10.4% |
| High school | 27.7% | 32.6% | 26% |
| Some college | 16.6% | 19.7% | 19.1% |
| Associate’s | 14.9% | 9% | 8.8% |
| Bachelor’s | 9% | 16.2% | 21.6% |
| Graduate | 9.2% | 11.3% | 14.1% |
U.S. Census Bureau · ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates · in a town of 2,600, single groups can be off by several points
Thruston ranks healthier than 62% of the country’s towns
Against the 10,525 U.S. towns with household incomes like Thruston’s, it is healthier than 78%, so its B isn’t only a matter of income.
Thruston beats the Kentucky average on 12 of 31 CDC measures and trails it on 0. 28% of adults have been diagnosed with depression in Thruston.
| Thruston | Kentucky towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Depression (CDC PLACES) | 28% | 27% | 23% |
| Obesity (CDC PLACES) | 34% | 39% | 35% |
| Fair or poor health (CDC PLACES) | 18% | 23% | 19% |
| Frequent physical distress (CDC PLACES) | 13% | 15% | 14% |
| What stands out | Thruston | KY |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing a utility shut-off | 7% | 8.8% |
| Fewer adults in fair or poor health | 17.9% | 22.4% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
A home in Thruston sells for about $325K at the median
At 2.8 years of the Owensboro metro’s $68K median household income, the typical home costs less against local pay than in 79% of Kentucky towns; that ratio is one input to its A for cost of living.
Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Everything we know about Thruston
Colleges nearby
3 within 15 miles of the center of Thruston
About 3 of every 100 Thruston residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across Kentucky.
About Thruston
Unincorporated community in Kentucky, United States
Thruston is an unincorporated community located in Daviess County in the U.S. state of Kentucky, northeast of Owensboro. As of the 2020 census, Thruston had a population of 2,234. The community is named after Algernon Sidney Thruston, a veteran of the Texas Revolution, who owned a plantation in the region.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
- Area
- 1.8 sq mi
- Elevation
- 397 ft
Questions about Thruston
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Is Thruston, KY a good place to live?
Thruston grades B− overall, better than 50% of U.S. towns and #55 of 138 in Kentucky. It grades B for health and B for schools. Walkability is its weak spot, with a D−.
Is Thruston, KY expensive?
Not for the area. The typical home is worth about $188,000, 19% below the Kentucky typical home. Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades A.