Photo: FloNight (Sydney Poore) and Russell Poore · CC BY-SA 4.0Households in Vanceburg earn less than in almost any other U.S. town
The two grades for Vanceburg are D− for jobs and income and B for walkability. Household incomes here are among the lowest in the country. 39.6% of residents live below the poverty line, next to 16.1% for Kentucky as a whole.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Vanceburg stands out on work
Vanceburg is where the jobs are
Vanceburg has 1,053 jobs, 2.5 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 2,000 people are in town, 46% more than the 1,400 who live here. Day and night ↓
Vanceburg’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Vanceburg is Maysville, 26 miles away as the crow flies. 9% of working residents (37) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Nearly all the work in Vanceburg is services
86% of the jobs based here are in services, such as health care, schools and offices. Only 6% are in factories, building or farms. The jobs ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2024, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; with 421 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Vanceburg’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
On income, poverty and job access, Vanceburg is near the bottom of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Vanceburg’s grade.
Unemployment (8.4%) is left out: Vanceburg’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A firm grade. At either end of the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Vanceburg stays D−.
Vanceburg by day and by night
On a workday 320 residents head out to work, 101 work right here, and 952 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,000 people are in Vanceburg on a workday afternoon, 46% more than live here.
2.5 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 2024, primary jobs.
How far Vanceburg’s workers travel
About 29% 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 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Vanceburg is a services town
1,053 jobs are based in Vanceburg.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Vanceburg, 2014 → 2024: 1,092 → 1,053. 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 2024.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Vanceburg’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Where Vanceburg’s workers come from
Where Vanceburg clocks in
9% of workers
4% 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.
Getting to work from Vanceburg takes about 21 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Vanceburg workers work from home, vs 10% across Kentucky. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 358 commuters (the 3% 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.
Vanceburg is a driving town
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Vanceburg is more walkable than 58% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 3.1% across Kentucky.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 370 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). 15.4% of Vanceburg households have no vehicle (Kentucky 6.8%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Vanceburg’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Vanceburg compares with U.S. towns of 1,000 to 1,900
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | 1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 44 | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 95 | Coldstream KY | 1,325 | $109K | 2.8% | 0.8% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,851 | North Eagle Butte SD | 1,481 | $34K | 52.6% | 27.5% | 49% | D− |
| 5,852 | Siesta Shores TX | 1,640 | $35K | 48.8% | 8.2% | 1% | D− |
| 5,853 | Vanceburg KY | 1,386 | $30K | 39.6% | 8.4% | 24% | D− |
| 5,854 | Simmesport LA | 1,400 | $30K | 37.6% | 13.6% | 14% | D− |
| 5,855 | Plains MT | 1,261 | $25K | 31.2% | 19.2% | 38% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,877 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 1% | 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 Vanceburg, 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 2024, 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 Vanceburg: questions
What is the median household income in Vanceburg?
$30,054 (±$8,410) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $63,726 across Kentucky and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Vanceburg?
39.6%, against 16.1% across Kentucky and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Vanceburg?
21 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Kentucky and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Vanceburg work?
24% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Maysville (9%, 26 mi), Portsmouth (4%, 23 mi), Lexington (3%, 72 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Vanceburg walkable?
Vanceburg is more walkable than 58% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 8.3 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Vanceburg without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 15% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Vanceburg, from the people who make the trip.
More of Vanceburg
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2024, 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.