Photo: Nyttend · Public domainWilmore has lower unemployment (2.5%) than 77% of U.S. towns
Jobs and income earn Wilmore B; getting around on foot earns it B+. About one in seven work in Wilmore itself; outside it, Lexington draws the most (34%, 16 miles). Working residents average 20 minutes each way; Kentucky averages 24, the U.S. 26.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Wilmore in brief
Nearly all the work in Wilmore is services
94% of the jobs based here are in services, such as health care, schools and offices. Only 1% are in factories, building or farms. The jobs ↓
One in three of Wilmore works in Lexington
823 working residents, 34%, have their main job in Lexington, 16 miles away. That’s twice as many as work in Wilmore itself. The commute map ↓
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.
The figures behind Wilmore’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Wilmore is better than 63% of U.S. towns, #42 of 142 in Kentucky. Unemployment holds Wilmore’s grade up; the poverty rate pulls it down (12.5%, U.S. 12.5%). It also does well on household income and job access by car.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Wilmore could be anywhere from C+ to A.
Health, schools and offices: most of the jobs in Wilmore
1,423 jobs are based in Wilmore.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Wilmore, 2013 → 2023: 1,225 → 1,423. 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 Wilmore’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Commuting out of Wilmore: the destinations
Where Wilmore clocks in
17% 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.
Wilmore on a workday afternoon
On a workday 2,039 residents head out to work, 377 work right here, and 1,046 people come in from elsewhere.
About 5,400 people are in Wilmore on a workday afternoon, 16% fewer than live here.
0.59 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute 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.
About 20 minutes each way for Wilmore’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Wilmore workers work from home, vs 10% across Kentucky. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,608 commuters (the 11% 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.
Half of Wilmore commutes less than 13 miles
About 16% 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 Wilmore start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Wilmore is more walkable than 66% of U.S. towns, #56 of 142 in Kentucky. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 13.0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.1% across Kentucky, on an EPA index of 5.6.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 2,945 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 6.5% of Wilmore households have no vehicle (Kentucky 6.8%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Wilmore’s commuters take a bus or train.
Wilmore is 1,389th of 3,255 U.S. towns of 4,500 to 8,600 on jobs and income
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 69 | Union KY | 7,937 | $137K | 2.9% | 1.5% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 169 | Edgewood KY | 8,503 | $119K | 3.8% | 2.4% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 268 | Fort Wright KY | 6,240 | $105K | 3.0% | 3.4% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,387 | Elverta CA | 4,769 | $91K | 8.0% | 6.0% | 2% | B |
| 1,388 | Parkwood WA | 6,873 | $89K | 7.6% | 3.7% | 2% | B |
| 1,389 | Wilmore KY | 6,380 | $78K | 12.5% | 2.5% | 16% | B |
| 1,390 | Buena Vista Township NJ | 7,175 | $88K | 5.8% | 6.1% | 7% | B |
| 1,391 | Alexandria Township NJ | 4,811 | $160K | 6.0% | 9.9% | 5% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 3,255 | 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 Wilmore, 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 Wilmore: questions
What is the median household income in Wilmore?
$77,665 (±$16,821) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $63,726 across Kentucky and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Wilmore?
12.5%, against 16.1% across Kentucky and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Wilmore?
20 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Kentucky and 26 nationally. 11% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Wilmore work?
16% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Lexington (34%, 16 mi), Nicholasville (17%, 5 mi), Louisville (3%, 58 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Wilmore walkable?
Wilmore is more walkable than 66% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 5.6 out of 20, and 13% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Wilmore without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Wilmore, from the people who make the trip.
More of Wilmore
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.