Data / Rankings / Employed residents / Cities in Kentucky

Cities in Kentucky by employed residents

Lexington, KY had the highest employed residents of 16 cities in 2016, at 161,053. Ashland, KY had the lowest, at 8,242. The median was 13,813. Source: the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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Highest161,053Lexington, KY
Lowest8,242Ashland, KY
Median13,81316 cities

All cities, 2016

Lexington, KY: 161,053 personsLexington, KY161,053Bowling Green, KY: 33,773 personsBowling Green, KY33,773Owensboro, KY: 25,281 personsOwensboro, KY25,281Covington, KY: 20,167 personsCovington, KY20,167Georgetown, KY: 17,310 personsGeorgetown, KY17,310Richmond, KY: 16,406 personsRichmond, KY16,406Florence, KY: 14,950 personsFlorence, KY14,950Nicholasville, KY: 13,830 personsNicholasville, KY13,830Independence, KY: 13,795 personsIndependence, KY13,795Elizabethtown, KY: 13,750 personsElizabethtown, KY13,750Jeffersontown, KY: 13,589 personsJeffersontown, KY13,589Frankfort, KY: 12,686 personsFrankfort, KY12,686Henderson, KY: 12,265 personsHenderson, KY12,265Paducah, KY: 12,123 personsPaducah, KY12,123Hopkinsville, KY: 11,779 personsHopkinsville, KY11,779Ashland, KY: 8,242 personsAshland, KY8,242Lexington, KY: 161,053 personsLexington, KY161,053Bowling Green, KY: 33,773 personsBowling Green, KY33,773Owensboro, KY: 25,281 personsOwensboro, KY25,281Covington, KY: 20,167 personsCovington, KY20,167Georgetown, KY: 17,310 personsGeorgetown, KY17,310Richmond, KY: 16,406 personsRichmond, KY16,406Florence, KY: 14,950 personsFlorence, KY14,950Nicholasville, KY: 13,830 personsNicholasville, KY13,830Independence, KY: 13,795 personsIndependence, KY13,795Elizabethtown, KY: 13,750 personsElizabethtown, KY13,750Jeffersontown, KY: 13,589 personsJeffersontown, KY13,589Frankfort, KY: 12,686 personsFrankfort, KY12,686Henderson, KY: 12,265 personsHenderson, KY12,265Paducah, KY: 12,123 personsPaducah, KY12,123Hopkinsville, KY: 11,779 personsHopkinsville, KY11,779Ashland, KY: 8,242 personsAshland, KY8,242
persons. Source: BLS, Local Area Unemployment Statistics, cities and towns, not seasonally adjusted: employment (measure 05), annual average. Retrieved 2026-10-12.

Full ranking

RankCities2016
persons		Change on 2015
1Lexington, KY161,053-0.4%
2Bowling Green, KY33,773+17.5%
3Owensboro, KY25,281+2%
4Covington, KY20,167+14.9%
5Georgetown, KY17,310+8%
6Richmond, KY16,406-1.7%
7Florence, KY14,950-1.7%
8Nicholasville, KY13,830-0.9%
9Independence, KY13,795+3.8%
10Elizabethtown, KY13,750+6.2%
11Jeffersontown, KY13,589-5.5%
12Frankfort, KY12,686-4.9%
13Henderson, KY12,265+0.4%
14Paducah, KY12,123+25.9%
15Hopkinsville, KY11,779+2.9%
16Ashland, KY8,242+5.2%

Other periods

About this ranking

Residents who did any work for pay or profit in the reference week, or were temporarily absent from a job, annual average.

More on how it is measured
  • People aged 16 and over by place of residence, from the Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS) program of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
  • Active-duty military personnel and people living in institutions are excluded.

United States cities only for now. Counts people where they live, whatever the place of work, and someone with two jobs counts once. BLS estimates cities by splitting county estimates with Census Bureau employment and population data and unemployment insurance claims, so city figures are less precise than state ones. BLS publishes cities of 25,000 or more, and smaller cities in New England.

Every value in the ranking comes from the same publisher and the same period, so the cities are compared on one definition. Equal values share a rank.

How to cite

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Local Area Unemployment Statistics, cities and towns, not seasonally adjusted: employment (measure 05), annual average. https://download.bls.gov/pub/time.series/la/la.data.0.CurrentU15-19. Retrieved 2026-10-12.

Citation styles

The publisher is the author. Invokely is named only as the place the figures were read, where a style asks for it.

APA 7

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2026). Local Area Unemployment Statistics, cities and towns, not seasonally adjusted: employment (measure 05), annual average (Cities in Kentucky by employed residents, 2016) [Data set]. Retrieved October 12, 2026, from https://download.bls.gov/pub/time.series/la/la.data.0.CurrentU15-19

MLA 9

Local Area Unemployment Statistics, cities and towns, not seasonally adjusted: employment (measure 05), annual average, Cities in Kentucky by employed residents, 2016. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 30 Sept. 2026, https://download.bls.gov/pub/time.series/la/la.data.0.CurrentU15-19. Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/employed-residents/kentucky-cities?period=2016. Accessed 12 Oct. 2026.

Chicago (author-date)

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2026. Local Area Unemployment Statistics, cities and towns, not seasonally adjusted: employment (measure 05), annual average. Cities in Kentucky by employed residents, 2016. Dataset. Accessed October 12, 2026. https://download.bls.gov/pub/time.series/la/la.data.0.CurrentU15-19. Also distributed by Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/employed-residents/kentucky-cities?period=2016.

Harvard

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2026) Local Area Unemployment Statistics, cities and towns, not seasonally adjusted: employment (measure 05), annual average, Cities in Kentucky by employed residents, 2016 [Dataset]. Available at: https://download.bls.gov/pub/time.series/la/la.data.0.CurrentU15-19, via Invokely: https://invokely.ai/rankings/employed-residents/kentucky-cities?period=2016 (Accessed: 12 October 2026).

BibTeX
@misc{bureau_cities_in_kentucky_by_2016,
  author = {{U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics}},
  title = {{Local Area Unemployment Statistics, cities and towns, not seasonally adjusted: employment (measure 05), annual average: Cities in Kentucky by employed residents, 2016}},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Data set},
  url = {https://download.bls.gov/pub/time.series/la/la.data.0.CurrentU15-19},
  urldate = {2026-10-12},
  note = {Accessed via Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/employed-residents/kentucky-cities?period=2016. Publisher attribution: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Local Area Unemployment Statistics, cities and towns, not seasonally adjusted: employment (measure 05), annual average. https://download.bls.gov/pub/time.series/la/la.data.0.CurrentU15-19. Retrieved 2026-10-12.},
}
RIS
TY  - DATA
AU  - U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
TI  - Local Area Unemployment Statistics, cities and towns, not seasonally adjusted: employment (measure 05), annual average: Cities in Kentucky by employed residents, 2016
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/30
PB  - U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
DB  - Invokely
UR  - https://download.bls.gov/pub/time.series/la/la.data.0.CurrentU15-19
L2  - https://invokely.ai/rankings/employed-residents/kentucky-cities?period=2016
Y2  - 2026/10/12
N1  - Accessed via Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/employed-residents/kentucky-cities?period=2016.
N1  - Publisher attribution: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Local Area Unemployment Statistics, cities and towns, not seasonally adjusted: employment (measure 05), annual average. https://download.bls.gov/pub/time.series/la/la.data.0.CurrentU15-19. Retrieved 2026-10-12.
ER  -
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Questions

Which city has the highest employed residents?

Lexington, KY, with 161,053 in 2016, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Which city has the lowest employed residents?

Ashland, KY, with 8,242 in 2016.

Where does this ranking come from?

Every value comes from one source and one period, so the places are comparable: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Local Area Unemployment Statistics, cities and towns, not seasonally adjusted: employment (measure 05), annual average. Retrieved 2026-10-12.

Employed residents: other rankings

Cities in Kentucky: more rankings