City · Jessamine County, Kentucky

Nicholasville, Kentucky

Nicholasville is a city in Jessamine County, Kentucky, part of the Lexington-Fayette, KY metro area. It has 32,197 residents. Nicholasville, Kentucky has a quality-of-life score of 54 out of 100 (moderate), ranking #7,207 of 15,651 US cities and towns. Within Kentucky it ranks #64 of 243 cities and towns. It ranks best on primary care shortage (low), new homes permitted (high) and arts, entertainment and recreation (high). It ranks worst on mental health care shortage (high), depression (high) and public EV charging ports (low).

54Moderate

Quality-of-life score: #7,207 of 15,651 cities and towns
Kentucky: #64 of 243 in KY
Population: 32,197 (2020-2024)
Land area: 15 mi²
Density: 2,078.1 /mi²
FIPS code: 2156136

Percentile-based score (100 is the best in the country) from 73 of 80 indicators, with the default “Explorer” weights.

Open in the map

Scores by category

Each category averages its indicators' percentile scores among US cities and towns.

Safety55#7,099/15,637
Economy44#8,735/15,631
Housing91#1,294/14,977
Health24#11,818/15,609
Healthcare34#10,306/15,650
Environment61#5,975/15,453
Education49#8,055/15,649
Infrastructure48#8,097/15,650
Community68#5,059/15,651
Leisure & amenities50#7,825/15,651

Strengths · Weaknesses

Indicators where Nicholasville, Kentucky ranks highest and lowest among US cities and towns (score = percentile, 100 = best). Values marked “Jessamine County value” are the county’s: the source publishes no figure for this city or town, and the county holding most of its residents stands in.

Strengths

Primary care shortage · low0.0
90/100Kentucky 10.2United States 6.2Oct 2026Health Resources and Services AdministrationJessamine County value
New homes permitted · high11.3 /1k
90/100Kentucky 3.2 /1kUnited States 4.2 /1kSep 2025–Aug 2026U.S. Census BureauProvisional data
Arts, entertainment and recreation · high7.0 /10k
88/100Kentucky 4.4 /10kUnited States 5.5 /10k2025U.S. Bureau of Labor StatisticsJessamine County value
Distance to an airport · low11 mi
87/100Kentucky 44 miUnited States 33 mi2025Federal Aviation Administration · Bureau of Transportation Statistics · U.S. Census BureauJessamine County value
Rent-burdened households · low43.9%
86/100Kentucky 45.4%United States 51.1%2020-2024U.S. Census Bureau Census table B25070
Days with unhealthy air · low0.0%
84/1002025U.S. Environmental Protection AgencyJessamine County value

Weaknesses

Mental health care shortage · high19.0
4/100Kentucky 14.9United States 9.9Oct 2026Health Resources and Services AdministrationJessamine County value
Depression · high28.9%
9/100Kentucky 27.4%United States 20.7%2022Centers for Disease Control and PreventionModel-based estimate
Public EV charging ports · low1.2 /10k
13/100Kentucky 2.6 /10kUnited States 7.6 /10kOct 2026U.S. Department of EnergyJessamine County value
Comfortable days · low23.5%
14/100Kentucky 23.7%United States 26.8%2016-2025NOAA National Centers for Environmental InformationJessamine County value
Adult smoking · high19.2%
16/100Kentucky 17.6%United States 16.1%2022University of Wisconsin Population Health InstituteModel-based estimate
Drug overdose deaths · high25.4 /100k
17/100Kentucky 23.1 /100kUnited States 18.4 /100kMar 2025–Feb 2026Centers for Disease Control and PreventionProvisional dataJessamine County value

Trends

The largest changes over about five years, next to the country's over the same periods.

PopulationRising
30,301 (2015-2019) → 32,197 (2020-2024)
+6.3%5 yearsCensus table B01003US 328,329,953 → 340,003,797
Child poverty rateImproving
30.9% (2015-2019) → 17.6% (2020-2024)
−13 pts5 yearsCensus table B17001US 16.8% → 15.5%
New homes permittedImproving
7.8 /1k (2021) → 11.3 /1k (Sep 2025–Aug 2026)
+46%5 yearsUS 5.2 /1k → 4.2 /1k
Poverty rateImproving
21.5% (2015-2019) → 13.1% (2020-2024)
−8.4 pts5 yearsCensus table B17001US 12.3% → 12.1%
Median household incomeImproving
$48,242 (2015-2019) → $68,503 (2020-2024)
+42%5 yearsCensus table B19013US $65,712 → $81,604
Broadband subscriptionsImproving
82.8% (2015-2019) → 90.0% (2020-2024)
+7.2 pts5 yearsCensus table B28002US 82.7% → 91.0%

What changed in five years

How each measure moved between two periods about five years apart, read against whether more or less is better, the published margin of error and the same change in other places.

Over about five years, Nicholasville, Kentucky improved on 6 of 14 measures with a comparison and declined on 0. 7 moved within the margin of error and 1 barely changed.

Earlier (2015-2019)
Latest (2020-2024)
Lower standingHigher standing

Position is the place's standing among cities and towns: further right is better, whichever way the measure counts.

Improved6

Unemployment−3.8 points7.4% → 3.6%
Poverty−8.4 points21.5% → 13.1%
Child poverty−13 points30.9% → 17.6%
Bachelor's++7 points19.9% → 26.9%
Household income+42%$48,242 → $68,503

Declined0

No measure declined by more than its margin of error.

All 14 measures

Change of every measure of Nicholasville, Kentucky between two periods about five years apart
Measure	Before	After	Change	Reading	Favourable vs peers
Average commute time	24.0 min2015-2019	24.0 min2020-2024	+0.0 min	Within the margin of error	47%
Bachelor's degree or higher	19.9%2015-2019	26.9%2020-2024	+7 points	Improved	79%
Broadband subscriptions	82.8%2015-2019	90.0%2020-2024	+7.2 points	Improved	45%
Child poverty rate	30.9%2015-2019	17.6%2020-2024	−13 points	Improved	87%
Effective property tax rate	0.97%2015-2019	0.78%2020-2024	−0.2 points	Little change	56%
High school diploma or higher	83.9%2015-2019	88.8%2020-2024	+4.9 points	Within the margin of error	81%
Home price to income ratio	3.0×2015-2019	3.3×2020-2024	+0.3×	Within the margin of error	61%
Income inequality (Gini index)	0.4072015-2019	0.4152020-2024	+0.008	Within the margin of error	44%
Median household income	$48,2422015-2019	$68,5032020-2024	+42%	Improved	76%
Poverty rate	21.5%2015-2019	13.1%2020-2024	−8.4 points	Improved	90%
Rent as share of income	27.7%2015-2019	27.4%2020-2024	−0.3 points	Within the margin of error	58%
Rent-burdened households	43.8%2015-2019	43.9%2020-2024	+0 points	Within the margin of error	55%
Unemployment rate	7.4%2015-2019	3.6%2020-2024	−3.8 points	Improved	93%
Uninsured residents (under 65)	7.4%2015-2019	8.8%2020-2024	+1.4 points	Within the margin of error	30%

“Against peers” compares the change with the same change in the 14640 cities and towns that have the same two periods. It describes how common a change is, not why it happened.

Sources: American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates. Values are the latest and the one five years earlier of the same publisher dataset; datasets that changed publisher in between are never compared.

Survey estimates (American Community Survey) compare the two most recent 5-year windows that do not share years, so the margin of error of the difference holds. The 2015-2019 window predates the pandemic and 2020-2024 includes it.
A change counts only when it is larger than 1.645 times the square root of the two standard errors squared, summed (a 90% margin). Measures published without a margin must change by at least 5% to count.
“Against peers” compares the change with the same change in the 15651 cities and towns that have the same two periods. It describes how common a change is, not why it happened.
Standing is a percentile among the same places: 0 is the lowest value on the measure (or the worst when lower is better), 100 the best.

Cities and towns like Nicholasville, Kentucky five years ago that improved

The places whose measures looked most like those of Nicholasville, Kentucky in the earlier period, ranked by how many measures improved beyond the margin of error, minus how many declined. A comparison of published data, not a forecast and not advice.

For comparison, Nicholasville, Kentucky itself moved +3.4 points in standing on average over the same 10 measures (standings of all places average about zero).

How the ranking works

Similarity is the root-mean-square difference of standings in the earlier period over the measures most places have. Places are ranked by measures that improved beyond the margin of error minus those that declined (a count that estimation noise in small places cannot inflate), then by the mean change of standing over the measures a place has in both periods. Only places with more improvements than declines and a rise in standing are listed. Standings are relative, so a place can improve in absolute terms and still lose standing.

Who lives here

Age, race and education of residents, from the American Community Survey. Shares are of all residents (age), residents of every origin (race) or adults 25 and over (education).

Age and sex

32,197 residents (±64)

Men
Women

80 and over†
70–79
60–69

Income

How household income is spread, not just the middle: each bar is the share of households in that income range.

Household income

12,131 households (±442)

Nicholasville, Kentucky
Kentucky share

Under $25k14%1,713
$25k–50k24%2,913
$50k–75k18%2,167

Homes

Who owns and who rents, what homes cost, and what the housing stock looks like.

Owners and renters

12,131 households (±442)

Nicholasville, Kentucky
Kentucky share

Own58%7,065
Rent42%5,066

No change since 2015–2019 is larger than the margin of error.

Table view

Getting to work

How workers travel to their job and how long it takes them.

How people get to work

14,744 workers (±720)

Nicholasville, Kentucky
Kentucky share

Drive alone81%11,960
Carpool8.7%1,282
Public transit0.7%†99

Jobs and pay

What the largest occupations here pay, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes pay by metro area, not by county or city. The metro area page lists its largest occupations and lets you look up any job.

Pay in the Lexington-Fayette, KY

Local businesses

Employer businesses and sole proprietors by industry, per resident and against the state and the nation. Counts of businesses next to counts of people, not a measure of demand.

The Census Bureau publishes business counts by county, not by city, so these are the figures of Jessamine County, the county holding most of Nicholasville's residents.

Jessamine County has 1,353 employer establishments, 244 for every 10,000 residents (0.98× the US rate of 248; 1.18× Kentucky's), with 16,395 paid employees at an average annual pay of $48,968. The Census Bureau also counts 5,385 nonemployer businesses, mostly sole proprietors.

Establishments: 1,353; 5,385 nonemployers
Per 10,000 residents: 244; US 248 · Kentucky 207
Paid employees: 16,395
Average annual pay: $48,968; US $68,342

Employer establishments, employees, average pay and nonemployers of Jessamine County by industry, with the density per resident against the nation

Specialty trade contractors	140	25.3	1.63×More than typical	951	$52,182	584
Ambulatory health care services	86	15.5	0.75×Fewer than typical	796	$65,668	227
Restaurants and other eating places	74	13.4	0.73×Fewer than typical	1,636	$19,686	22
Construction of buildings	67	12.1	1.60×More than typical	186	$52,290	209
Religious organizations	57	10.3	1.86×More than typical	511	$28,456	—
Building equipment contractors	56	10.1	1.68×More than typical	452	$49,409	142
Lessors of real estate	53	9.6	0.78×Fewer than typical	106	$45,557	560
Truck transportation	53	9.6	1.89×More than typical	88	$64,114	240
Services to buildings and dwellings	48	8.7	1.29×More than typical	455	$43,437	296
Limited-service restaurants	38	6.9	0.86×About typical	935	$17,994	10
Automotive repair and maintenance	36	6.5	1.29×More than typical	191	$46,319	90
Landscaping services	34	6.1	1.75×More than typical	385	$44,252	96

Rank places for an industry Open Jessamine County

County Business Patterns (2023); Nonemployer Statistics (2024)

Per-resident figures divide by the population estimate of 2023: 55,383 residents here, 336,755,052 in the United States. County Business Patterns counts establishments in 2023; the Nonemployer Statistics count businesses in 2024.
“More than typical” is a density at least 1.25 times the nation's per resident, “fewer” at most 0.8 times, with at least 10 establishments. It compares counts of businesses with counts of people: it says nothing about demand, incomes, size, quality or profit, and visitors and commuters are not residents.
The Census Bureau adds noise to employment and payroll to protect confidentiality, and withholds some figures: an industry with few establishments can show employees or pay as unavailable.
Industries overlap: a narrower industry (full-service restaurants) is part of a broader one (restaurants), so the rows do not add up.
Industries follow the North American Industry Classification System; the two surveys use different editions (NAICS 2017 and 2022), which this page matches industry by industry.

Federal contracts performed here

In FY2026, an estimated $2.2M of federal contract obligations were for work performed in Nicholasville, Kentucky: $66.92 per resident (US $1,994).

Obligations: $2.2M; +244% vs FY2025
Per resident: $66.92; US $1,994
Sole-source: 83%; US 30%
Single offer: 0.9%; US 8.8%

A signal is a reason to look closer, not evidence of wrongdoing: most sole-source awards are lawful and justified.

Top buying agencies

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement$1.9M87%
Federal Acquisition Service$125.4K5.8%
National Park Service$77.6K3.6%
Defense Logistics Agency$25.3K1.2%
Department of Veterans Affairs$20.9K1.0%
Department of the Air Force$19.7K0.9%
Department of the Army$10.5K0.5%
U.S. Coast Guard$6800.0%

Top recipients

Spending by fiscal year

427.4KFY2017
408KFY2018
538.6KFY2019
1.1MFY2020
610KFY2021
688.5KFY2022
972.2KFY2023
721.7K

Top industries (NAICS)

Machinery, equipment, and supplies merchant wholesalers · 4238$1.7M81%
Hardware manufacturing · 3325$155.9K7.2%
Motor vehicle parts manufacturing · 3363$128.5K6.0%
Architectural, engineering, and related services · 5413$48.3K2.2%
Highway, street, and bridge construction · 2373$26.3K1.2%
Other schools and instruction · 6116

Source: Federal contract transactions (Federal Procurement Data System) (U.S. Department of the Treasury, USAspending.gov), data current to Oct 3, 2026, loaded Oct 3, 2026.

How this is estimated

Agencies report each contract action's place of performance as a county and a ZIP code. A ZIP code's money is split among the cities it covers by the share of its land inside each (Census 2020 ZIP code tabulation areas); the part outside city limits stays with the county.

The place of performance is what the contracting agency reports, often the contractor's office rather than where the work happens.
Shares are of land, not of people or businesses: a ZIP code that is mostly rural land but has its offices in town gives the town less than it should.
ZIP codes that are not mapped areas (post office boxes, the unique ZIP codes of large federal sites and companies) stay with their county, unless one city covers nearly all of it.
Counts of actions and awards include those only partly in Nicholasville, Kentucky, so they do not add up across cities.

Nicholasville, Kentucky's figures are part of those of Jessamine County, KY ($20.6M in FY2026), never added to them: 10% of that total.

Grants and other federal assistance are counted by county here, not split among cities: Nicholasville is mostly in Jessamine County.

See federal money in Jessamine County

Representation in Congress

Members serving today, with their record in the current Congress (party-unity votes cast with their caucus, roll calls missed). Not a grade.

Nicholasville, Kentucky is represented in the 119th Congress by these members.

House

Andy BarrR-KY-6 · 100% of residentsWith party 99%Missed 7.1%

Senate

Explore Congress The 2026 races

County

A city can lie in several counties. Some indicators are published for counties only: the page marks them.

Jessamine County71100% of residents

Metro area

The metro or micro area the city belongs to.

Lexington-Fayette, KY78

Other cities and towns in Jessamine County

Largest first.

Similar cities and towns

Closest indicator profiles across the country (no model: score distances).

Data and sources

Latest published value of each indicator; periods differ by source. Values flagged by their publisher are marked.

PLACES: Local Data for Better HealthCenters for Disease Control and Prevention · release 2025
Local Area Unemployment StatisticsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics · release 2025
American Community Survey 5-Year EstimatesU.S. Census Bureau · release 2017-2024
Building Permits SurveyU.S. Census Bureau · release 2026-08
Population Estimates ProgramU.S. Census Bureau · release 2025
Small Area Health Insurance EstimatesU.S. Census Bureau · release 2024
Small Area Income and Poverty EstimatesU.S. Census Bureau · release 2024
County Health Rankings & RoadmapsUniversity of Wisconsin Population Health Institute · release 2022-2025+2026-03-supplement

JSON · /api/v1/places/2156136

Scores by category

Strengths · Weaknesses

Strengths

Weaknesses

Trends