County Lawrence County, Kentucky - Population, Income & Demographics

The median income of households in Lawrence County, Kentucky was $45,584. An estimated 7.6% of households had income below $10,000 a year and 2.8% had income of $200,000 or more.

An estimated 58.9% of households received earnings. An estimated 48.1% of households received Social Security and an estimated 23.3 % of households received retirement income other than Social Security. The average income from Social Security was $21,917. These income sources are not mutually exclusive; that is, some households received income from more than one source.

In 2019-2023, 22 % of people were in poverty. An estimated 27.1% of children under 18 were below the poverty level, compared with 12.6% of people 65 years old and over. An estimated 23% of people 18 to 64 years were below the poverty level.

In 2019-2023, 23.9 % of households received SNAP (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program). An estimated 62.7% of households that received SNAP had children under 18, and 34.5% of households that received SNAP had one or more people 60 years and over. An estimated 22.2% of all households receiving SNAP were families with a female householder and no spouse present.

Among the civilian noninstitutionalized population in Lawrence County, Kentucky in 2019-2023, 93.9% had health insurance coverage and 6.1% did not have health insurance coverage. Private coverage was 51.4% and public coverage was 58.7%, respectively. The percentage of children under the age of 19 with no health insurance coverage was 3%.

In 2019-2023, Lawrence County, Kentucky had a total population of 16,171 - 8,232 (50.9%) females and 7,939 (49.1%) males. The median age was 42 years. An estimated 23.7% of the population was under 18 years, 27.5% was 19 to 44 years, 26.7% was 45 to 64 years, and 19.8 % was 65 years and older.

In 2019-2023, there were 6,150 households in Lawrence County, Kentucky. The average household size was 2.61 people.

Married-couple households made up 55% of the households in Lawrence County, Kentucky while cohabiting couple households made up 3.6% of households. Female householders with no spouse or partner present were 24.1% of all households, while 17.3% of households had male householders with no spouse or partner present. Some households had one person, as 12.5% of households were male householders living alone, and 16.1% were female householders living alone, for a total of 28.6% of all households.

In Lawrence County, Kentucky, 31.3% of all households had one or more people under the age of 18; 36.9% of all households had one or more people 65 years and over.

In 2019-2023, an estimated 98.4% of the people living in Lawrence County, Kentucky were U.S. natives. 63.7% of the Lawrence County, Kentucky population were living in the state where they were born.

Approximately 1.6% of Lawrence County, Kentucky residents in 2019-2023 were foreign-born. 100% of foreign-born were naturalized U.S. citizens and an estimated 100 % entered the country before the year 2010.

Foreign-born residents of Lawrence County, Kentucky come from different parts of the world. The bar graph below displays the percentage of foreign-born from each world region of birth in 2019-2023 for Lawrence County, Kentucky.

Among people at least five years old living in Lawrence County, Kentucky in 2019-2023, 1.9 % spoke a language other than English at home. Spanish was spoken by 0.1% of people at least five years old; 0.3% reported that they did not speak English "very well."

In 2019-2023, 92.4 % of the people at least one year old living in Lawrence County, Kentucky were living in the same house one year earlier.

In 2019-2023, 79.8 % of people 25 years and over had at least graduated from high school and 14.2% had a bachelor's degree or higher. An estimated 20.2% did not complete high school.

The total school enrollment in Lawrence County, Kentucky was 3,452 in 2019-2023. Nursery school enrollment was 116 and kindergarten through 12th grade enrollment was 2,777. College or graduate school enrollment was 559.

In Lawrence County, Kentucky, among the civilian noninstitutionalized population in 2019-2023, 23.5 % reported a disability. The likelihood of having a disability varied by age - from 6% of people under 18 years old, to 22.2% of people 18 to 64 years old, and to 48.7% of those 65 and over.

In Lawrence County, Kentucky, 41.7 % of the population 16 and over were employed; 55.7% were not currently in the labor force.

An estimated 69.4% of the people employed were private wage and salary workers; 26.1% were federal, state, or local government workers; and 4.4 % were self-employed in their own (not incorporated) business.

In 2019-2023, the civilian employed population 16 years and older in Lawrence County, Kentucky worked in the following industries:

An estimated 86% of Lawrence County, Kentucky workers drove to work alone in 2019-2023, and 8.5% carpooled. Among those who commuted to work, it took them on average 30.4 minutes to get to work.

In 2019-2023, Lawrence County, Kentucky had a total of 7,575 housing units. Of these housing units, 61.7% were single-family houses either not attached to any other structure or attached to one or more structures (commonly referred to as "townhouses" or "row houses"). 5.9% of the housing units were located in multi-unit structures, or those buildings that contained two or more apartments. 32.4% were mobile homes, while any remaining housing units were classified as "other," which included boats, recreational vehicles, vans, etc.

8.6% of the housing inventory was comprised of houses built since 2010, while 6.5% of the houses were first built in 1939 or earlier. The median number of rooms in all housing units in Lawrence County, Kentucky was 5.8 rooms, and of these housing units 66.6% had three or more bedrooms.

In 2019-2023, Lawrence County, Kentucky had 6,150 housing units that were occupied or had people living in them, while the remaining 1,425 were vacant. Of the occupied housing units, the percentage of these houses occupied by owners (also known as the homeownership rate) was 76.3% while renters occupied 23.7%. The average household size of owner-occupied houses was 2.72 and in renter-occupied houses it was 2.25.

4.8% of householders of these occupied houses had moved into their house since 2021, while 14.7% moved into their house in 1989 or earlier. Households without a vehicle available for personal use comprised 4.8% and another 24.9% had three or more vehicles available for use.

The following chart provides the primary fuel used to heat houses in Lawrence County, Kentucky:

In 2019-2023, the median property value for owner-occupied houses in Lawrence County, Kentucky was $108,100.

Of the owner-occupied households, 40.6 % had a mortgage. 59.4% owned their houses "free and clear," that is without a primary mortgage or loan on the house. The median monthly housing costs for owners with a mortgage was $1,143 and for owners without a mortgage it was $379.

For renter-occupied houses, the median gross rent for Lawrence County, Kentucky was $729. Gross rent includes the monthly contract rent and any monthly payments made for electricity, gas, water and sewer, and any other fuels to heat the house.