Geographic-scope notice: Meads is not a separately-incorporated place in the U.S. Census Bureau's Place geography – it is either a neighborhood within a larger municipality (in Boyd County) or a town-class subdivision in a state where the Census reports demographics at the town rather than place level. To avoid presenting county-level aggregates as city-level data, this page does not show synthetic Census or health figures for Meads. For the surrounding county aggregates, see the Kentucky state directory.
City safety & data profile
MeadsKY
Boyd County, Kentucky. Federal health, economic and safety indicators for Meads, drawn from Census, CDC and CMS data. Larger than 98% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks.
- 289K
- Population
- Top 2%
- By size
The read on Meads
Meads is one of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks.
The quick read
Reading Meads, KY beyond the headline numbers
Meads sits inside Boyd County, Kentucky, at roughly 38.41°N, -82.71°W. Its population of 288,649 are the two most quoted figures, but in isolation they hide the shape of the city.
Health and healthcare access are the next layer most residents and prospective movers actually care about.
Areazine reconstructs these layers from U.S. Census ACS (place-level economics and demographics), CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare, each updated on its own cadence, and pairs them with live alerts from FEMA, NOAA, FDA, and CPSC scoped to the Meads area. The comparison bars next to each metric anchor the number against a national reference, which is the fastest way to tell whether Meads is an outlier on a given dimension before drilling into the raw value.
Safety Context
Meads, KY is located in Boyd County, Kentucky. With a population of 289K, Safety alerts for the Meads area are monitored from federal and state agencies including FEMA, NOAA, FDA, and CPSC.
Safety Guides
Primary source data
EPA Outdoor Air Quality Data
Federal monitoring network, every measurement we report
AirNow - Kentucky
Real-time AQI for every monitored Kentucky location
National Weather Service
NOAA active watches, warnings, advisories
CDC Air Quality & Health
Health-impact reference for every AQI category
EPA NAAQS standards
National Ambient Air Quality Standards, the regulatory thresholds
Nearby Cities 8
Using Meads's profile
Use this as a starting research checklist, not a verdict on whether to live here.
- Check live recalls, weather and hazard alerts scoped to the Meads area before relying on national headlines. Check your area
- Read the poverty rate alongside the income figure, two places with the same median can have very different realities.
- Compare Meads against Kentucky peers on any ranking lens. Explore Kentucky
Population and economics (income, home value, poverty, education) are place-level U.S. Census ACS; health is CDC PLACES; hospital counts reflect facilities in and around the city.
Data Sources
All data on this page comes from official U.S. government sources. Population and economic data from the Census Bureau American Community Survey (2024 5-year estimates, place geography). Health data from the CDC PLACES program (2023). Hospital ratings from CMS Hospital Compare (2024). Climate data from NOAA. Education data from NCES. Cost of living from Bureau of Economic Analysis. Crime statistics, where referenced on Areazine, originate from the FBI Crime Data Explorer. Housing market figures referenced on Areazine come from HUD Fair Market Rents. Census economics and population are at place geography; some health and hospital indicators are reported at the county level (Boyd County) where that is the smallest published unit.
Every figure on Areazine is published directly from official U.S. government sources, no number is typed in by an editor. City demographic and health figures are compiled directly from U.S. Census, CDC, and CMS releases, updated quarterly within 30 days of upstream release. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of 2026.