City safety & data profile
PaducahKY
Paducah, KY is a 25K-resident city in McCracken County with a median household income of $49,915.
McCracken County, Kentucky. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for Paducah, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. Paducah has a population larger than 55% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, a median home value of $165,300, and 2 hospitals serving the surrounding area.
Data updated 2026-09-04
- 25K
- Population (place)
- Top 45%
- By size
- $49,915
- Median income (place)
- $165,300
- Median home (place)
- 22.3%
- Poverty rate (place)
The read on Paducah
Paducah posts a median household income higher than 9% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks, where 2 hospitals serve the Paducah area.
- Bottom 10%
- by median income, US cities
- 2
- hospitals in & near Paducah
Where Paducah income ranks nationally
Median household income vs. every place Areazine profiles (place-level ACS)
$49,915 Bottom 9% higher than 9% of 3,889 places Areazine profiles
Each bar is a $20K-wide band; taller bars hold more places Areazine profiles. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (place-level) · 2024 ACS 5-year
Largest cities in KY
Population among 39 KY places with 10,000+ residents and ACS income on Areazine. Tooltip shows the income rank in the same pool.
- Bowling Green
Bowling Green, KY
63,616 residents
- Owensboro
Owensboro, KY
59,042 residents
- Covington
Covington, KY
40,997 residents
- Richmond
Richmond, KY
33,533 residents
- Georgetown
Georgetown, KY
32,356 residents
- Florence
Florence, KY
32,227 residents
- Hopkinsville
Hopkinsville, KY
32,205 residents
- Nicholasville
Nicholasville, KY
29,754 residents
- Elizabethtown
Elizabethtown, KY
29,678 residents
- Henderson
Henderson, KY
28,890 residents
What this shows Bowling Green is the largest KY city on this list; Burlington leads median income.
Highest median incomes in KY
Median household income among the same 39-city pool. Tooltip shows the population rank.
- Burlington
Burlington, KY
$109,308 median
- Fort Thomas
Fort Thomas, KY
$104,350 median
- Independence
Independence, KY
$102,361 median
- Mount Washin…
Mount Washington, KY
$96,239 median
- Fort Knox
Fort Knox, KY
$82,663 median
- Saint Matthews
Saint Matthews, KY
$82,412 median
- Jeffersontown
Jeffersontown, KY
$81,506 median
- Georgetown
Georgetown, KY
$80,088 median
- Erlanger
Erlanger, KY
$75,840 median
- Shelbyville
Shelbyville, KY
$75,610 median
What this shows Burlington posts the highest place-level median income in KY; Bowling Green is largest by headcount.
The quick read
Reading Paducah, KY beyond the headline numbers
Paducah sits inside McCracken County, Kentucky, at roughly 37.08°N, -88.60°W. Population 24,864, $49,915 median household income. Median home value $165,300, median rent $834. Poverty rate 22.3%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.
2 hospitals in/around Paducah, 3.5/5 avg rating, 2 with an ER.
22.3% of Paducah, KY residents live below the poverty line, placing it in the hardest-hit quarter of reporting cities. Read every median on this page against that: half the households are above it, and a large minority are far below.
The median home in Paducah costs roughly 3.3 times median household income, below the midpoint for reporting cities, so ownership remains reachable on a typical local wage.
Only 7% of Paducah workers report working from home, the lowest quarter of reporting cities -- an economy still built around showing up somewhere.
Among the CDC measures on this page, short sleep duration departs furthest from its peer median: 42.7% in Paducah, the highest-prevalence quarter of the 3,852 cities reporting that measure.
Sources: U.S. Census ACS, CDC PLACES, CMS Hospital Compare, plus live alerts for Paducah from FEMA, NOAA, FDA, and CPSC. Economic comparison bars use the unweighted average across tracked Census places with a reported value, not a household-weighted national median.
10-Year Trends 2013–2024
County-level trend (McCracken County): Paducah's own historical series isn't separately published by the Census Bureau, so these year-over-year figures track the surrounding county, not the city alone.
Economics
| Indicator | Value |
|---|---|
| Median Rent | |
| Poverty Rate | 22.3% +80% vs avg |
| Unemployment | 4% |
| Bachelor's Degree+ | 28.8% |
| Work From Home | 7% |
| Public Transit | 1.3% |
Population
Health Profile 2 measures
Health Indicators
Preventive Care
Hospitals 2 total
What alerts and safety updates affect Paducah?
No area-tagged alerts are on record for Paducah right now. New federal and counterpart-agency notices still land in the site feed as agencies publish them.
City alert dispatch desk
Sheet KY-PADUCAH · Paducah
Paducah: no area-tagged alerts on record — state hubs carry the live CAP stream.
- FEED-QUIET No tagged alerts
- LEAD-NONE Feed idle
- DESK-IDLE Awaiting feed
Counts reflect published articles tagged to Paducah; untagged NOAA county warnings may still appear in the site feed. Browse Kentucky state hubs · Methodology
Read with this city profile
Frequently Asked Questions 6
What is the population of Paducah, KY? ▼
What is the median household income in Paducah? ▼
What is the median home value in Paducah? ▼
What are the top health concerns in Paducah? ▼
How many hospitals are in Paducah? ▼
What is the median age in Paducah? ▼
Nationwide cities with similar poverty or income 8
Two ACS-derived peer sets for Paducah, both outside Kentucky so the neighborhoods are not the geographic nearby list below.
Similar poverty rate
Nearest place-level ACS poverty rates outside KY (22.3% here).
Similar median income
Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside KY ($49,915 here).
Compare Paducah with another city
Pick a second U.S. city to open a side-by-side profile on population, income, health, and hospitals, the same federal datasets as this page.
Nearby Cities 8
Using Paducah'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 Paducah 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 Paducah 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. County-level trends are labeled when shown.
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 (McCracken 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 (place-level ACS), CDC, and CMS releases, updated quarterly within 30 days of upstream release. County-level trends are labeled when shown. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of 2026.