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Place dossier plate
SheetKY-FORT-KNOX-KY · Fort Knox, KY 8,715 pop · income 55th pct
Instrument codes from this place’s ACS population and household income, BEA state COL, FBI safety, national income percentile, photo-finish peer city, home-value band, and matched Census-tract book - not a moving recommendation.
Income neighbourhood around Fort Knox
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Fort Knox on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Maysville · lowest
41,923
Maysville · lowest
41,923 median HH income
16.8% of the leader · rank #1
Illiopolis · near
74,219
Illiopolis · near
74,219 median HH income
29.7% of the leader · rank #2
Hixton · near
74,219
Hixton · near
74,219 median HH income
29.7% of the leader · rank #3
Fort Knox · this city
74,224
Fort Knox · this city
74,224 median HH income
29.7% of the leader · rank #4
Estelline · near
74,231
Estelline · near
74,231 median HH income
29.7% of the leader · rank #5
Simonton Lake · near
74,233
Simonton Lake · near
74,233 median HH income
29.7% of the leader · rank #6
Glencoe · highest
250,001
Glencoe · highest
250,001 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #7
What this shows Neighbourhood peers only - not a full nationwide city board. Open a near peer when the gap is small; open the poles when the spread is wide.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by population, income
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Fort Knox on ACS population and median household income
. Link sets are deduped so each column is a distinct comparison path, not a forecast that peers share a labor market or climate.
Similar population
Nearest out-of-state cities by ACS population. This city: 8,715.
Fort Knox ranks in the 55th percentile for household income nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS.
55th
percentile, household income
10th
percentile, median rent
📝 How we sourced this
Population, income, and housing-cost figures come from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates (B-series tables). Crime data uses FBI UCR; climate uses NOAA Climate Normals; school counts come from NCES Common Core of Data; permits use the Census Building Permits Survey (BPS). See our methodology page for the full ETL pipeline and OMB / FIPS join keys.
Data Snapshot: Fort Knox, KY
8,715 people live in Fort Knox, Kentucky - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. The typical household in Fort Knox brings in $74,224 a year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 9.7%. The median resident age is 24.3 years. About 42.1% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 25.1% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The city is served by 1 public schools according to NCES Common Core of Data.
Living costs in Kentucky run below the national norm: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts Kentucky at 90.2 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Well Below Average). Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $984 monthly. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Kentucky's average monthly utility costs around $225 (state average). Workers in Fort Knox report an average commute of 12.0 minutes, with 70.0% driving alone and 3.3% working from home. On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 44.2 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Fort Knox's data
How this reading path is ordered
This is not a composite city score. It is a city-specific route through the available public records, ordered for this profile so the page starts with questions the joined data can actually answer. The route here runs from schools and households to work and mobility to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Fort Knox, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, matched public-school count.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles, local building permits, annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Fort Knox?
The matched institution count is small, so district boundaries and schools outside the city line may matter more than the municipal count suggests. Use the number as a coverage cue, then verify attendance zones with the district before making a household decision.
The NCES join finds 1 public school within the city match. 42.1% of adults age 25+ hold a bachelor's degree or higher in the ACS estimate. These measures answer different questions: the school count describes local institutions, while adult attainment describes residents and cannot be used as a school-quality rating.
What does the journey to work look like in Fort Knox?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 70.0%. The reported mean trip to work is 12.0 minutes.
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. No single mode completely explains the work trip here. The mix is more useful than a one-number commute grade, especially when comparing places where transit, walking, and remote work divide the non-driving share differently.
Which cities make useful reference points for Fort Knox?
Use the in-state set to hold state policy and broad price conditions more nearly constant. Use the nationwide size set to ask whether cities with a similar resident count produce different housing, income, or commute outcomes. The income set is a third lens, deliberately separate from population matching.
Within Kentucky, the closest population matches are Hillview (8,735 residents, $65,732 income); Fort Mitchell (8,676 residents, $80,814 income); Maysville (8,778 residents, $41,923 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Glencoe, IL (8,715 residents); Wyoming, OH (8,712 residents); Athol, MA (8,711 residents). A third, income-matched reference set of 6 out-of-state cities sits in the income neighbourhood chart near the Place Dossier plate. These are mechanical peer sets, not claims that the places share a labor market, climate, culture, or metro context.
Above median income · poverty 9.7% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
90.2 (US=100)
Affordable · BEA RPP 2024, Kentucky average
C+
City profile score · Fort Knox, KY
63/100
4 published dimensions · ACS/FBI 2023
Comparative score against U.S. cities with population of 1,000 or more on Census ACS medians
(income, poverty, bachelor's share, cost of living) and FBI UCR violent-crime rates when
published. Higher means a stronger standing on those published figures, not a livability
rating, not a recommendation to move, buy, or pick a "best" city. Missing inputs drop out
and redistribute weight.
How it is calculated.
Cost of living A
90.2 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Bachelor's+ share B+
42.1%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income C-
$74,224
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate D
9.7%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Fort Knox profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 85/100 (A) · 90.2 index
Bachelor's+ share: 77/100 (B+) · 42.1%
Household income: 54/100 (C-) · $74,224
Poverty rate: 41/100 (D) · 9.7%
How does Fort Knox compare to other US cities?
Where Fort Knox sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income55% higher than other cities
Median rent10% pricier than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Fort Knox against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Kentucky only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Kentucky-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Fort Knox near the bottom of Kentucky's cities
Among the 520 Kentucky cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Fort Knox ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Fort Knox only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#142 of 485
71st percentile in Kentucky
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 520
0th percentile in Kentucky
Poverty Rate
#283 of 519
45th percentile in Kentucky
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#101 of 520
81st percentile in Kentucky
How in-state ranks are ordered
Ranked by raw value (highest first); a higher rank is not automatically "better" for every measure, see each metric's own context above. This is a comparison within Kentucky only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
55th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Income distribution context
$74,224Fort Knox, KY median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Fort Knox, KY median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Fort Knox, KY.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)42.1%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)9.7%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)25.1%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
8,715
Median Income
$74,224
Median Home Value
N/A
Median Age
24.3
Poverty Rate
9.7%
Labor force participation
25.1%
Bachelor's Degree+
42.1%
Schools
Total Schools
1
Public schools in this city
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
12.0 minutes
Drive Alone
70.0%
Carpool
7.5%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
17.9%
Work from Home
3.3%
Other
1.3%
Based on 4,573 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Kentucky statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $225
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Kentucky at $225 (electricity about $115 , water and sewer about $40 ).
These are Kentucky statewide averages, not a meter reading for Fort Knox. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Kentucky's BEA cost-of-living index is 90.2 (Well Below Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Fort Knox is $984/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Kentucky statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 44.2 / 100 (Low).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Kentucky statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Fort Knox sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Fort Knox compares to similar-size Kentucky cities
Same-state peer method
Closest same-state population matches, not geographic neighbors. Population + median household income come from Census Bureau ACS 5-year B01001 and B19013.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year 2023, NCES CCD, Census ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.