Is being in an area of Kentucky that’s growing quickly a good thing or a bad thing?
Depends on who you ask.
Some want bigger, more exciting cities like Louisville/Jefferson County metro government (balance) and Lexington-Fayette urban county, while others want peace and quiet like in Hazard and Williamsburg, thank you very much.
But today, we’re going to put opinions aside and look at the cold, hard facts — since 2010, which cities in Kentucky have grown the fastest.
After getting knee-deep in the Census’s American Community Survey using Saturday Night Science, we emerged with this set of cities in the Bluegrass State that have people climbing over each other to get in.
Kentucky gained a net 7,269 people from other states in the year ending July 2025 — 19th in the nation for domestic migration; the full moving statistics breakdown shows who’s coming and going.
104.2% growth since 2010 · 9,431 net new residents
Located in
Bullitt County, Kentucky
Mount Washington is a home rule-class city in northeast Bullitt County, Kentucky, in the United States. The population was 9,117 at the 2010 census. The city is one of several surrounding Louisville that have experienced a sharp rise in population in the past three decades, becoming a commuter town.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
65.3% growth since 2010 · 2,263 net new residents
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
62.0% growth since 2010 · 2,317 net new residents
Located in
Jessamine County, Kentucky
Wilmore is a home rule-class city in Jessamine County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 5,920 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Lexington-Fayette Metropolitan Statistical Area. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 2.6 square miles, all of it land.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
58.5% growth since 2010 · 2,520 net new residents
Located in
Hardin County, Kentucky
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
52.3% growth since 2010 · 2,624 net new residents
Located in
Boone County, Kentucky
Union is a home rule-class city in Boone County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 5,379 as of the 2010 United States Census. The area was rural until mass residential growth in the 1990s and 2000s.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
49.6% growth since 2010 · 2,108 net new residents
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
43.5% growth since 2010 · 11,849 net new residents
Located in
Scott County, Kentucky
Georgetown is a home rule-class city in Scott County, Kentucky, in the United States. The 2016 population was 33,440 per the United States Census Bureau. It is the 7th-largest city by population in the U.S. state of Kentucky. It is the seat of its county. It was originally called Lebanon when founded by Rev. Elijah Craig and was renamed in 1790 in honor of President George Washington. It is the home of Georgetown College, a private liberal arts college. Georgetown is part of the Lexington-Fayette, KY Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
40.4% growth since 2010 · 2,810 net new residents
Located in
Jefferson County, Kentucky
Middletown is an independent, home rule-class city in Jefferson County, Kentucky, United States, and a former neighborhood of Louisville. The population was 7,218 at the 2010 census.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
34.4% growth since 2010 · 3,720 net new residents
Located in
Bullitt County, Kentucky
Shepherdsville is a home rule-class city on the Salt River in Bullitt County, Kentucky, in the United States. It is the seat of its county, located just south of Louisville. The population was 11,222 during the 2010 U.S. Census.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
33.7% growth since 2010 · 18,981 net new residents
Located in
Warren County, Kentucky
Bowling Green is a home rule-class city in and the county seat of Warren County, Kentucky, United States. As of 2016, its population of 65,234 made it the third most-populous city in the state after Louisville and Lexington; its metropolitan area had an estimated population of 165,732; and the combined statistical area it shares with Glasgow has an estimated population of 218,870.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
The receipts
Compare the top ten
Pick a metric. The bars rescale. The red line is Kentucky’s statewide median.
On the map
Where Kentucky’s growth is happening
Saturday Night Science
Methodology: How We Measured The Fastest Growing Cities In the Bluegrass State for 2026
To figure out which cities are growing the most, we used Saturday Night Science to look at the growth rates for cities since the beginning of the decade, according to the American Community Survey put out by the census every year. Specifically:
- Current Population
- Population in 2010
- Growth rate from 2010 to Current (the latest available data, which came out in Dec 2024)
We ranked all 80 Kentucky cities with a population over 5,000 people from highest growth rate to lowest.
The city with the highest growth rate during this time was crowned the fastest-growing city in the Bluegrass State.
And for those of you who are a little rusty with their statistics, you can calculate the growth rate by the following formula: [Current Population – Population 2010] / [Population 2010].
The data has been updated for 2026. This report is our eleventh time ranking the fastest growing cities in Kentucky.
The full plate
Fastest Growing Places In Kentucky For 2026
Click any column to sort. Search by city name.
| Rank | City | Population | Population 2010 | Growth | Absolute Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mount Washington | 18,480 | 9,049 | 104.2% | 9,431 |
| 2 | Walton | 5,730 | 3,467 | 65.3% | 2,263 |
| 3 | Wilmore | 6,057 | 3,740 | 62.0% | 2,317 |
| 4 | Vine Grove | 6,830 | 4,310 | 58.5% | 2,520 |
| 5 | Union | 7,642 | 5,018 | 52.3% | 2,624 |
| 6 | Crestwood | 6,356 | 4,248 | 49.6% | 2,108 |
| 7 | Georgetown | 39,117 | 27,268 | 43.5% | 11,849 |
| 8 | Middletown | 9,763 | 6,953 | 40.4% | 2,810 |
| 9 | Shepherdsville | 14,533 | 10,813 | 34.4% | 3,720 |
| 10 | Bowling Green | 75,388 | 56,407 | 33.7% | 18,981 |
| 11 | La Grange | 10,311 | 7,761 | 32.9% | 2,550 |
| 12 | Shelbyville | 17,668 | 13,403 | 31.8% | 4,265 |
| 13 | Independence | 29,392 | 22,975 | 27.9% | 6,417 |
| 14 | Alexandria | 10,562 | 8,376 | 26.1% | 2,186 |
| 15 | Versailles | 10,492 | 8,438 | 24.3% | 2,054 |
| 16 | Campbellsville | 11,622 | 9,376 | 24.0% | 2,246 |
| 17 | Franklin | 10,360 | 8,368 | 23.8% | 1,992 |
| 18 | Elizabethtown | 32,576 | 26,822 | 21.5% | 5,754 |
| 19 | Nicholasville | 32,197 | 26,861 | 19.9% | 5,336 |
| 20 | Richmond | 37,111 | 30,983 | 19.8% | 6,128 |
| 21 | Bardstown | 13,804 | 11,552 | 19.5% | 2,252 |
| 22 | Berea | 15,786 | 13,255 | 19.1% | 2,531 |
| 23 | Paris | 10,160 | 8,611 | 18.0% | 1,549 |
| 24 | Lawrenceburg | 11,943 | 10,207 | 17.0% | 1,736 |
| 25 | Lebanon | 6,430 | 5,546 | 15.9% | 884 |
| 26 | Cold Spring | 6,341 | 5,495 | 15.4% | 846 |
| 27 | Lexington-Fayette urban county | 323,725 | 288,045 | 12.4% | 35,680 |
| 28 | Corbin | 8,246 | 7,342 | 12.3% | 904 |
| 29 | Florence | 32,803 | 29,242 | 12.2% | 3,561 |
| 30 | Harrodsburg | 9,313 | 8,320 | 11.9% | 993 |
| 31 | Mount Sterling | 7,551 | 6,759 | 11.7% | 792 |
| 32 | Erlanger | 19,875 | 17,797 | 11.7% | 2,078 |
| 33 | Frankfort | 28,503 | 25,682 | 11.0% | 2,821 |
| 34 | Hazard | 5,008 | 4,534 | 10.5% | 474 |
| 35 | Jeffersontown | 29,199 | 26,460 | 10.4% | 2,739 |
| 36 | Pikeville | 7,490 | 6,824 | 9.8% | 666 |
| 37 | Elsmere | 9,205 | 8,412 | 9.4% | 793 |
| 38 | Somerset | 12,216 | 11,172 | 9.3% | 1,044 |
| 39 | Oak Grove | 7,962 | 7,283 | 9.3% | 679 |
| 40 | Glasgow | 15,197 | 13,924 | 9.1% | 1,273 |
| 41 | Hillview | 8,797 | 8,062 | 9.1% | 735 |
| 42 | Radcliff | 22,864 | 21,039 | 8.7% | 1,825 |
| 43 | Danville | 17,327 | 16,054 | 7.9% | 1,273 |
| 44 | Louisville/Jefferson County metro government (balance) | 631,818 | 586,994 | 7.6% | 44,824 |
| 45 | Paducah | 26,845 | 25,114 | 6.9% | 1,731 |
| 46 | Owensboro | 60,302 | 56,541 | 6.7% | 3,761 |
| 47 | Fort Mitchell | 8,713 | 8,177 | 6.6% | 536 |
| 48 | Dayton | 5,743 | 5,390 | 6.5% | 353 |
| 49 | Fort Thomas | 17,169 | 16,182 | 6.1% | 987 |
| 50 | Winchester | 19,213 | 18,132 | 6.0% | 1,081 |
| 51 | Russellville | 7,316 | 7,015 | 4.3% | 301 |
| 52 | Taylor Mill | 6,937 | 6,662 | 4.1% | 275 |
| 53 | Murray | 18,080 | 17,366 | 4.1% | 714 |
| 54 | Shively | 15,638 | 15,142 | 3.3% | 496 |
| 55 | Fort Wright | 5,887 | 5,704 | 3.2% | 183 |
| 56 | Leitchfield | 6,819 | 6,640 | 2.7% | 179 |
| 57 | Lyndon | 11,030 | 10,786 | 2.3% | 244 |
| 58 | St. Matthews | 17,577 | 17,365 | 1.2% | 212 |
| 59 | Douglass Hills | 5,474 | 5,463 | 0.2% | 11 |
| 60 | Hopkinsville | 30,906 | 30,862 | 0.1% | 44 |
| 61 | Covington | 41,110 | 41,055 | 0.1% | 55 |
| 62 | Williamsburg | 5,270 | 5,268 | 0.0% | 2 |
| 63 | Cynthiana | 6,458 | 6,457 | 0.0% | 1 |
| 64 | Madisonville | 19,515 | 19,558 | -0.2% | -43 |
| 65 | Villa Hills | 7,480 | 7,565 | -1.1% | -85 |
| 66 | Princeton | 6,241 | 6,331 | -1.4% | -90 |
| 67 | Ashland | 21,295 | 21,613 | -1.5% | -318 |
| 68 | Morehead | 6,870 | 6,981 | -1.6% | -111 |
| 69 | Mayfield | 9,868 | 10,033 | -1.6% | -165 |
| 70 | Flatwoods | 7,269 | 7,420 | -2.0% | -151 |
| 71 | Henderson | 27,852 | 28,464 | -2.2% | -612 |
| 72 | Edgewood | 8,447 | 8,698 | -2.9% | -251 |
| 73 | Maysville | 8,737 | 9,004 | -3.0% | -267 |
| 74 | Central City | 5,707 | 5,984 | -4.6% | -277 |
| 75 | London | 7,561 | 7,929 | -4.6% | -368 |
| 76 | Highland Heights | 6,444 | 6,809 | -5.4% | -365 |
| 77 | Bellevue | 5,636 | 6,006 | -6.2% | -370 |
| 78 | Monticello | 5,753 | 6,176 | -6.8% | -423 |
| 79 | Newport | 13,967 | 15,404 | -9.3% | -1,437 |
| 80 | Middlesborough | 9,123 | 10,405 | -12.3% | -1,282 |
Source: U.S. Census ACS, 2010-current. 80 Kentucky cities with more than 5,000 residents.
Summary
Summary: These Places Grew Up So Fast In Kentucky, You Know?
So there you have it, the fastest growing cities in Kentucky are led by Mount Washington which has been growing at a blistering pace this decade relative to other cities and towns around the state.
The fastest-growing cities in Kentucky are Mount Washington, Walton, Wilmore, Vine Grove, Union, Crestwood, Georgetown, Middletown, Shepherdsville, and Bowling Green.
It’ll be interesting to see if these places can keep growing at the same rate over the next couple of years. We’ll be here to let you know! Not sold on Kentucky? Take the two-minute Find Your Place quiz and see which state actually fits you.
Questions and answers
Fastest Growing Cities In Kentucky FAQs
What is the fastest-growing city in Kentucky?
Mount Washington is the fastest-growing city in Kentucky for 2026, based on population change since 2010. Walton and Wilmore are growing nearly as fast.
What are the top 10 fastest-growing cities in Kentucky?
The fastest-growing cities in Kentucky are Mount Washington, Walton, Wilmore, Vine Grove, Union, Crestwood, Georgetown, Middletown, Shepherdsville, and Bowling Green. We ranked all 80 cities with more than 5,000 residents.
How do you measure growth?
Growth is the percent change in population from the 2010 Census to the latest American Community Survey estimates. No projections, no vibes — just how many more people actually live there now.
What is the slowest-growing city on the list?
Middlesborough posts the smallest population change of the 80 Kentucky cities we ranked. Slow growth is not automatically bad news, but the momentum is clearly elsewhere.
Do small towns count in this ranking?
Only places with more than 5,000 residents qualify, which keeps one new subdivision from turning a tiny town into a statistical rocket. 80 Kentucky cities cleared that bar this year.
