Breathitt County vs Lewis County

A side-by-side comparison of Breathitt County and Lewis County: population, income, housing, and more.

Breathitt County and Lewis County are counties in Kentucky. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Breathitt County has the higher population (13,438 vs 13,028 in Lewis County). Lewis County has the higher median household income ($41,632 vs $41,101 in Breathitt County). Lewis County has the higher median home value ($86,100 vs $61,800 in Breathitt County).

Population, income & housing

	Breathitt County	Lewis County
Population	13,438	13,028
Median age	43.0 yrs	42.1 yrs
Median household income	$41,101	$41,632
Median home value	$61,800	$86,100
Median gross rent	$543	$757
Housing units	6,559	6,072
Homeownership rate	74.3%	79.0%
Bachelor's degree or higher	16.5%	11.3%
Unemployment rate	9.3%	7.6%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Breathitt County	Lewis County
Population	12,977 → 13,438 (+3.6%)	13,417 → 13,028 (-2.9%)
Median household income	$27,344 → $41,101 (+50.3%)	$31,147 → $41,632 (+33.7%)
Median home value	$54,000 → $61,800 (+14.4%)	$65,500 → $86,100 (+31.5%)
Median gross rent	$488 → $543 (+11.3%)	$518 → $757 (+46.1%)

Breathitt County

Population

12,97713,438

Median household income

$27,344$41,101

Median home value

$54,000$61,800

Median gross rent

$488$543

Lewis County

Population

13,41713,028

Median household income

$31,147$41,632

Median home value

$65,500$86,100

Median gross rent

$518$757

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Breathitt County	Lewis County
Under 5	5.7%	5.9%
5 to 17	15.2%	17.3%
18 to 24	6.8%	7.0%
25 to 34	12.4%	11.3%
35 to 44	13.0%	11.5%
45 to 54	13.4%	13.1%
55 to 64	15.3%	14.8%
65 to 74	12.0%	11.6%
75 and over	6.3%	7.6%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Breathitt County	Lewis County
White (non-Hispanic)	96.2%	97.0%
Black or African American	0.5%	0.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.0%
Asian	0.8%	0.1%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.2%
Some other race	0.0%	0.2%
Two or more races	1.2%	2.2%
Hispanic or Latino	1.2%	0.1%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Breathitt County	Lewis County
No high school diploma	19.4%	19.4%
High school graduate	40.9%	47.2%
Some college or associate's	23.3%	22.2%
Bachelor's degree	8.3%	6.3%
Graduate or professional degree	8.2%	5.0%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Breathitt County	Lewis County
Drove alone	77.8%	77.4%
Carpooled	13.6%	10.5%
Public transit	0.1%	0.0%
Walked	3.4%	0.9%
Bicycle	0.4%	0.0%
Worked from home	4.0%	10.6%
Other means	0.8%	0.6%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Breathitt County	Lewis County
1-unit, detached	50.4%	67.2%
1-unit, attached	0.9%	0.2%
2 to 4 units	3.7%	2.4%
5 to 19 units	3.0%	4.7%
20 or more units	0.3%	0.1%
Mobile home & other	41.7%	25.4%

Poverty & households

	Breathitt County	Lewis County
Poverty rate	28.2%	22.6%
Average household size	2.38	2.63
Mean commute (minutes)	30	42
Median year structure built	1989	1985