Clay County vs Letcher County

A side-by-side comparison of Clay County and Letcher County: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Letcher County has the higher population (21,146 vs 20,105 in Clay County). Letcher County has the higher median household income ($40,501 vs $39,607 in Clay County). Clay County has the higher median home value ($87,300 vs $70,500 in Letcher County).

Population, income & housing

	Clay County	Letcher County
Population	20,105	21,146
Median age	40.6 yrs	43.3 yrs
Median household income	$39,607	$40,501
Median home value	$87,300	$70,500
Median gross rent	$698	$651
Housing units	8,642	10,594
Homeownership rate	77.6%	72.6%
Bachelor's degree or higher	16.6%	13.7%
Unemployment rate	10.2%	5.8%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Clay County	Letcher County
Population	20,368 → 20,105 (-1.3%)	22,295 → 21,146 (-5.2%)
Median household income	$26,840 → $39,607 (+47.6%)	$29,886 → $40,501 (+35.5%)
Median home value	$54,100 → $87,300 (+61.4%)	$58,600 → $70,500 (+20.3%)
Median gross rent	$533 → $698 (+31.0%)	$559 → $651 (+16.5%)

Clay County

Population

20,36820,105

Median household income

$26,840$39,607

Median home value

$54,100$87,300

Median gross rent

$533$698

Letcher County

Population

22,29521,146

Median household income

$29,886$40,501

Median home value

$58,600$70,500

Median gross rent

$559$651

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Clay County	Letcher County
Under 5	5.7%	5.2%
5 to 17	15.1%	16.5%
18 to 24	6.9%	6.6%
25 to 34	14.9%	11.0%
35 to 44	13.9%	12.2%
45 to 54	14.1%	13.1%
55 to 64	13.8%	14.9%
65 to 74	10.2%	13.1%
75 and over	5.5%	7.5%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Clay County	Letcher County
White (non-Hispanic)	91.4%	96.8%
Black or African American	4.6%	0.7%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	0.0%	0.2%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.3%
Two or more races	2.7%	1.2%
Hispanic or Latino	1.2%	0.8%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Clay County	Letcher County
No high school diploma	25.9%	20.2%
High school graduate	37.1%	34.7%
Some college or associate's	20.4%	31.5%
Bachelor's degree	7.5%	6.9%
Graduate or professional degree	9.1%	6.8%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Clay County	Letcher County
Drove alone	76.5%	73.9%
Carpooled	13.5%	13.9%
Public transit	0.4%	0.5%
Walked	1.3%	2.4%
Bicycle	0.1%	0.0%
Worked from home	7.4%	7.4%
Other means	0.7%	2.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Clay County	Letcher County
1-unit, detached	63.0%	64.1%
1-unit, attached	0.4%	0.3%
2 to 4 units	2.8%	1.9%
5 to 19 units	2.7%	2.0%
20 or more units	0.9%	0.3%
Mobile home & other	30.3%	31.3%

Poverty & households

	Clay County	Letcher County
Poverty rate	31.8%	26.8%
Average household size	2.59	2.49
Mean commute (minutes)	28	28
Median year structure built	1987	1978