18,040 people (2024 Census estimate, +6.3% since 2020)
230 square miles of land · 78 people per square mile
“Highest” and “lowest” are just order, not grades: a high rank for poverty or hazard losses means more of it. Each figure's source is in its section below.
2 active community water systems list Garrard County in the area they serve, reporting 19,379 people served in all (a system that crosses county lines counts its whole population).
| GARRARD CO WATER ASSOC INC buys surface water · private · KY0400151 | 14,806 served |
| LANCASTER WATER WORKS surface water · local government · KY0400233 | 4,573 served |
Source: U.S. EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS), active community systems, . Look up any system's violations and test results with EPA's search using its ID.
About 54 people were held in Garrard County's jail, in Vera's latest figure (2021), or 495 per 100,000 residents ages 15–64. In 2016 it was about 61.
Source: Vera Institute of Justice, Incarceration Trends (built from federal Bureau of Justice Statistics jail surveys). Counties without their own jail, or that share one, may show no figure.
Source: County Health Rankings & Roadmaps 2025 (University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute), which gathers federal data (CDC, Census, and others); measures cover different recent years. Blank lines aren't reported for small counties.
Overall risk: Very Low compared with other U.S. counties. FEMA estimates natural hazards cost Garrard County about $6.8 million a year on average in buildings, crops and lives. Ability to bounce back (community resilience): Relatively Moderate; social vulnerability: Very High.
Source: FEMA National Risk Index (December 2025), expected annual loss. Ratings compare counties nationwide; they're estimates, not predictions.
67 bridges in Garrard County: 17 in good condition, 46 fair, and 4 poor (6.0%). “Poor” means a main part — the deck, the beams, or the supports — is rated 4 or lower on the federal 0–9 scale. It doesn't mean unsafe to drive; unsafe bridges are closed.
| KY-39 over GILBERTS CREEK · built 1949 | 1,242 vehicles a day |
| OLD RAILROAD GRADE over EAST FORK OF BACK CREEK · built 1974 | 262 vehicles a day |
| KY-1355 over TURNERS BRANCH · built 1972 | 255 vehicles a day |
| KY-563 over SCOTT FORK · built 1956 | 54 vehicles a day |
Source: Federal Highway Administration, National Bridge Inventory (2025 submission). Includes state, county and city bridges.
Federal grants paid for $1.8 million of work in Garrard County in fiscal 2025, about $104 per resident — to the county, cities, schools, hospitals, nonprofits and others.
Source: USAspending.gov, grants by place of performance, fiscal 2025 (Oct. 2024 to Sept. 2025). Search it by county to see each award.
From Grants.gov: posted grants listing county governments as eligible, soonest deadline first; research-only and overseas programs left out; list updated 2026-10-13, refreshed weekly. 62 are open in all. Cities, towns, school districts and nonprofits have their own lists there.
Registration deadlines, early voting and polling places for Kentucky are on the federal site vote.gov, which links to the state's official election office.
The budget, property tax rates, audits, local officials and offices for Garrard County come from the county's own records, which we haven't gathered — not gathered, never hidden. See what a full county site looks like, or ask to have Garrard County built: brayden.ozark@gmail.com.
More of Kentucky: the state government and every county in Kentucky.
Nearby counties: Lincoln County (13 mi) · Madison County (16 mi) · Jessamine County (17 mi) · Boyle County (18 mi) · Mercer County (22 mi) · Rockcastle County (22 mi).