63,353 people (2024 Census estimate, +1.0% since 2020)
434 square miles of land · 146 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.
5 active community water systems list Laurel County in the area they serve, reporting 71,586 people served in all (a system that crosses county lines counts its whole population).
| LAUREL CO WATER DISTRICT #2 surface water · local government · KY0630238 | 16,899 served |
| EAST LAUREL WATER DISTRICT buys surface water · local government · KY0630797 | 16,062 served |
| WOOD CREEK WATER DISTRICT surface water · local government · KY0630477 | 14,892 served |
| WEST LAUREL WATER ASSOC INC buys surface water · private · KY0630451 | 14,878 served |
| LONDON UTILITY COMMISSION surface water · local government · KY0630255 | 8,855 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 661 people were held in Laurel County's jail, in Vera's latest figure (2026). In 2021 it was about 791.
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.
2 school districts have their office in Laurel County. School taxes are usually the largest part of a property tax bill.
Spent $124.1 million — $111 million to run schools, about $12,611 per student, plus $9.2 million on buildings and equipment. Money in: $27.9 million local (mostly property tax), $72.8 million state, $26.3 million federal. Long-term debt: $80.4 million.
Spent $7.1 million — $6.3 million to run schools, about $12,076 per student, plus $135,000 on buildings and equipment. Money in: $683,000 local (mostly property tax), $5.2 million state, $1.4 million federal. Long-term debt: $9 million.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2023 Annual Survey of School System Finances. Districts are listed by the county of their main office; some serve neighboring counties too.
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: Relatively Low compared with other U.S. counties. FEMA estimates natural hazards cost Laurel County about $23.9 million a year on average in buildings, crops and lives. Ability to bounce back (community resilience): Relatively Low; social vulnerability: Relatively High.
Source: FEMA National Risk Index (December 2025), expected annual loss. Ratings compare counties nationwide; they're estimates, not predictions.
133 bridges in Laurel County: 31 in good condition, 97 fair, and 5 poor (3.8%). “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.
| US-25 over ROBINSON CREEK · built 1940 | 11,609 vehicles a day |
| KY-363 over WARD BRANCH · built 1975 | 2,710 vehicles a day |
| KY-552 over LITTLE LAUREL RIVER · built 1985 | 630 vehicles a day |
| POWDER MILL RD over POWDER MILL CREEK · built 1970 | 367 vehicles a day |
| KY-1803 over BLACKWATER CREEK · built 1968 | 204 vehicles a day |
Source: Federal Highway Administration, National Bridge Inventory (2025 submission). Includes state, county and city bridges.
Federal grants paid for $23.8 million of work in Laurel County in fiscal 2025, about $380 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 Laurel 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 Laurel County built: brayden.ozark@gmail.com.
More of Kentucky: the state government and every county in Kentucky.
Nearby counties: Rockcastle County (20 mi) · Jackson County (21 mi) · Knox County (21 mi) · Clay County (23 mi) · Whitley County (25 mi) · Pulaski County (25 mi).