ZIP code 40873

ZIP 40873 is a small town in Harlan County, Kentucky, with 2,329 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #302 of 779 ranked by population — larger than 61% of them. The median age here is 42.6 years against 39.1 nationally, a slightly older profile than the country as a whole. At this population the ACS sample is small, so the margin of error around every dollar figure below is wide — treat the numbers as a band, not a point, and expect them to move between annual releases without the place itself changing.

Households in ZIP 40873 earn a median of $31,389 a year, 60% below the national figure of $78,538. Household income here is measured before tax and pooled across everyone at the address, which is why it reads higher than typical individual earnings in the same area. Poverty reaches 29.1% of residents here, well above the 12.4% national rate, which is the single clearest signal in this dataset that median income here is carried by a narrow band of households.

The typical owner-occupied home in ZIP 40873 is valued at $87,400, 71.2% below the national figure, while median gross rent runs $863 a month, 38.6% below the national figure, or roughly $10,356 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 33% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is a stretch on median earnings. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 2.8×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is easier here than in the average US market. 75.9% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans toward owners. Rent is reported gross — contract rent plus tenant-paid utilities — which is why it runs above the advertised price on a listing for the same unit.

ZIP 40873 is the unusual combination of expensive to rent and cheap to buy: rent takes 33% of median income while homes cost only 2.8× it. Where that pattern shows up, the gap is normally down to down-payment and credit barriers rather than price.

All values below were released by the Census for this exact geography, with no gap-filling on our side. Small-area estimates still carry wider margins of error than state or national figures, so check the linked ACS tables before relying on them for lending, appraisal or legal work.

ZIP 40873 is tabulated inside Harlan County, Kentucky, one of 25 ZIP areas the Census publishes for that county and 779 across Kentucky. Fewer than 2,500 people are counted here, so the ZIP behaves like a village delivery route rather than a neighbourhood. County assignment on this page follows the largest share of the ZIP's land area, which matters where a delivery route crosses a county line: mail addressed to 40873 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 40873 reports a median household income of $31,389, 14% below the $36,430 county median, and 42% below the $53,906 typical KY ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $87,400, 35% above the county figure and 33% below the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $863 a month, which is why it reads higher than the advertised rent on a listing for the same unit.

Kentucky charges 6% statewide, and no local sales tax is layered on top, so the state rate is the full amount collected in 40873.

Everything above comes from the Census Bureau American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates for this ZIP Code Tabulation Area, with sales tax rates traced to the state revenue agency. Five-year estimates pool sixty months of responses, so they are stable enough to compare 40873 with its neighbours but always trail the current year, and any value the Census suppressed for sample size is shown as unpublished rather than filled in with a model.