ZIP code 42240

ZIP 42240 is a small city in Christian County, Kentucky, with 41,510 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #14 of 779 ranked by population — larger than 98% of them. The median age here is 35.4 years against 39.1 nationally, a slightly younger profile than the country as a whole. Places under 65,000 residents only appear in the five-year release, never the one-year file, so these values pool sixty months of responses and lag the current year by design.

Households in ZIP 42240 earn a median of $49,872 a year, 36.5% 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 19.7% 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 42240 is valued at $147,400, 51.4% below the national figure, while median gross rent runs $866 a month, 38.4% below the national figure, or roughly $10,392 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 20.8% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is within the standard affordability guideline. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 3×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is easier here than in the average US market. 55.6% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans more heavily on renters. The rent line includes utilities paid by the tenant, a definition worth remembering when comparing it against a landlord's quoted rate.

Every value on this page is published directly by the Census for this area — nothing is modelled or interpolated. 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 42240 is tabulated inside Christian County, Kentucky, one of 8 ZIP areas the Census publishes for that county and 779 across Kentucky. This is a dense urban ZIP, where a single postal boundary can hold more residents than an entire rural county. 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 42240 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 42240 reports a median household income of $49,872, 23% below the $64,362 county median, and 7% below the $53,906 typical KY ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $147,400, close to the county figure and 13% above the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $866 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 42240.

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 42240 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.