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Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the northeast, Virginia to the east, Tennessee to the south, and Missouri to the west. Its northern border is defined by the Ohio River. Its capital is Frankfort and its most populous city is Louisville. As of 2024, the state's population was approximately 4.6 million.
Previously a part of Virginia, Kentucky was admitted into the Union as the fifteenth state on June 1, 1792. It is known as the "Bluegrass State" in reference to Kentucky bluegrass, a species of grass introduced by European settlers, which has long supported the state's thoroughbred horse industry.
The fertile soil in the central and western parts of the state led to the development of large tobacco plantations similar to those in Virginia and North Carolina, which utilized slave labor prior to the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment. Kentucky ranks fifth nationally in goat farming, eighth in beef cattle production, and fourteenth in corn production. While Kentucky has been a long-standing center for the tobacco industry, its economy has diversified into non-agricultural sectors including auto manufacturing, energy production, and medicine. Kentucky ranks fourth among US states in the number of automobiles and trucks assembled. It is one of several states considered part of the Upland South.
The state is home to the world's longest known cave system in Mammoth Cave National Park, and the nation's two largest artificial lakes east of the Mississippi River. Cultural aspects of Kentucky include horse racing, bourbon whiskey, moonshine, coal mining, My Old Kentucky Home State Park, automobile manufacturing, tobacco, Southern cuisine, barbecue, bluegrass music, college basketball, Louisville Slugger baseball bats, and KFC.
The precise etymology of the name is uncertain.
One theory sees the word based on an Iroquoian name meaning "(on) the meadow" or "(on) the prairie" ( Mohawk language kenhtà:ke; Seneca language gëdá'geh (), both meaning "at the field"). Another theory suggests a derivation from the term Kenta Aki, which could have come from an Algonquian language, in particular from Shawnee language. Folk etymology translates this as "Land of Our Fathers". The closest approximation in another Algonquian language, Ojibwe language, translates as "Land of Our In-Laws", thus making a fairer English translation "The Land of Those Who Became Our Fathers". (1994). 9780816685844, University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 9780816685844 In any case, the word aki means "land" in most Algonquian languages.
In about the 10th century, the Kentucky native people's variety of corn became highly productive, supplanting the Eastern Agricultural Complex and replacing it with maize-based agriculture in the Mississippian era. As of the 16th century, what became Kentucky was home to tribes from diverse linguistic groups. The Kispoko, an Algonquian-speaking tribe, controlled much of the interior of the state.
French explorers in the 17th century documented numerous tribes living in Kentucky until the Beaver Wars in the 1670s; however, by the time that European colonial explorers and settlers began entering Kentucky in greater numbers in the mid-18th century, there were no major Native American settlements in the region.
The Chickasaw had territory up to the confluence of Mississippi and Ohio rivers. During a period known as the Beaver Wars (1640–1680), another Algonquian tribe called the Maumee people, or Mascouten was chased out of southern Michigan."Early Indian Migration in Ohio." GenealogyTrails.com. Retrieved August 17, 2017. The vast majority of them moved to Kentucky, pushing the Kispoko east and war broke out with the Tutelo of North Carolina and Virginia that pushed them further north and east. The Maumee were closely related to the Miami people from Indiana. Later, the Kispoko merged with the Shawnee, who migrated from the east and the Ohio River valley.
A persistent myth, perpetuated in many popular and scholarly works, alleges that Native Americans never lived permanently in Kentucky, but rather used it only as a "hunting ground". According to early Kentucky historians, early European settlers encountered extensive evidence of permanent, advanced settlements, including numerous burial mounds, copper and stone artifacts, and what early historians describe as "fortifications:" large sites consisting of extensive walls enclosing the flat tops of bluffs, cliffs or mountains, constructed from stone that was quarry in the surrounding valleys and brought up to the summit. These sites and artifacts were sometimes explained as being the remnants of a "lost" white race, or some variously identified ethnic group predating and distinct from the Native Americans. More recent scholarship identifies the mound builders as the Mississippian and Fort Ancient peoples, which were distinct from the indigenous cultures encountered by settlers, although sharing the same origin in Paleoindian groups that inhabited the area for at least 12,000 years.
Beginning in the seventeenth century, before indigenous groups in Kentucky made direct contact with Europeans, articles of European origin such as glass entered the region via , and the appearance of suggests that European diseases were also introduced. By the eighteenth century, epidemics of disease had destabilized and changed the indigenous groups that inhabited Kentucky, causing some to reassemble into multi-tribal towns, and others to Human migration further from the sphere of European influence. Around the end of the French and Indian War, as European settlers began to claim parts of the Bluegrass State, Native Americans abandoned their larger, more permanent villages south of the Ohio River and continued to maintain only small or transient settlements. This upheaval allowed the settlers to state that Kentucky was a hunting ground contested by multiple tribes but not permanently inhabited, when in reality it had only recently been abandoned due to social and political turmoil.
June 16, 1774, James Harrod founded Harrod's Town (modern Harrodsburg). The settlement was abandoned during the conflict period of Dunmore's War, and resettled in March 1775, becoming the first permanent European settlement in Kentucky. It was followed within months by Boone Station, Logan's Fort and Lexington before Kentucky was organized.
This period was the time of Daniel Boone's legendary expeditions starting in 1767 through the Cumberland Gap and down the Kentucky River to reach the bluegrass heartland of Kentucky.
While the Cherokee did not settle in Kentucky, they hunted there. They relinquished their hunting rights there in an extra-legal private contract with speculator Richard Henderson called Treaty of Sycamore Shoals in 1775.
A 1790 U.S. government report states that 1,500Kentucky settlers had been killed by Native Americans since the end of the Revolutionary War.
On several occasions the region's residents petitioned the General Assembly and the Confederation Congress for separation from Virginia and statehood. Ten constitutional conventions were held in Danville between 1784 and 1792. One petition, which had Virginia's assent, came before the Confederation Congress in early July 1788. Unfortunately, its consideration came up a day after word of New Hampshire's all-important ninth ratification of the proposed Constitution, thus establishing it as the new framework of governance for the United States. In light of this development, Congress thought that it would be "unadvisable" to admit Kentucky into the Union, as it could do so "under the Articles of Confederation" only, but not "under the Constitution", and so declined to take action.
On December 18, 1789, Virginia again gave its consent to Kentucky statehood. The United States Congress gave its approval on February 4, 1791. (This occurred two weeks before Congress approved Vermont's petition for statehood.) Kentucky officially became the fifteenth state in the Union on June 1, 1792. Isaac Shelby, a military veteran from Virginia, was elected its first Governor.
The Confederate shadow government was never popularly elected statewide. Although Confederate forces briefly controlled Frankfort, the state capital, they were expelled by Union forces before a Confederate government could be installed. With the expulsion of Confederate forces after the Battle of Perryville, this government operated in exile. Though it existed throughout the war, the Confederate government only had authority in areas of the state under its direct control, and had very little effect on the events in the commonwealth or in the war once they were driven out of the state.
Some 21st-century Kentuckians observe Confederate Memorial Day on Confederate leader Jefferson Davis' birthday, June 3, and participate in Confederate battle re-enactments.Tony Hiss, Confederates in the Attic Both Davis and U.S. president Abraham Lincoln were born in Kentucky. John C. Breckinridge, the 14th and youngest-ever Vice President, and the Southern Democratic Party candidate for the Presidency in the 1860 election, was born near Lexington, Kentucky. Breckenridge was expelled from the U. S. Senate after he accepted a commission in the Confederate Army.
The Black Patch Tobacco Wars, a vigilante action, occurred in Western Kentucky in the early 20th century. As a result of the tobacco industry monopoly, tobacco farmers in the area were forced to sell their crops at prices that were too low. Many local farmers and activists united in a refusal to sell their crops to the major tobacco companies.
An Association meeting occurred in downtown Guthrie, where a vigilante wing of "Night Riders", formed. The riders terrorized farmers who sold their tobacco at the low prices demanded by the tobacco corporations. They burned several tobacco warehouses throughout the area, stretching as far west as Hopkinsville to Princeton. In the later period of their operation, they were known to physically assault farmers who broke the boycott. Governor Augustus E. Willson declared martial law and deployed the Kentucky National Guard to end the wars.
Kentucky borders seven states, from the Midwest and the Southeast. West Virginia lies to the northeast, Virginia to the east, Tennessee to the south, Missouri to the west, Illinois to the northwest, and Indiana and Ohio to the north. Only Missouri and Tennessee, both of which border eight states, touch more.
Kentucky's northern border is formed by the north shore of the Ohio River and its western border by the Mississippi River; however, the official border is based on the courses of the rivers as they existed when Kentucky became a state in 1792. For instance, northbound travelers on U.S. 41 from Henderson, after crossing the Ohio River, will be in Kentucky for about . Ellis Park, a thoroughbred racetrack, is located in this small piece of Kentucky. Waterworks Road is part of the only land border between Indiana and Kentucky.
Kentucky has a non-contiguous part known as Kentucky Bend, at the far west corner of the state. It exists as an exclave surrounded by Missouri and Tennessee, and is included in the boundaries of Fulton County. Road access to this small part of Kentucky on the Mississippi River (populated by 18 people ) requires traveling through Tennessee.
The epicenter of the 1811–12 New Madrid earthquakes was near this area, causing the Mississippi River to flow backwards in some places. Though the series of quakes changed the area geologically and affected the small number of inhabitants of the area at the time, the Kentucky Bend is the result of a surveying error, not the New Madrid earthquake.
The Bluegrass region is commonly divided into two regions, the Inner Bluegrass encircling around Lexington, and the Outer Bluegrass that contains most of the northern portion of the state, above the Knobs region. Much of the outer Bluegrass is in the Eden Shale Hills sub-region, made up of short, steep, and very narrow hills. The alluvial plain of the Ohio River is another geological region, as is the area south and east of Pine Mountain, part of the Ridge and Valley Belt of Appalachia.
The climate varies markedly within the state. The northern parts tend to be about five degrees cooler than those in the western parts of the state. Somerset in the south-central part receives ten more inches of rain per year than Covington to the north. Average temperatures for the entire state range from the low 30s in January to the high 80s in mid-July. The annual average temperature varies from : of in the far north as an average annual temperature and of in the extreme southwest.Klotter, James C. and Freda C. (2015). Faces of Kentucky. University Press of Kentucky. Page 53. .AV2 by Weigl. (2008). Discover America: Kentucky: The Bluegrass State. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Page 8. .
In general, Kentucky has relatively hot, humid, rainy summers, and moderately cold and rainy winters. Mean maximum temperatures in July vary from ; the mean minimum July temperatures are . In January the mean maximum temperatures range from ; the mean minimum temperatures range from . Temperature means vary with northern and far-eastern mountain regions averaging five degrees cooler year-round, compared to the relatively warmer areas of the southern and western regions of the state. Precipitation varies north to south with the north averaging of , and the south averaging of . Days per year below the freezing point vary from about sixty days in the southwest to more than a hundred days in the far-north and far-east.Jones, Ronald (2005). Plant Life of Kentucky: An Illustrated Guide to the Vascular Flora. University Press of Kentucky. Page 11. .
| Monthly average high and low temperatures for various Kentucky cities ( °F) | ||||||||||||
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| Tornado outbreak of December 10–11, 2021 | December 10–11, 2021 | 74 | Kentucky, 5 other states |
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| Tornado outbreak sequence of May 15–16, 2025 | May 15–16, 2025 | 19 | Kentucky, 6 other states |
Though it has only three major natural lakes, (1992). 9780813117720, The University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 9780813117720 Kentucky is home to many . It has the largest artificial lakes east of the Mississippi in both water volume (Lake Cumberland) and surface area (Kentucky Lake). Kentucky Lake's of shoreline, of water surface, and of flood storage are the most of any lake in the Tennessee Valley Authority system.Tennessee Valley Authority, The Kentucky Project: A Comprehensive Report on the Planning, Design, Construction, and Initial Operations of the Kentucky Project, Technical Report No. 13 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1951), pp. 1–12, 68, 115–116, 509.
Kentucky's of streams provides one of the most expansive and complex stream systems in the nation.
Kentucky has an expansive park system, which includes one national park, two National Recreation Areas, two National Historic Parks, two national forests, two National Wildlife Refuges, 45 , of state forest, and 82 wildlife management areas.
Kentucky has been part of two of the most successful wildlife reintroduction projects in United States history. In the winter of 1997, the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources began to re-stock elk in the state's eastern counties, which had been extirpated from the area for over 150 years. , the herd had reached the project goal of 10,000 animals, making it the largest herd east of the Mississippi River.
The state stocked in the 1950s, after reportedly having fewer than 900. Once nearly extinct, wild turkeys thrive throughout Kentucky. Hunters reported a record 29,006 birds taken during the 23-day season in spring 2009.
In 1991 the Land Between the Lakes partnered with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for the Red Wolf Recovery Program, a captive breeding program.
County government, under the Kentucky Constitution of 1891, is vested in the County Judge/Executive, (formerly called the County Judge) who serves as the executive head of the county, and a legislature called a Fiscal Court. Despite the unusual name, the Fiscal Court no longer has judiciary functions.
The state's second-largest city is Lexington with a 2018 census population of 323,780, its metro had a population of 516,697, and its CSA, which includes the Frankfort and Richmond statistical areas, having a population of 746,310. The Northern Kentucky area, which comprises the seven Kentucky counties in the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky metropolitan area, had a population of 447,457 in 2018. The metropolitan areas of Louisville, Lexington, and Northern Kentucky have a combined population of 2,402,958 , which is 54% of the state's total population on only about 19% of the state's land. This area is often referred to as the Golden triangle as it contains a majority of the state's wealth, population, population growth, and economic growth, it is where most of the state's largest cities by population are located. It is referred to as the Golden triangle as the metro areas of Lexington, Louisville, and Northern Kentucky/Cincinnati outline a triangle shape. Interstates I-71, I-75, and I-64 form the triangle shape. Additionally, all counties in Kentucky that are part of an MSA or CSA have a total population of 2,970,694, which is 67% of the state's population.
Bowling Green had a population of 67,067, making it the third most populous city in the state. The Bowling Green metropolitan area had an estimated population of 174,835; and the combined statistical area it shares with Glasgow has an estimated population of 228,743.
The two other fast-growing urban areas in Kentucky are the Bowling Green area and the "Tri-Cities Region" of southeastern Kentucky, comprising Somerset, London and Corbin.
Although only one town in the "Tri-Cities" (Somerset) currently has more than 12,000 people, the area has been experiencing heightened population and job growth since the 1990s. Growth has been especially rapid in Laurel County, which outgrew areas such as Scott and Jessamine counties around Lexington or Shelby and Nelson Counties around Louisville. London significantly grew in population in the 2000s, from 5,692 in 2000 to 7,993 in 2010. London landed a Walmart distribution center in 1997, bringing thousands of jobs to the community.
In northeast Kentucky, the greater Ashland area is an important transportation, manufacturing, and medical center. Iron and petroleum production, as well as the transport of coal by rail and barge, have been historical pillars of the region's economy. Due to a decline in the area's industrial base, Ashland has seen a sizable reduction in its population since 1990; however, the population of the area has since stabilized with the medical service industry taking a greater role in the local economy. The Ashland area, including the counties of Boyd and Greenup, is part of the Huntington-Ashland, WV-KY-OH, Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). As of the 2000 census, the MSA had a population of 288,649. More than 21,000 of those people () reside within the city limits of Ashland.
The largest county in Kentucky by area is Pike, which contains Pikeville and suburb Coal Run Village. The county and surrounding area is the most populated region in the state that is not part of a Micropolitan Statistical Area or a Metropolitan Statistical Area containing nearly 200,000 people in five counties: Floyd County, Martin County, Letcher County, and neighboring Mingo County, West Virginia. Pike County contains slightly more than 68,000 people.
Only three U.S. states have capitals with smaller populations than Kentucky's Frankfort (pop. 25,527): Augusta, Maine (pop. 18,560), Pierre, South Dakota (pop. 13,876), and Montpelier, Vermont (pop. 8,035).
As of July 1, 2016, Kentucky had an estimated population of 4,436,974, which is an increase of 12,363 from the prior year and an increase of 97,607, or 2.2%, since the year 2010. This includes a natural increase since the last census of 73,541 people (that is 346,968 births minus 273,427 deaths) and an increase due to net migration of 26,135 people into the state. Immigration from outside the United States resulted in a net increase of 40,051 people, and migration within the country produced a net decrease of 13,916 people. , Kentucky's population included about 149,016 foreign-born persons (3.4%). In 2016 the population density of the state was . Mexico, India, Cuba, China, and Guatemala are the top five countries of origin for Kentucky's immigrants.
Kentucky's population has grown every decade since records began, though during most decades of the 20th century there was net out-migration from the state. Since 1900, rural Kentucky counties have suffered a net loss of more than a million people to migration, while urban areas have experienced a slight net gain.
Kentucky's center of population is in Washington County, in the city of Willisburg.
According to HUD's 2022 Annual Homeless Assessment Report, there were an estimated 3,984 Homelessness people in Kentucky.
Life expectancy in Kentucky was 72.5 years in 2021.
| Ethnic composition as of the 2020 census | ||
| White (non-Hispanic) | ||
| African American (non-Hispanic) | ||
| Hispanic or Latino | ||
| Asian Americans | ||
| Native American | ||
| Pacific Islander | ||
| Other |
| + Historical racial demographics |
| 82.4% |
| 8.0% |
| 1.7% |
| 0.3% |
| 0.1% |
| 2.1% |
| 5.4% |
| + Kentucky – Racial and ethnic composition !Race / Ethnicity ( NH = Non-Hispanic) !Pop 2000 !Pop 2010 ! !% 2000 !% 2010 ! | |||
| White alone (NH) | 3,608,013 | 3,745,655 | 81.33% |
| Black or African American alone (NH) | 293,639 | 333,075 | 7.94% |
| Native American or Alaska Native alone (NH) | 7,939 | 8,642 | 0.18% |
| Asian Americans alone (NH) | 29,368 | 48,338 | 1.64% |
| Pacific Islander alone (NH) | 1,275 | 2,074 | 0.08% |
| Other race alone (NH) | 3,846 | 4,634 | 0.33% |
| Mixed race or Multiracial (NH) | 37,750 | 64,113 | 3.89% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 59,939 | 132,836 | 4.61% |
| Total | 4,041,769 | 4,339,367 | 100.00% |
According to U.S. Census Bureau official statistics, the state's largest ancestry in 2013 was American, totalling 20.2%. In 1980, before the status of ethnic American was an available option on the official census, the largest claimed ancestries in the commonwealth were English American (49.6%), Irish American (26.3%), and German American (24.2%). Sharing the Dream: White Males in a Multicultural America By Dominic J. Pulera. In the urban counties of Jefferson, Oldham, Fayette, Boone, Kenton, and Campbell, German is the largest reported ancestry. Americans of Scotch-Irish and English American ancestry are present throughout the entire state. Many residents claim Irish ancestry on account of Scotch-Irish (Ulster Scots) descent. In the 1980s, the only counties in the United States where over half of the population cited "English" as their only ancestry group were in eastern Kentucky.
In the 2000 census, some 20,000 people (0.49%) in the state self-identified as Native American. The state has no federally recognized tribes or state-recognized tribes.
African Americans, who before the Civil War were mostly slaves, made up 25% of Kentucky's population around that time; they were held and worked primarily in the central Bluegrass region, an area of hemp and tobacco cultivation as well as the raising of blooded livestock. The number of African Americans living in Kentucky declined during the 20th century amid the Great Migration. In the 2020 Census, 362,417 Kentucky residents were identified as African American (8% of the total 4,505,836). The state's African-American population is highly urbanized, with 44.2% living in Jefferson County and 52% living in the broader Louisville metropolitan area. Other areas with high concentrations include Christian and Fulton counties and the cities of Paducah and Lexington. African Americans in the seven counties of Jefferson (168,910), Fayette (48,076), Christian (15,527), Warren (12,933), Hardin (12,825), Kenton (8,195), and McCracken (7,598) make up more than 75% of all African Americans in the state.
The Hispanic and Asian populations in Kentucky are small but have grown significantly since the late 20th century. Most of Kentucky's Hispanic residents are of Mexican ancestry, while most of Kentucky's Asian residents are of Chinese and Indian heritage. There is also a Vietnamese community in Lexington and Louisville, and Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Lao populations in Bowling Green.
Spanish language is the second-most-spoken language in Kentucky, after English.
Being a Southern state in the Bible Belt, Kentucky is predominantly Christian and is home to several seminaries. Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville is the principal seminary for the Southern Baptist Convention. Louisville is the home of the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, an institution of the Presbyterian Church (USA). Lexington has one seminary, Lexington Theological Seminary (affiliated with the Disciples of Christ). The Baptist Seminary of Kentucky is located on the campus of Georgetown College in Georgetown. Asbury Theological Seminary, a multi-denominational seminary in the Methodism tradition, is located in nearby Wilmore.
In addition to seminaries, there are several colleges affiliated with denominations:
Louisville is home to the Cathedral of the Assumption, the third-oldest Catholic cathedral in continuous use in the United States. The city holds the headquarters of the Presbyterian Church (USA) and their printing press. Reflecting late 19th, 20th and 21st-century immigration from different countries, Louisville also has , Muslim, and Hindu communities.
In 1996 the Center for Interfaith Relations established the Festival of Faiths, the first and oldest annual interfaith festival to be held in the United States.
The Christian creationist apologetics group, Answers in Genesis, along with its Creation Museum, is headquartered in Petersburg, Kentucky.
Early in its history, Kentucky gained recognition for its excellent farming conditions. It was the site of the first commercial winery in the United States (started in present-day Jessamine County in 1799) and due to the high calcium content of the soil in the Bluegrass region quickly became a major horse breeding (and later racing) area.
In 2006, Kentucky ranked 5th nationally in goat farming, 8th in beef cattle production, and 14th in corn production. Kentucky has been a long-standing major center of the tobacco industryboth as a center of business and tobacco farming.
Kentucky's economy has expanded to in non-agricultural terms as well, especially auto manufacturing, energy fuel production, and medical facilities.
Kentucky ranked 4th among U.S. states in the number of automobiles and trucks assembled in 2003.
Kentucky has historically been a major coal producer, but the industry has been in decline since the 1980s, and the number employed dropped by more than half between 2011 and 2015.
, 24% of electricity produced in the U.S. depended on either enriched uranium rods coming from the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant (the only domestic site of low-grade uranium enrichment, which ceased operations in 2013), or from the 107,000 tons of coal extracted from the state's two coal fields (which combined produce 4% percent of the electricity in the US). In August 2025, General Matter, an American uranium enrichment company, signed a lease with the U.S. Department of Energy for the former Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant. Plans for the $1.5 billion updated facility include uranium enrichment technology for the production of fuel needed for the next generation of nuclear energy. In January 2026, General Matter received a $900 million contract from the U.S. Department of Energy for re-shoring to produce American enriched uranium.
Kentucky produces 95% of the world's supply of bourbon whiskey, and the number of barrels of bourbon being aged in Kentucky (more than 5.7million) exceeds the state's population. Bourbon has been a growing marketwith production of Kentucky bourbon rising 170 percent between 1999 and 2015. In 2019 the state had more than fifty distilleries for bourbon production.
Kentucky exports reached $22.1billion in 2012, with products and services going to 199 countries.
Fort Knox, a United States Army post best known as the site of the United States Bullion Depository, which is used to house a large portion of the United States official gold reserves, is located in Kentucky between Louisville and Elizabethtown. In May 2010, the Army Human Resource Center of Excellence, the largest office building in the state consisting of six interconnected, three-story buildings, at nearly , opened at Fort Knox. The complex consolidated facilities from Virginia, Indiana and Missouri, and employs nearly 4,300 soldiers and civilians.
The new Louisville VA Medical Center, with a 34-acre campus, is scheduled for completion in late 2026, with its first patient in 2027. This nearly $1 billion, million-square-foot facility on Brownsboro Road features 104 beds and advanced modern state-of-the-art medical services. Replacing a 75-year-old facility, it will serve over 45,000 veterans in Kentucky and Southern Indiana. Hundreds of health care workers will be employed at the center.
Kentucky contains two of the twenty U.S. Federal Penitentiaries: USP Big Sandy (in the east in Martin County near Inez) and USP McCreary (in the south in McCreary County in the Daniel Boone National Forest).
Kentucky has become one of the fastest growing states for AI and cloud computing data center developments, with roughly 30 large data center projects that are in various stages of discussion across Kentucky. Currently under development, the data center in Hawesville, Hancock County, has the potential to become a massive $14 billion development. However, there are many local communities that are grappling with environmental concerns, and the prospect of hyperscale data center projects, with massive, sprawling warehouses of power intensive computer clusters driving up their electricity demand. Kentucky currently has a data center tax break on the books, although the state has not awarded any of these exemptions yet. There is intense debate about their costs and benefits. In July 2026, the Department of Energy announced a new privately funded $100 billion AI data center campus in Paducah, to be developed by a consortium led by Brookfield Asset Management and NextEra Energy.
Since 2020, major economic announcements have accelerated throughout the state. Many major US and foreign corporations, including Raytheon, UPS, Amazon, ExxonMobil, Apple, Envision AESC, Canadian Solar, General Matter, General Motors, Ford, GE Appliances, Kingspan Group, Toyota, Foxconn, Kroger, and Beam Suntory, have expanded their presence.
Kentucky has a broadly based classified property tax system. All classes of property, unless exempted by the Constitution, are taxed by the state, although at widely varying rates. Many of these classes are exempted from taxation by local government. Of the classes that are subject to local taxation, three have special rates set by the General Assembly, one by the Kentucky Supreme Court and the remaining classes are subject to the full local rate, which includes the tax rate set by the local taxing bodies plus all voted levies. Real property is assessed on 100% of the fair market value and property taxes are due by December 31. Once the primary source of state and local government revenue, property taxes now account for only about 6% of the Kentucky's annual General Fund revenues.
Until January 1, 2006, Kentucky imposed a tax on intangible personal property held by a taxpayer on January1 of each year. The Kentucky intangible tax was repealed under House Bill 272. Intangible property consisted of any property or investment that represents evidence of value or the right to value. Some types of intangible property included: bonds, notes, retail repurchase agreements, accounts receivable, trusts, enforceable contracts sale of real estate (land contracts), money in hand, money in safe deposit boxes, annuities, interests in estates, loans to stockholders, and commercial paper.
In 2023, Kentucky launched a regulated local and online sports betting industry. Taxing sportsbooks at 9.75% (in person) and 14.25% (online), the first two months of action saw the state collect $7.94 million.
The state also has religious destinations such as the Creation Museum and Ark Encounter of Answers in Genesis.
In December 2002, Kentucky governor Paul E. Patton unveiled the state slogan "It's that friendly", in the hope of drawing more people into the state based on the idea of southern hospitality. Though it was meant to embrace southern values, many Kentuckians rejected the slogan as cheesy and generic. It was seen that the slogan did not encourage tourism as much as initially hoped for.
In 2004, then Governor Ernie Fletcher launched a comprehensive campaign with the hope of making the state's $12–14million advertising budget more effective. The resulting "Unbridled Spirit" brand was the result of a $500,000 contract with New West, a Kentucky-based public relations advertising and marketing firm, to develop a viable brand and tag line. The Fletcher administration aggressively marketed the brand in both the public and private sectors. Since that time, the "Welcome to Kentucky" signs at border areas have an "Unbridled Spirit" symbol on them.
The University of Kentucky (UK) and the University of Louisville (UofL) have the highest academic rankings and admissions standards although the regional schools are not without their national recognized departmentsexamples being Western Kentucky University's nationally ranked Journalism Department or Morehead State University offering one of the nation's only Space Science degrees. UK is the flagship and land grant of the system and has agriculture extension services in every county. The two research schools split duties related to the medical field, UK handles all medical outreach programs in the eastern half of the state while UofL does all medical outreach in the state's western half.
The state's sixteen public two-year colleges have been governed by the Kentucky Community and Technical College System since the passage of the Postsecondary Education Improvement Act of 1997, commonly referred to as House Bill 1. Before the passage of House Bill 1, most of these colleges were under the control of the University of Kentucky.
Transylvania University, a liberal arts university located in Lexington, was founded in 1780 as the oldest university west of the Allegheny Mountains.
Berea College, located at the extreme southern edge of the Bluegrass below the Cumberland Plateau, was the first coeducational college in the South to admit both Black and white students, doing so from its very establishment in 1855. A state law in 1904 ended integration, and the law was upheld by the United States Supreme Court in the case of Berea College v. Kentucky in 1908.The state law was repealed in 1950 and Berea resumed integration.Shannon H. Wilson, Berea College: An Illustrated History (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2006).
There are 173 school districts and 1,233 public schools in Kentucky. For the 2010 to 2011 school year, there were approximately 647,827 students enrolled in public school.
Kentucky has been the site of much educational reform over the past two decades. In 1989 the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled the state's education system was unconstitutional. The response of the General Assembly was passage of the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA) the following year. Years later, Kentucky has shown progress, but most agree that further reform is needed.
The West Virginia teachers' strike in 2018 inspired teachers in other states, including Kentucky, to take similar action.
In June 2007, a law went into effect raising the speed limit on rural portions of Kentucky Interstates and parkways from .
The multi-billion-dollar Brent Spence Bridge Corridor Project across the Ohio River will construct a new double-deck companion bridge to carry interstate highway through-traffic, while the existing Brent Spence Bridge will be reconfigured for local traffic only, between Cincinnati and Covington. Approximately eight miles of improved roadways spanning Kentucky and Ohio will be constructed. The total project cost is estimated at $3.6 billion, and a federal grant of $1.6 billion was awarded in late 2022 to the project, with the remaining cost evenly split between Ohio and Kentucky. Major construction is expected to begin in 2026. Gov. Beshear said there will be no tolls. Also across the Ohio River, the I-69 Ohio River Crossing has been under development since 2022. Connecting Evansville, Indiana and Henderson, Kentucky, the bridge will cost around $1.5 billion. Construction is slated to start in 2027, with a hopeful completion date around 2031.
Road tunnels include the interstate Cumberland Gap Tunnel and the rural Nada Tunnel.
Norfolk Southern Railway passes through the Central and Southern parts of the commonwealth, via its Cincinnati, New Orleans, and Texas Pacific (CNO&TP) subsidiary. The line originates in Cincinnati and terminates 338 miles south in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
, there were approximately of railways in Kentucky, with about 65% of those being operated by CSX Transportation. Bituminous coal was by far the most common cargo, accounting for 76% of cargo loaded and 61% of cargo delivered. Also, Norfolk Southern's main north–south line runs through central and southern Kentucky, starting in Cincinnati. Formerly the CNO&TP subsidiary of Southern Railway, it is NS's most profitable line.
Bardstown features a tourist attraction known as My Old Kentucky Dinner Train. Run along a stretch of rail purchased from CSX in 1987, guests are served a four-course meal as they make a two-and-a-half-hour round-trip between Bardstown and Limestone Springs. The Kentucky Railway Museum is located in nearby New Haven.
Other areas in Kentucky are reclaiming old railways in rail trail projects. One such project is Louisville's Big Four Bridge. When the bridge's Indiana approach ramps opened in 2014, completing the pedestrian connection across the Ohio River, the Big Four Bridge rail trail became the second-longest pedestrian-only bridge in the world. The longest pedestrian-only bridge is also found in Kentuckythe Newport Southbank Bridge, popularly known as the "Purple People Bridge", connecting Newport to Cincinnati.
On August 27, 2006, Blue Grass Airport was the site of a crash that killed 47 passengers and 2crew members aboard a Bombardier CRJ designated Comair Flight 191, or Delta Air Lines Flight 5191, sometimes mistakenly identified by the press as Comair Flight 5191. The lone survivor was the flight's first officer, James Polehinke, who doctors determined to be brain damaged and unable to recall the crash at all.
Many of the largest ports in the United States are located in or adjacent to Kentucky, including:
As a state, Kentucky ranks 10th overall in port tonnage.
The only natural obstacle along the entire length of the Ohio River is the Falls of the Ohio, located just west of Downtown Louisville.
The "Commonwealth" term was used in citizen petitions submitted between 1786 and 1792 for the creation of the state. It was also used in the title of a history of the state that was published in 1834 and was used in various places within that book in references to Virginia and Kentucky.Butler, Mann, A History of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, Wilcox, Dickerman & Co., 1834. The other three states officially called "commonwealths" are Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia; the territories of Puerto Rico and the Northern Mariana Islands are also formally commonwealths.
Kentucky is one of only five states that elect their state officials in odd-numbered years (the others being Louisiana, Mississippi, New Jersey, and Virginia). Kentucky holds elections for these offices every four years in the years preceding Presidential election years. Thus, Kentucky held gubernatorial elections in 2015, 2019 and 2023.
The executive branch is organized into the following "cabinets", each headed by a secretary who is also a member of the governor's cabinet:
The cabinet system was introduced in 1972 by Governor Wendell Ford to consolidate hundreds of government entities that reported directly to the governor's office. (2013). 9780813143156, University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 9780813143156
Other elected constitutional offices include the secretary of state, attorney general, auditor of public accounts, state treasurer, and commissioner of agriculture. Currently, Republican Michael G. Adams serves as the secretary of state. The commonwealth's chief prosecutor, law enforcement officer, and law officer is the attorney general, currently Republican Russell Coleman. The auditor of public accounts is Republican Allison Ball. Republican Mark Metcalf is the current treasurer. Republican Jonathan Shell is the current commissioner of agriculture.
In 2016, Republicans won control of the House for the first time since 1922. The party currently holds supermajorities in both chambers.
The Kentucky Court of Justice is headed by the Chief Justice of the Commonwealth. The chief justice is appointed by, and is an elected member of, the Supreme Court of Kentucky. The current chief justice is Laurance VanMeter.
Unlike federal judges, who are usually appointed, justices serving on Kentucky state courts are chosen by the state's populace in non-partisan elections.
In the federal judiciary, Kentucky is served by two United States district courts: the Eastern District of Kentucky, with its primary seat in Lexington, and the Western District of Kentucky, with its primary seat in Louisville. Appeals are heard in the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, based in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Kentucky is one of the 32 states in the United States that sanctions the death penalty for certain murders defined as heinous. Those convicted of capital crimes after March 31, 1998, are always executed by lethal injection; those convicted on or before this date may opt for the electric chair. Only three people have been executed in Kentucky since the U.S. Supreme Court re-instituted the practice in 1976. The most notable execution in Kentucky was that of Rainey Bethea on August 14, 1936. Bethea was publicly hanged in Owensboro for the rape and murder of Lischia Edwards. Irregularities with the execution led to this becoming the last public execution in the United States.
Kentucky has been on the front lines of the debate over displaying the Ten Commandments on public property. In the 2005 case of McCreary County v. ACLU of Kentucky, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the decision of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals that a display of the Ten Commandments in the Whitley City courthouse of McCreary County was unconstitutional. Later that year, Judge Richard Fred Suhrheinrich, writing for the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in the case of ACLU of Kentucky v. Mercer County, wrote that a display including the Mayflower Compact, the Declaration of Independence, the Ten Commandments, Magna Carta, The Star-Spangled Banner, and the national motto could be erected in the Mercer County courthouse.
Kentucky has been known to have unusually high political candidacy age laws, especially compared to surrounding states. The origin of this is unknown.
| + Voter registration as of August 1, 2026 | |||
| Republican | 1,622,656 | 48.05 | |
| Democratic | 1,370,754 | 40.59 | |
| Independent | 178,517 | 5.29 | |
| Libertarian | 15,892 | 0.47 | |
| Green | 2,603 | 0.08 | |
| Constitution | 1,622 | 0.05 | |
| Socialist Workers | 733 | 0.02 | |
| Kentucky Party | 281 | 0.01 | |
| Reform | 245 | 0.01 | |
| "Other" | 183,996 | 5.45 | |
| Total | 3,377,299 | 100.0 | |
Since the late 1990s, Kentucky has supported Republican candidates for most federal political offices, and, more recently, for state-level office as well. The state leaned toward the Democratic Party from 1860 through the 1990s, and was considered a swing state at the presidential level for most of the latter half of the 20th century.
The southeastern region of the state aligned with the Union during the war and has consistently supported Republican candidates. The central and western portions of the state were heavily Democratic in the years leading to the Civil War, were pro-secessionist and pro-Confederate during the Civil War, and in the decades following the war. Kentucky was part of the Democratic Solid South in the second half of the nineteenth century and through the majority of the twentieth century.
Mirroring a broader national reversal of party composition, the Kentucky Democratic Party of the twenty-first century primarily consists of liberal whites, African Americans, and other minorities. Although most of the state's voters have reliably elected Republican candidates for federal office since the late 1990s, Democrats held an advantage in party registration until 2022. On July 15, 2022, the Kentucky secretary of state's office announced that for the first time in its history, the commonwealth had more registered Republicans than registered Democrats, with 45.19% of the state's voters registered as Republicans, 45.12% registered as Democrats, and 9.69% registered with another political party or as independents.
From 1964 through 2004, Kentucky voted for the eventual winner of the election for President of the United States; however, in the 2008 election the state lost its bellwether status. Republican John McCain won Kentucky, but he lost the national popular and electoral vote to Democrat Barack Obama (McCain carried Kentucky 57% to 41%). 116 of Kentucky's 120 counties supported former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney in the 2012 election while he lost to Barack Obama nationwide.
Voters in the commonwealth have supported the previous three Democratic candidates elected to the White House in the late 20th century, all from Southern states: Lyndon B. Johnson (Texas) in 1964, Jimmy Carter (Georgia) in 1976, and Bill Clinton (Arkansas) in 1992 and 1996. In the twenty-first century presidential elections, the state has become a Republican stronghold, supporting that party's presidential candidates by double-digit margins from 2000 through 2020. At the same time, voters have continued to elect Democratic candidates to state and local offices in many jurisdictions.
Elliott County, Kentucky is notable for having held the longest streak of any county in the United States voting Democratic. Founded in 1869, Elliott County supported the Democratic nominee in every presidential election from 1872 (the first in which it participated) until 2012. In 2016, Donald Trump became the first Republican to ever carry the county, and he did so in a 44-point landslide, highlighting the modern Republican Party's dominance among rural whites and many ancestrally Democratic, socially-conservative voters.
Kentucky is one of the most anti-abortion states in the United States. A 2014 poll conducted by Pew Research Center found that 57% of Kentucky's population thought that abortion should be illegal in all/most cases, while only 36% thought that abortion should be legal in all/most cases.
In a 2020 study, Kentucky was ranked as the 8th hardest state for citizens to vote in.
Nevertheless, during the 19th century, Kentucky did receive a substantial number of German immigrants, who settled mostly in the Midwest and parts of the Upper South, along the Ohio River primarily in Louisville, Covington and Newport. Only Maryland, Delaware and West Virginia have higher German ancestry percentages than Kentucky among Census-defined Southern states, although Kentucky's percentage is closer to Arkansas and Virginia's than the previously named state's percentages. Scottish Americans, and Scotch-Irish Americans have heavily influenced Kentucky culture, and are present in every part of the state. As of the 1980s the only counties in the United States where more than half the population cited "English" as their only ancestry group were all in the hills of eastern Kentucky (and made up virtually every county in this region).
Kentucky was a slave state, and Black people once composed over one-quarter of its population; however, it lacked the cotton plantation system though it did support significant and large scale tobacco plantation systems in the western and central parts of the state more similar to the plantations developed in Virginia and North Carolina than those in the Deep South, and never had the same high percentage of African Americans as most other slave states. While less than 8% of the total population is Black, Kentucky has a relatively significant rural African American population in the Central and Western areas of the state.
Kentucky adopted the Jim Crow system of racial segregation in most public spheres after the Civil War. Louisville's 1914 ordinance for residential racial segregation was struck down by the Supreme Court in 1917. However, in 1908 Kentucky enacted the Day Law, "An Act to Prohibit White and Colored Persons from Attending the Same School", which Berea College unsuccessfully challenged at the US Supreme Court in 1908. In 1948, Lyman T. Johnson filed suit for admission to the University of Kentucky; as a result, nearly thirty African American students entered UK graduate and professional programs in the summer of 1949. Kentucky integrated its schools after the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education verdict, later adopting the first state civil rights act in the South in 1966.
Kentucky commemorates Confederate Memorial Day but added Juneteenth as a holiday by proclamation of Governor Andy Beshear in 2024. The biggest day in American horse racing, the Kentucky Derby, is preceded by the two-week Derby Festival in Louisville. The Derby Festival features many events, including Thunder Over Louisville, the Pegasus Parade, the Great Steamboat Race, Fest-a-Ville, the Chow Wagon, BalloonFest, BourbonVille, and many others leading up to the big race.
Louisville also plays host to the Kentucky State Fair and the Kentucky Shakespeare Festival. Bowling Green, the state's third-largest city and home to the only assembly plant in the world that manufactures the Chevrolet Corvette, opened the National Corvette Museum in 1994. The fourth-largest city, Owensboro, gives credence to its nickname of "Barbecue Capital of the World" by hosting the annual International Bar-B-Q Festival.
Old Louisville, the largest historic preservation district in the United States featuring Victorian architecture and the third largest overall, hosts the St. James Court Art Show, the largest outdoor art show in the United States. The neighborhood was also home to the Southern Exposition (1883–1887), which featured the first public display of Thomas Edison's light bulb, and was the setting of Alice Hegan Rice's novel, Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch.
Fairview was the birthplace of Jefferson Davis, who would become President of the Confederate States of America; the town had the Jefferson Davis Memorial, a 351-foot concrete obelisk, built in 1917. Hodgenville, the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln, hosts the annual Lincoln Days Celebration, and also hosted the kick-off for the National Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Celebration in February 2008. Bardstown celebrates its heritage as a major bourbon-producing region with the Kentucky Bourbon Festival. Glasgow mimics Glasgow, Scotland by hosting the Glasgow Highland Games, its own version of the Highland Games, and Sturgis hosts "Little Sturgis", a mini version of Sturgis, South Dakota's annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.
The state is famous for quilts. The National Quilt Museum is in Paducah. It hosts QuiltWeek, an annual competition and celebration of that attracts artists and hobbyists from the world of quilting.Linda Elisabeth LaPinta, Kentucky Quilts and Quiltmakers: Three Centuries of Creativity, Community, and Commerce (University Press of Kentucky, 2023) online review of this book.
Winchester celebrates an original Kentucky creation, Beer Cheese, with its Beer Cheese Festival held annually in June. Beer Cheese was developed in Clark County at some point in the 1940s along the Kentucky River.
The residents of tiny Benton pay tribute to their favorite tuber, the sweet potato, by hosting Tater Day. Residents of Clarkson in Grayson County celebrate their city's ties to the honey industry by celebrating the Clarkson Honeyfest. The Clarkson Honeyfest is held the last Thursday, Friday and Saturday in September, and is the "Official State Honey Festival of Kentucky".
Contemporary Christian music star Steven Curtis Chapman is a Paducah native, and Rock and Roll Hall of Famers the Everly Brothers are closely connected with Muhlenberg County, where older brother Don was born. Merle Travis, Country andWestern artist known for both his signature "Travis picking" guitar playing style, as well as his hit song "Sixteen Tons", was also born in Muhlenberg County. Kentucky was also home to Mildred Hill and Patty Hill, the Louisville sisters credited with composing the tune to the ditty Happy Birthday to You in 1893; Loretta Lynn (Johnson County), Brian Littrell and Kevin Richardson of the Backstreet Boys, and Billy Ray Cyrus (Flatwoods).
However, its depth lies in its signature soundBluegrass music. Bill Monroe, "The Father of Bluegrass", was born in the small Ohio County town of Rosine, while Ricky Skaggs, Keith Whitley, David "Stringbean" Akeman, Grandpa Jones, Sonny and Bobby Osborne, and Sam Bush (who has been compared to Monroe) all hail from Kentucky. The Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum is located in Owensboro, while the annual Festival of the Bluegrass is held in Lexington.
Kentucky was also home to famed jazz musician Lionel Hampton. Blues legend W. C. Handy and R&B singer Wilson Pickett also spent considerable time in Kentucky. The R&B group Midnight Star and Hip-Hop group Nappy Roots were both formed in Kentucky, as were country acts the Kentucky Headhunters, Montgomery Gentry, Halfway to Hazard, the Judds, and Dove Award-winning Christian groups Audio Adrenaline and Bride. Black Stone Cherry hails from rural Edmonton. Indie rock bands Slint, My Morning Jacket, Wax Fang, White Reaper, and Tantric formed in Louisville; indie rock bands Cage the Elephant, Sleeper Agent, and Morning Teleportation are from Bowling Green. The bluegrass groups Driftwood and Kentucky Rain, along with Nick Lachey of the pop band 98 Degrees are also from Kentucky. King Crimson guitarist Adrian Belew is from Covington. Noted singer and actress Rosemary Clooney was a native of Maysville, her legacy being celebrated at the annual music festival bearing her name. Noted songwriter and actor Will Oldham is from Louisville. More recently in the limelight are country artists Chris Stapleton, Sturgill Simpson, Tyler Childers, and Chris Knight.
In eastern Kentucky, old-time music carries on the tradition of ancient ballads and reels developed in historical Appalachia.
Author Thomas Merton lived most of his life and wrote most of his booksincluding The Seven Storey Mountain (1948), ranked on National Review list of the 100 best non-fiction books of the centuryduring his time as a monk at the Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani near Bardstown, Kentucky. Author Hunter S. Thompson is also a native of the state. Since the later part of the 20th century, several writers from Kentucky have published widely read and critically acclaimed books, including: Wendell Berry (Floruit 1960–), Silas House (fl. 2001–), Barbara Kingsolver (fl. 1988–), poet Maurice Manning (fl. 2001–), and Bobbie Ann Mason (fl. 1988–).
Well-known playwrights from Kentucky include Marsha Norman (works include 'night, Mother, 1983), Naomi Wallace (works include One Flea Spare, 1995), and George C. Wolfe (works include Jelly's Last Jam, 1992).
Colonel Sanders, a Kentucky colonel, originated Kentucky Fried Chicken at his service station in North Corbin, though the first franchised KFC was located in South Salt Lake, Utah.
The northern part of the state lies across the Ohio River from Cincinnati, which is home to the National Football League's Cincinnati Bengals, Major League Baseball's Cincinnati Reds. It is not uncommon for fans to park in the city of Newport and use the Newport Southbank Pedestrian Bridge, locally known as the "Purple People Bridge", to walk to these games in Cincinnati. Georgetown College in Georgetown was the location for the Bengals' summer training camp, until it was announced in 2012 that the Bengals would no longer use the facilities.
As in many states, especially those without major league professional sports teams, college athletics are prominent. This is especially true of the state's three DivisionI Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) programs, including the Kentucky Wildcats, the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers, and the Louisville Cardinals. The Wildcats, Hilltoppers, and Cardinals are among the most tradition-rich college men's basketball teams in the United States, combining for 11 National Championships and 24 NCAA Final Fours; all three are high on the lists of total all-time wins, wins per season, and average wins per season.
The Kentucky Wildcats are particularly notable, leading all DivisionI programs in all-time wins, win percentage, NCAA tournament appearances, and being second only to UCLA in NCAA championships. Louisville has stepped onto the football scene, including winning the 2007 Orange Bowl as well as the 2013 Sugar Bowl, and producing 2016 Heisman Trophy winner Lamar Jackson. Western Kentucky, the 2002 national champion in DivisionI-AA football (now Football Championship Subdivision (FCS)), completed its transition to DivisionI FBS football in 2009.
The Kentucky Derby is a horse race held annually in Louisville on the first Saturday in May. The Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville has hosted several editions of the PGA Championship, Senior PGA Championship and Ryder Cup since the 1990s.
The NASCAR Cup Series held a race at the Kentucky Speedway in Sparta, Kentucky from 2011 to 2020. The NASCAR Nationwide Series and the Camping World Truck Series raced there through 2020. The IndyCar Series previously raced there as well.
Ohio Valley Wrestling in Louisville was the primary location for training and rehab for WWE professional wrestlers from 2000 until 2008, when WWE moved its contracted talent to Florida Championship Wrestling. OVW later became the primary developmental territory for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) from 2011 to 2013.
In 2014 Louisville City FC, a professional soccer team in the league then known as USL Pro and now as the United Soccer League, was announced. The team made its debut in 2015, playing home games at Louisville Slugger Field. In its first season, Louisville City was the official reserve side for Orlando City SC, who made its debut in Major League Soccer at the same time. That arrangement ended in 2016 when Orlando City established a directly controlled reserve side in the USL. In 2021, Lexington SC was founded as a professional soccer team out of Lexington, competing in USL League One. They played their home games at Toyota Stadium until construction on Lexington SC Stadium was completed in 2024. In 2025, they joined the USL Championship league. The club has companion women's teams that compete in the USL W League and USL Super League.
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