The 10 Cities In Kentucky With The Highest Divorce Rates For 2023


The cities in Kentucky with the highest divorce rate are Shively and Lebanon for 2023 based on Saturday Night Science.

Cities with highest divorce rate in Kentucky research summary. We analyzed Kentucky’s most recent Census data to determine the divorce rate for each city in Kentucky based on the percentage of currently divorced residents. Here are the results of our analysis:

  • The city with the highest divorce rate in Kentucky is Shively based on the most recent Census data.

  • Shively is 18.0% Divorced.

  • The city with the lowest divorce rate in Kentucky is Oak Grove.

  • Oak Grove is 2.0% Divorced.

  • Kentucky is 9.0% Divorced.


Table Of Contents: Top Ten | Methodology | Summary | Table


There are some 323,578 people living in Kentucky over fifteen years of age who are divorced. You can compare that to the 28,339,199 Americans who are currently divorced in 2023.

Many people decide to run away – or split up – across the Bluegrass State.

Isn’t the divorce rate in America close to 50%? Yes indeed. But we’re measuring something else; we are looking at counts and percentages of people over 15 years old who are currently divorced. That 50% statistic is for the percentage of people who have ever been divorced.

For today’s analysis, the focus will be on the number of currently divorced people.

So now that we have you biting your nails, rethinking your worldview, and pulling out your hair, let’s look at the places in Kentucky with the highest rates of divorcees.

The 10 Cities In Kentucky With The Highest Divorce Rates

  1. Shively
  2. Lebanon
  3. Lawrenceburg
  4. Pikeville
  5. Leitchfield
  6. Somerset
  7. Mount Sterling
  8. Madisonville
  9. Harrodsburg
  10. Cynthiana

Let’s quickly recap before we dive into the Saturday Night Science behind the data.

What is the city in Kentucky with the highest divorce rate? That would be Shively, with 18.0% of people over 15 years of age being divorced, per the most recent census data.

What is the overall Kentucky divorce rate? According to the 2017-2021 Community Survey, the overall divorce rate in Kentucky is 9.0%, which compares to the US divorce rate of 10.9%.

Alrighty, on to how we calculated the places with the highest divorce rates in Kentucky.

For more Kentucky reading, check out:

The 10 Places With The Highest Divorce Rate In Kentucky For 2023

Shively, KY

Source: Wikipedia User | CC-BY-2.5
Overall SnackAbility

5
/10

Population: 15,638
Divorce Rate: 18.0%
Divorcees: 2,251
Median Income: $41,104
More on Shively: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Lebanon, KY

Source: Wikipedia User W.marsh | GFDL
Overall SnackAbility

5
/10

Population: 6,165
Divorce Rate: 17.0%
Divorcees: 838
Median Income: $32,191
More on Lebanon: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Lawrenceburg, KY

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

8
/10

Population: 11,675
Divorce Rate: 15.0%
Divorcees: 1,401
Median Income: $52,808
More on Lawrenceburg: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Pikeville, KY

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

5
/10

Population: 7,376
Divorce Rate: 14.0%
Divorcees: 826
Median Income: $41,094
More on Pikeville: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Leitchfield, KY

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Population: 6,427
Divorce Rate: 14.0%
Divorcees: 719
Median Income: $37,309
More on Leitchfield: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Somerset, KY

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

4
/10

Population: 11,696
Divorce Rate: 13.0%
Divorcees: 1,216
Median Income: $30,107
More on Somerset: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Mount Sterling, KY

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

5
/10

Population: 7,517
Divorce Rate: 13.0%
Divorcees: 781
Median Income: $44,676
More on Mount Sterling: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Madisonville, KY

Source: Flickr User merfam | CC BY 2.0
Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Population: 19,533
Divorce Rate: 13.0%
Divorcees: 2,031
Median Income: $46,816
More on Madisonville: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Harrodsburg, KY

Source: Wikipedia User FloNight (Sydney Poore) and Russell Poore | GFDL
Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Population: 8,952
Divorce Rate: 13.0%
Divorcees: 931
Median Income: $41,839
More on Harrodsburg: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Cynthiana, KY

Source: Wikipedia User Ed!(talk)(Hall of Fame) | CC BY-SA 3.0
Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Population: 6,291
Divorce Rate: 13.0%
Divorcees: 654
Median Income: $42,642
More on Cynthiana: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

How We Determined The Places In Kentucky That Get Un-Hitched The Most

Since this is the 58th category of rankings we are compiling for the site, we had a pretty good idea of where to find data on marriage and divorce in America — the U.S. Census Bureau. Because who likes tracking misery more than the U.S. government?

Specifically, we looked at the 2017-2021 American Community Survey table S1201 — Marital Status.

Pretty straightforward on that front — we just had to extract the following column of data:

  • Population 15 Years and Over -> Divorced

There are some interesting/fun/sad data like .1% of female Americans aged 15-19 are divorced, but 0% of males (That’s probably a rounding issue, but still).

But the national data is for another day. Today, the analysis focuses on the 80 places in Kentucky with a population of over 5,000.

We ranked each place by the percentage of divorcees over 15 years of age from highest to lowest. We crowned the divorce capital of Kentucky the place with the highest incidence of divorcees, Shively.

And if you’re trying to avoid divorce, check out Oak Grove, the city with the lowest divorce rate in Kentucky.

We updated this article for 2023 and this is our fifth time ranking the cities in Kentucky with the highest divorce rates.

Getting Some Closure In Kentucky After Untying The Know

Besides just coming up with what we thought would be a great new blog/book title, “Untying the Knot In Kentucky: Life After Divorce,” we now have a sense of what places in the Bluegrass State don’t pay much attention to the whole “’til death do we part” phrase.

Try to keep in mind that the reason cities rank where they do in Kentucky could be because of the age, education, and income distribution, as all of those things impact the rate of divorce.

And that’s probably for the best. Getting out of a toxic relationship is much better than staying in it.

Just make sure you have your running shoes ready to go.

For more Kentucky reading, check out:

Detailed List Of The Cities With The Highest Divorce Rates In Kentucky

Rank City Divorce Rate
1 Shively, KY 18.0%
2 Lebanon, KY 17.0%
3 Lawrenceburg, KY 15.0%
4 Pikeville, KY 14.0%
5 Leitchfield, KY 14.0%
6 Somerset, KY 13.0%
7 Mount Sterling, KY 13.0%
8 Madisonville, KY 13.0%
9 Harrodsburg, KY 13.0%
10 Cynthiana, KY 13.0%
11 Winchester, KY 13.0%
12 Paris, KY 12.0%
13 Hazard, KY 12.0%
14 Hopkinsville, KY 12.0%
15 Frankfort, KY 12.0%
16 London, KY 12.0%
17 Mayfield, KY 12.0%
18 Middletown, KY 12.0%
19 Middlesborough, KY 12.0%
20 Bellevue, KY 12.0%
21 Owensboro, KY 12.0%
22 Corbin, KY 12.0%
23 Berea, KY 12.0%
24 Bardstown, KY 12.0%
25 Russellville, KY 11.0%
26 Nicholasville, KY 11.0%
27 Campbellsville, KY 11.0%
28 Ashland, KY 11.0%
29 Central City, KY 11.0%
30 Glasgow, KY 11.0%
31 Danville, KY 11.0%
32 Princeton, KY 10.0%
33 Hillview, KY 10.0%
34 Shepherdsville, KY 10.0%
35 Versailles, KY 10.0%
36 Flatwoods, KY 10.0%
37 Henderson, KY 10.0%
38 Fort Mitchell, KY 10.0%
39 Maysville, KY 9.0%
40 Florence, KY 9.0%
41 Covington, KY 9.0%
42 Mount Washington, KY 9.0%
43 Louisville, KY 9.0%
44 Elizabethtown, KY 9.0%
45 Georgetown, KY 9.0%
46 Paducah, KY 9.0%
47 Taylor Mill, KY 9.0%
48 Richmond, KY 9.0%
49 Douglass Hills, KY 8.0%
50 Shelbyville, KY 8.0%
51 La Grange, KY 8.0%
52 Dayton, KY 8.0%
53 Monticello, KY 8.0%
54 Erlanger, KY 8.0%
55 Walton, KY 7.0%
56 Cold Spring, KY 7.0%
57 Lexington, KY 7.0%
58 St. Matthews, KY 7.0%
59 Jeffersontown, KY 7.0%
60 Lyndon, KY 7.0%
61 Crestwood, KY 6.0%
62 Bowling Green, KY 6.0%
63 Newport, KY 6.0%
64 Elsmere, KY 6.0%
65 Independence, KY 6.0%
66 Alexandria, KY 6.0%
67 Murray, KY 5.0%
68 Highland Heights, KY 5.0%
69 Franklin, KY 5.0%
70 Fort Thomas, KY 5.0%
71 Union, KY 5.0%
72 Radcliff, KY 5.0%
73 Wilmore, KY 4.0%
74 Villa Hills, KY 4.0%
75 Vine Grove, KY 4.0%
76 Williamsburg, KY 4.0%
77 Fort Wright, KY 4.0%
78 Edgewood, KY 3.0%
79 Morehead, KY 3.0%
80 Oak Grove, KY 2.0%