When it comes to Kentucky’s biggest cities, most people can name Louisville and Lexington. After that? It can be a crapshoot.
If you love geography and trivia, chances are you’ve probably taken a quiz or two on the subject at Sporcle.com. If you haven’t, you really should check the site out.
BetKentucky.com is not only interested in Kentucky sports betting. After we saw a quiz on Kentucky’s largest cities, we became curious about which ones drew the fewest number of correct guesses. As you can see from the list below, only four were answered correctly by half or more of the quiz takers.
Top 10 Most Forgotten Populous Kentucky Cities
Rank | City | % Guessed Correctly |
1 | Hopkinsville | 28.6% |
2 | Georgetown | 29.3% |
3 | Florence | 31.2% |
4 | Richmond | 33.2% |
5 | Elizabethtown | 38.5% |
6 | Covington | 49.2% |
7 | Owensboro | 50.4% |
8 | Bowling Green | 69.7% |
9 | Lexington | 90.0% |
10 | Louisville | 95.3% |
As a Louisville native and resident, I’ll admit there aren’t many “big” cities in the state, a fact that makes it tough for most people. And that probably goes for some Kentuckians, too.
Only Louisville and Lexington have more than 100,000 residents, a figure many would consider to be a big(ish) city. The rest of the cities listed on here are within an hour’s drive of a large metropolitan area.
For years, Owensboro has been the state’s largest city in Western Kentucky. The city of more than 60,000 is best known as the state’s hub for barbecue, and it holds an international Bar-B-Q festival every May.
Where Is Hopkinsville?
The least known city on the list, Hopkinsville, is located in southwestern Kentucky. Just outside of the city is Fort Campbell, an Army post straddling the Kentucky-Tennessee line that’s home to the 101st Airborne Division. It’s also part of the Clarksville, Tenn. metropolitan area.
According to the 2020 US Census, Hopkinsville (or Hoptown as it’s sometimes called), has a population of 31,180, making it the 10th largest city in the Bluegrass State.
Suburbs Make The List
While Cincinnati is not in Kentucky – no matter what the people of Cleveland might believe – there are a couple of its suburbs on the list. Covington is Kentucky’s fifth-largest city with a population of 40,691. It’s located on the banks of the Ohio River just south of Paycor Stadium, home of the Cincinnati Bengals.
Just 10 miles south of Covington is Florence, Kentucky’s eighth-largest city. The community of 31,946 is best known as being a retail hub for Northern Kentucky. It’s also the home for Turfway Park, one of the state’s thoroughbred racetracks owned by Churchill Downs. Horses race from early December through the end of March on the Tapeta track, a synthetic surface that tends to hold up better in less-than-ideal weather conditions.
Lexington even has a suburb on the list. Home to 37,086, Georgetown is the state’s sixth-largest city. Located just north of Lexington, Georgetown is best known as the location for Toyota’s largest automotive plant in the world. More than 430,000 vehicles came off the line there in 2023, including Camrys, RAV4S and some Lexus models.
Fast-Growing Cities Among Top 10
Thanks largely to Toyota, Georgetown has seen its population grow by 27.5% from 2010 to 2020. It’s not the only city on the list that’s seen double-digit percentage growth over that time.
Bowling Green, located in south central Kentucky roughly less than an hour from Nashville, is Kentucky’s third-largest city and home to 72,294. It’s best known for being the home of Chevrolet’s Corvette plant and where Western Kentucky University is located. Its population grew by nearly 25% from 2010 to 2020.
A half-hour south of Lexington is Richmond, the state’s seventh-biggest city. It’s home to Eastern Kentucky University, and the population of 34,585 has grown by 10.3% between census reports.
Elizabethtown, the state’s ninth largest, is located 45 minutes south of Louisville. It’s been one of the state’s fastest-growing towns over the past 40 years, more than doubling in size from 1980 to 2020 with 31,394 calling it home. While nearby Fort Knox has helped spur growth in the past, the town is likely to see even more in the near future as BlueOvalSK, a joint venture that includes Ford Motor Company, will soon open a $6 billion electric-vehicle battery production campus in nearby Glendale.
Whether you know where all of these cities are or not, one thing is clear, you can use Kentucky sports betting apps in all of them!
Author
Steve is an accomplished, award-winning reporter with more than 20 years of experience covering gaming, sports, politics and business. He has written for the Associated Press, Reuters, The Louisville Courier Journal, The Center Square and numerous other publications. Based in Louisville, Ky., Steve has covered the expansion of sports betting in the U.S. and other gaming matters.
