Best PlacesKettle, KY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Kettle, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Kettle ranks 45,058th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on affordable childcare by a wide margin, and the cost of living against local pay is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Kettle
BestNeighborhood is the only ranking that scores 40 measures of daily life neighborhood by neighborhood and lets you re-weight every one of them yourself.
Kettle's strengths and weaknesses
Where Kettle ranks high
- Cheap childcare$439 a month, better than 97% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than 94% of towns
- Short commute19.5 minutes each way, better than 89% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 74% of towns
- QuietBetter than 73% of towns
Where Kettle ranks low
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 3% of towns
- Household income$31,913 median, better than only 3% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than only 5% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than only 5% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Kettle
A household needs to earn about $38,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Kettle home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $31,913, so buying stretches a typical household.
Where the monthly payment goes
Assumes a 20% down payment, a 6.6% 30-year fixed rate, and a 28% share of income going to the payment. The rate is the 2026-07-23 30-year fixed average, series MORTGAGE30US from the St. Louis Fed, which publishes Freddie Mac's weekly survey. Against the median home value, property tax uses Kettle's effective rate of 0.56%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Who lives in Kettle
Kettle runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Kettle.
Who works in Kettle, and how
Work in Kettle centers on education and manufacturing. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 92%
- Work from home 1%
- Transit, walk, or bike 7%
Life in Kettle
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Kettle.
What the weather is like in Kettle, month by month
Kettle sees roughly 62 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 89 degrees. January highs sit near 48, with lows near 25. The comfortable stretch runs April through June and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 48° | 35° | 25° |
| April | 71° | 57° | 43° |
| July | 89° | 76° | 65° |
| October | 74° | 58° | 44° |
Flying in and out of Kettle
Nashville International sits about 84 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 12.6 million passengers in 2025, with 158 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Kettle
Schools across Kettle average a C, better than 31% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Cumberland County Elementary SchoolC+ · 35% proficient
Top middle schools
- Cumberland County Middle SchoolC− · 30% proficient
Top high schools
- Cumberland County High SchoolC− · 28% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Kettle school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Kettle measure by measure
Cards are ordered by how much each measure matters to you, so the ones you weighted highest come first. Expand to see every measure. Percentages compare Kettle against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Kettle
Is Kettle a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Kettle ranks 45,058th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on affordable childcare, tree cover, and short commutes, and lowest on the cost of living against local pay and low incomes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Kettle expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $149,774. The overall cost of living runs about 20% below the national average. Set against a $31,913 median income, cost of living beats 3% of towns.
Is Kettle safe?
Kettle is safer than 33% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $327 per resident a year.
Compare Kettle with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Kettle. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Kettle represents the same real quantity as a 60 anywhere else, and the ranking is a weighted average of those absolutes. The map colors come from a national scale calibrated against a population weighted random sample of 5,000 neighborhoods. That absolute scoring is what no other places-to-live ranking does: it puts a single neighborhood, a town, a metro, and a state on one scale, so the same 40 measures answer both which metro to move to and which street inside it to buy on. Read the full methodology.
Kettle detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Kettle: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Kettle: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Kettle: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Kettle: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Kettle detail on related sites:
- CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
- ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
- CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.
Federal and public data:
- U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey: income, home value, rent, vacancy, commute time and mode, educational attainment, home age, age structure, household type, industry, and race.
- NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
- FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
- Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
- FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
- U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
- FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
- CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
- National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
- FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
- Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.
Your priorities
Move a slider to say how much a measure matters. Zero turns it off.