Ballard County, Kentucky: Appalachian Realigners county. In 2024, voted R+64%. Democratic peak: D+74 in 1932.
Key facts
- 2024 presidential margin
- R+64MIT Election Lab
- Political typology
- Appalachian RealignersAkashic typology
- Population
- 7,6542024 5-year
- Median household income
- $66,1642024 5-year
- White (non-Hispanic)
- 91.8%2024 5-year
- Black
- 3.6%2024 5-year
- Hispanic / Latino
- 1.6%2024 5-year
- Peak Democratic margin
- D+74 in 1932MIT Election Lab
- Peak Republican margin
- R+64 in 2024MIT Election Lab
- Most similar
- Harrison County, WV · similarity 1.00
2024 results by precinct
2024 precinct map of Ballard CountyPrecinct-level 2024 presidential results for Ballard County, with each precinct boundary colored by Democratic-vs-Republican margin.
—
Margin—
Turnout—
Harris +50Trump +50
Real precinct boundaries. Hover for vote totals.
presidential history
Presidential margin, 1876–2024
Democratic minus Republican, by election
| Year | Margin (D minus R) |
|---|---|
| 1876 | No data |
| 1880 | No data |
| 1884 | No data |
| 1888 | No data |
| 1892 | +44.5% |
| 1896 | +53.2% |
| 1900 | +46.8% |
| 1904 | +46.3% |
| 1908 | +48.2% |
| 1912 | +44.7% |
| 1916 | +51.0% |
| 1920 | +55.2% |
| 1924 | +59.0% |
| 1928 | +51.0% |
| 1932 | +74.5% |
| 1936 | +63.9% |
| 1940 | +61.8% |
| 1944 | +63.2% |
| 1948 | +70.4% |
| 1952 | +54.7% |
| 1956 | +57.2% |
| 1960 | +42.0% |
| 1964 | +68.9% |
| 1968 | +31.0% |
| 1972 | −4.2% |
| 1976 | +58.1% |
| 1980 | +36.4% |
| 1984 | +9.2% |
| 1988 | +19.3% |
| 1992 | +29.9% |
| 1996 | +31.8% |
| 2000 | +1.5% |
| 2004 | −15.1% |
| 2008 | −27.3% |
| 2012 | −37.4% |
| 2016 | −57.2% |
| 2020 | −59.9% |
| 2024 | −64.4% |
DemocraticRepublican
38 presidential elections
| Year | Won | Margin | Democratic | Republican | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R | 697 | 3,331 | 4,088 | ||
| R | 825 | 3,356 | 4,225 | ||
| R | 816 | 3,161 | 4,101 | ||
| R | 1,189 | 2,647 | 3,895 | ||
| R | 1,427 | 2,537 | 4,060 | ||
| R | 1,759 | 2,389 | 4,177 | ||
| D | 1,880 | 1,824 | 3,770 | ||
| D | 2,255 | 1,064 | 3,742 | ||
| D | 2,268 | 1,108 | 3,880 | ||
| D | 2,162 | 1,460 | 3,629 | ||
| D | 2,002 | 1,663 | 3,685 | ||
| D | 2,583 | 1,190 | 3,826 | ||
| D | 2,794 | 649 | 3,693 | ||
| R | 1,411 | 1,542 | 3,089 | ||
| D | 1,632 | 564 | 3,444 | ||
| D | 2,867 | 519 | 3,409 | ||
| D | 2,746 | 1,121 | 3,867 | ||
| D | 3,088 | 838 | 3,936 | ||
| D | 2,910 | 851 | 3,767 | ||
| D | 2,702 | 454 | 3,195 | ||
| D | 2,845 | 637 | 3,491 | ||
| D | 3,212 | 758 | 3,971 | ||
| D | 3,523 | 773 | 4,303 | ||
| D | 3,987 | 572 | 4,584 | ||
| D | 2,896 | 940 | 3,839 | ||
| D | 3,128 | 767 | 3,999 | ||
| D | 3,987 | 1,107 | 5,213 | ||
| D | 2,222 | 692 | 3,002 | ||
| D | 1,706 | 555 | 2,577 | ||
| D | 2,117 | 706 | 2,930 | ||
| D | 1,598 | 556 | 2,251 | ||
| D | 1,877 | 670 | 2,577 | ||
| D | 1,670 | 495 | 2,209 | ||
| D | 910 | 277 | 1,421 | ||
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Demographics
2024 ACS
Race, ethnicity, and ancestry
Click any group to see the ancestries typically reported within it.
English
20.4%
American
11.8%
Irish
10.5%
German
8.2%
Scottish
2.5%
Italian
1.0%
Polish
0.7%
African American
2.9%
Multiple ancestry combinations reported; no single grouping above 1%.
Sample size too small to break out by ancestry reliably.
American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander combined.
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release. Hispanic/Latino is an ethnicity that overlaps the race categories, so these shares can total more than 100%. Ancestry is a self-reported, multiple-response item; ancestry percentages do not sum to the parent race percentage.
2024 ACS
Age distribution by sex
Median age: 45.0 in this county, 39.1 nationally
Male
Age
Female
85+
75–84
65–74
55–64
45–54
35–44
25–34
18–24
5–17
<5
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release.
2024 ACS
Median household income
Inflation-adjusted dollars
$66,164
Ballard County ranks near the middle of US counties.
Ballard County$66,164
Kentucky$63,726
United States$80,734
Ballard County ranks near the middle of US counties by median household income.
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release.
2024 ACS
Poverty rate
All persons below federal poverty line
15.0%
Children face moderate poverty.
Children under 1822.2%
Working age (18–64)13.6%
Seniors (65+)10.2%
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release.
2024 ACS
Language at home
Population aged 5 and older
96.8%
speak English only
Asian & Pacific Islander2.3%
Spanish0.4%
Other Indo-European0.4%
Other languages0.2%
Source · ACS 5-year estimates, 2024.
2020 religion census
Religious adherents
Adherents per capita by tradition
Source · 2020 US Religion Census. Remaining 10.6% of residents not counted as adherents by any reporting body.
Ballard County sits in Kentucky's far-western Jackson Purchase, a tobacco and soybean farming community whose presidential margins have shifted dramatically rightward over the past two decades, reaching R+64.4 in 2024.
The unraveling was not abrupt. The Democratic margin peaked at seventy-four points in 1932 and narrowed across the late twentieth century. The 2004 election carried the county to the Republican party for the first time in many years, by fifteen points. Between 2020 and 2024 the county moved five points toward the Republican candidate; the 2024 margin was sixty-four points.
The economic context is severe: a median household income of $66,164 — among the lowest at this geographic scale — and a 15% poverty rate. The county's voting pattern over the last decade is most similar to that of Harrison County and Choctaw County.
Most similar counties
Compare two places, side by side
Twelve curated comparisons line up election history, demographics, and the divergence story for two places at a glance. Browse all comparisons →
Cite this page
All citations released under CC BY 4.0. Attribution: Akashic Intelligence.
Ballard County, Kentucky. Akashic. https://akashic.app/county/21007/. Accessed May 20, 2026. License: CC BY 4.0.
License: CC BY 4.0
More appalachian realigners counties
Frequently asked questions
How did Ballard County, Kentucky vote in 2024?
In 2024, Ballard County, Kentucky voted Republican by 64.4 points (R+64), carried by the Republican candidate. Out of 4,088 votes cast, 697 went Democratic and 3,331 went Republican.
What is Ballard County, Kentucky's political typology?
Akashic places Ballard County, Kentucky in the "Appalachian Realigners" typology — Lower-income counties of Greater Appalachia — a long, deep arc from Democratic to Republican. The typology is a data-driven cluster built from vote share, vote swing, race and ethnicity, income, language spoken at home, religion, and ancestry. Across 38 elections in the dataset, the county has voted Democratic 27 times, Republican 7 times, and other 0 times.
When did Ballard County, Kentucky last vote Democratic?
The most recent presidential election in which Ballard County, Kentucky voted Democratic was 2000.
How many people live in Ballard County, Kentucky?
Ballard County, Kentucky has a population of 7,654 according to the 2024 American Community Survey 5-year estimates from the US Census Bureau.
What is the median household income in Ballard County, Kentucky?
Median household income in Ballard County, Kentucky is $66,164 — below the national median of $80,734. The Kentucky state median is $63,726.
What is the political history of Ballard County, Kentucky?
Akashic tracks 38 presidential elections in Ballard County, Kentucky from 1876 to 2024. Of those, 27 went Democratic and 7 went Republican. The county's typology — "Appalachian Realigners" — captures where that record, its demographics, and its recent swing place it among American communities.