Blueprint Kentucky
Rural report: Data shapes the future in co-op areas
A new statewide report from Blueprint Kentucky is giving community leaders, local businesses, and electric cooperatives insight into rural Kentucky’s future.
Kentucky’s Rural Economy report, produced by the University of Kentucky’s Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment, tracks population, jobs, income, broadband, housing, and more in all 120 counties. After years of decline, the rural population began to grow again in 2020, especially in counties near urban and micropolitan centers where people can combine small-town life with access to jobs and amenities.
Blueprint Kentucky Executive Director Alison Davis, a consumer-member of Blue Grass Energy, says the findings confirm what she’s seen working in communities for two decades: rural Kentucky is diverse, resilient, and full of possibility.
The report reveals a pattern of regional bright spots. Some areas in Appalachia and western Kentucky continue to struggle, but other rural counties are emerging as growth hubs close to urban centers.
The report reinforces how important rural Kentucky is to the state’s bottom line. “Kentucky is a manufacturing state. We tend to make things and that’s really important for our growth because [of] money coming from outside in, and so a lot of those industries are located in our more rural places,” Davis says.
She also sees opportunity in nurturing more homegrown businesses. Rural communities, she notes, are often cautious about risk, which can discourage would-be entrepreneurs.
That’s why she believes local success stories, like those told in Kentucky Living, matter. “Anytime we can tell stories where folks can talk about some of the risks they took, some that may have not worked out, but how they learned and adapted, I think is really critical.”
In that storytelling, she sees electric cooperatives as key partners. Davis recalls Jackson Energy quickly stepping up to collaborate on a workforce program and praises co-ops and telecom cooperatives that foster broadband development. “They were national leaders in the deployment of broadband, and that was so critical, particularly when COVID hit,” she says.
For Davis and Blueprint Kentucky, the message to rural Kentucky is simple: the challenges are real, but so are the strengths—and data can help communities, co-ops, and businesses keep building on what’s working.
