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The Commonwealth of Kentucky is the 15th State of the United States Of America . GEOGRAPHY ''See also: List Of Kentucky Counties '' Kentucky, affectionately known as ''The Bluegrass State'', borders states of both the Midwest and the Southeast . West Virginia and Virginia lie to the east; Tennessee to the south; Missouri to the west; and Illinois , Indiana , and Ohio to the north. The commonwealth's northern border is formed by the Ohio River , and the western border is formed by the Mississippi River . Other major rivers in Kentucky include the Kentucky River , Tennessee River , the Cumberland River , the Green River , and the Licking River . Kentucky can be divided into five primary regions: the Cumberland Mountains and Cumberland Plateau in the southeast, the north-central Bluegrass Region , the south-central and western Pennyroyal Plateau , also sometimes termed "Pennyrile" with cities such as Elizabethtown and Bowling Green , the western coal-fields area, and the far-west Jackson Purchase . Kentucky is the only U.S. state to have a non-contiguous part exist as an Enclave of another state. Far western Kentucky includes a small part of land, Kentucky Bend , on the Mississippi River bordered by Missouri and accessible via Tennessee, created by the New Madrid Earthquake . The Bluegrass region is commonly divided into two regions, the Inner Bluegrass—the encircling 90 Mile s (145 km) around Lexington —and the Outer Bluegrass, the region that contains most of the Northern portion of the state, above the Knobs . Much of the outer Bluegrass is in the Eden Shale Hills area, made up of short, steep, and very narrow hills. Significant natural attractions
HISTORY and Jefferson Davis were born in Kentucky.]] Kentucky was used as sacred hunting grounds by roving bands of Shawnee and others. As early as 1750 there were no known permanent Native settlements. After 1770, settlers from Virginia and North Carolina came through the Cumberland Gap , and Kentucky grew rapidly as the first settlements west of the Appalachian Mountains were founded. After the American Revolution , the counties of Virginia beyond the Appalachian Mountains became known as Kentucky County. Eventually, the residents of Kentucky County petitioned for a separation from Virginia. Ten constitutional conventions were held in the Constitution Square Courthouse in Danville between 1784 and 1792. In 1790, Kentucky's delegates accepted Virginia's terms of separation, and a state constitution was drafted at the final convention in April 1792. On June 1, 1792, Kentucky became the fifteenth state to be admitted to the union and Isaac Shelby , a military veteran from Virginia, was elected the first Governor of the Commonwealth Of Kentucky. While remaining loyal to the Union , Kentucky was a Border State during the American Civil War . The state did not secede, and was officially neutral until a new legislature took office on August 5, 1861 with strong Union sympathies. The Confederates entered the state during the "Kentucky Campaign" of Generals Braxton Bragg and Edmund Kirby Smith in 1862. Bragg's retreat following the Battle Of Perryville left the state under the control of the Union Army for the remainder of the war. The state then abandoned neutrality, and publicly sided with the Union. Southern sympathizers attempted to establish an alternative state government with the goal of secession but failed to displace the legitimate government in Frankfort . DEMOGRAPHICS As of 2005, Kentucky has an estimated population of 4,173,405, which is an increase of 31,570, or 0.8%, from the prior year and an increase of 131,120, or 3.2%, since the year 2000. This includes a natural increase since the last census of 77,156 people (that is 287,222 births minus 210,066 deaths) and an increase due to net migration of 59,604 people into the state. Immigration from outside the United States resulted in a net increase of 27,435 people, and migration within the country produced a net increase of 32,169 people. Blacks, who once represented a quarter of the state's population during the height of the tobacco, cotton, and hemp plantation era, are mostly concentrated in the southwest (notably Christian County and the city of Paducah), the Bluegrass, and the city of Louisville. "American ancestry" is the largest reported ancestry group throughout most of the state in the Census. Religion Religiously, Kentucky is mostly Protestant . The religious affiliations of the state are as follows:
Religious movements were important in the early history of Kentucky. Perhaps the most famous event was the interdenominational revival in August 1801 at the Cane Ridge Meeting house in Bourbon County. As part of what is now known as the "Western Revival", thousands began meeting around a Presbyterian communion service on August 6, 1801, and ended six days later on August 12, 1801 when both humans and horses ran out of food. The service was originally scheduled for August 8, but people began arriving two days earlier on a rainy August 6. The meeting was hosted by Barton Stone. Presbyterians, Methodists and some Baptists were present, as the services attempted to be interdominational as possible. As the days wore on, some counted as many as seven preachers preaching at the same time from tree stumps or wagons. ECONOMY The total gross state product for 2003 was US$129 billion. Its per-capita personal income was US$26,575, 41st in the nation. Kentucky's agricultural outputs are horses, cattle, tobacco, dairy products, hogs, soybeans, and corn. Its industrial outputs are transportation equipment, chemical products, electric equipment, machinery, food processing, tobacco products, coal, and tourism. There are 5 Income Tax brackets, ranging from 2 percent to 6 percent of personal income. The sales tax rate in Kentucky is 6 percent. Kentucky has a broadly based classified Property Tax system. All classes of property, unless exempted by the Constitution, are taxed by the state, although at widely varying rates. And many of these classes are exempted from taxation by local government. Of the classes that are subject to local taxation, three have special rates set by the General Assembly, one by the Kentucky Supreme Court and the remaining classes are subject to the full local rate, which includes the tax rate set by the local taxing bodies plus all voted levies. Real property is assessed on 100 percent of the fair market value and property taxes are due by Dec. 31. Once the primary source of state and local government revenue, property taxes now account for only about 6 percent of the Kentucky's annual General Fund revenues. Kentucky imposes a tax on intangible personal property held by a taxpayer on Jan. 1 of each year. Intangible property consists of any property or investment which represents evidence of value or the right to value. Some types of intangible property include: money market accounts, bonds, notes, retail repurchase agreements, accounts receivable, trusts, enforceable contracts sale of real estate (land contracts), money in hand, money in safe deposit boxes, annuities, interests in estates, loans to stockholders, and commercial paper. TRANSPORTATION Major U.S. Interstate Highways servicing Kentucky include: I-24 , I-65 , I-64 , I-71 , I-75 , I-264 , I-265 . Kentucky and Missouri are the only two states to share a boundary with no road directly connecting the two states. This is a result of the multiplexing of US Highways 51, 60, and 62 crossing the Ohio River between Illinois and Kentucky, and the multiplexing of US Highways 60 and 62 crossing the Mississippi River between Illinois and Missouri, rather than US Highways 60 and 62 crossing the Mississippi River directly from Kentucky to Missouri. LAW AND GOVERNMENT Currently Kentucky's governor, and the House Of Representatives . The executive branch is headed by the Governor . See List Of Kentucky Governors . The judicial branch of Kentucky is made up of trial courts, called District and Circuit Courts; an intermediate appellate court, called the Kentucky Court Of Appeals ; and a court of last resort, the Kentucky Supreme Court . The Attorney General is Greg Stumbo . Politics Historically, Kentucky has been very hard fought and leaned slightly towards the Democratic Party. It was never included among the "Solid South." The majority of the state's voters are officially registered as Democrats, although the majority has slimmed substantially in recent election cycles. Kentucky has voted Republican in five of the last seven presidential elections but has supported the Democratic candidates of the South. The Commonwealth supported Democrats Jimmy Carter in 1976, and Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1996, but Republican George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004. Bush won the state's 8 electoral votes overwhelmingly in 2004 by a margin of 20 percentage points and 59.6% of the vote. The most solidly Democratic counties are in the mountainous eastern unionized coal mining region, especially Pike, Floyd, Knott, Menifee, and Breathitt, and the cities of Louisville and Lexington. The Jackson Purchase area in the far west was historically a Democratic stronghold but has moved Republican recently. Representation IMPORTANT CITIES AND TOWNS Kentucky's largest cities and most of the fast growing counties are concentrated in what is referred to as the Golden Triangle , which is almost entirely in the Bluegrass Region , with the exception of Hardin , Meade and LaRue counties which are in the Pennyroyal Region . The largest city in Kentucky is Louisville Metro , with a 2004 census estimated population of 556,332. The Kentucky side of the Louisville CSA has a populaiton of 1,120,039. The second largest city is Lexington-Fayette with 260,512 people, with its CSA having an estimated population of 635,547 in 2005. The Northern Kentucky area (the seven Kentucky counties in the Cincinnati CSA) had an estimated population of 403,727 in 2005. The metropolitan areas of Louisville, Lexington, and Northern Kentucky have a combined population of 2,159,313 as of 2005, which is 51.7% of the state's total population. The two other fast growing urban areas in Kentucky are the Bowling Green area and the "Tri Cities Region" of southeastern Kentucky, comprised of Somerset , London , and Corbin . Although only one town in the "Tri Cities", namely Somerset, currently has more than 10,000 people, the area has been experiencing impressive population and job growth since the 1990s and is considered by many geographers to become Kentucky's next large urban area. Growth has been especially rapid in Laurel County, which outgrew areas such as Scott and Jessamine counties around Lexington or Shelby and Nelson Counties around Louisville. London, Kentucky is currently on pace to double its population in the 2000s from 5,692 in 2000 to 10,879 in 2010. London also landed a Wal-Mart distribution center in 1997, bringing in thousands of high paying jobs. 15 largest Kentucky cities, 2010 Projected # Louisville 564,048 # Lexington 275,127 # Owensboro 56,149 # Bowling Green 54,291 # Covington 42,470 # Richmond 34,472 # Florence 28,296 # Henderson 27,875 # Nicholasville 27,675 # Hopkinsville 27,249 # Frankfort 26,591 # Jeffersontown 25,630 # Paducah 24,402 # Elizabethtown 24,162 # Georgetown 22,210 15 most populated counties, 2010 Projected # Jefferson ( Louisville ) 706,050 (+12,446) # Fayette ( Lexington ) 275,127 (+14,615) # Kenton ( Covington ) 155,867 (+4,404) # Boone ( Florence ) 126,552 (+40,560) # Warren ( Bowling Green ) 105,398 (+12,876) # Hardin ( Elizabethtown ) 99,724 (+5,554) # Daviess ( Owensboro ) 94,575 (+3,030) # Campbell ( Newport ) 85,886 (-2,730) # Madison ( Richmond ) 84,626 (+13,754) # Bullitt ( Shepherdsville ) 75,712 (+14,476) # Christian ( Hopkinsville ) 67,981 (-4,328) # Pike ( Pikeville ) 65,108 (-3,620) # McCracken ( Paducah ) 63,882 (-1,632) # Pulaski ( Somerset ) 62,183 (+5,966) # Oldham ( La Grange ) 60,641 (+14,463) EDUCATION Colleges and universities Private Public Community colleges PROFESSIONAL SPORTS TEAMS Kentucky is home to no major league sports team but several minor league teams. Minor league baseball
Football
Basketball MISCELLANEOUS TOPICS Kentucky is well known for Thoroughbred Horses , Horse Racing , local bourbon Whisky distilleries, Bluegrass Music , and College Basketball . While Kentucky's pastimes are distinctly those of the South, The State's Cuisine is considered to be a synergistic blend of Midwestern Cuisine and Southern US Cuisine . Origin of name It was once believed that the name Kentucky was derived from the Native American word meaning "dark and bloody hunting ground," which is believed to be due to the fact that many Native American tribes went there to hunt in the game-rich forests and often fought each other there. However, it is now most commonly believed that the name Kentucky can be attributed to various Native American languages with several possible meanings from "land of tomorrow" to "cane and turkey lands" to "meadow lands." This last may come from the Iroquois name for the Shawnee town Eskippathiki . The name Kentucky referred originally to the Kentucky River and from that came the name of the region. State symbols
Interesting facts about Kentucky
SEE ALSO REFERENCES Politics
History Surveys and reference
Specialized scholarly studies
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