Why does paducah look like a city of 100k but only has 25,000 living there?

[AllenKarber]

I've been quite impressed by all Paducah has for a city it's size. I think the "hub" thing is very true.

[Hey_Hey]

People talk about the hub status for Paducah a lot, and I definitely believe. However, I always wondered how it's "hub" status compared to that of other cities. I came across some data on the census bureau that speaks to this:

This is retail sales per capita of the cities listed:
Paducah - $41,223
Bowling Green - $23,069
Jeffersontown - $20,876
Henderson - $17,503
Richmond - $17,102
Owensboro - $15,968
Hopkinsville - $15,351
Lexington/Fayette - $14,895
Frankfort - $12,280
Louisville (used jefferson co data since the city of louisville link didn't work) - $12,148
Covington - $7,023

Paducah has almost twice as much retail activity as the next closest city which indicates there's a tremendous population that will travel to Paducah to shop. It effectively serves as the retail, entertainment, cultural, medical, and financial center for a population of 150-200,000 people. Outside of Lexington and Louisville there really isn't a city with more of these amenities in the state. A perfect example is the performing arts center, which is the nicest in the state. Most cities 5 times the size of Paducah wouldn't have a performing arts center that nice.

Another factor is that Paducah really developed and urbanized in the 1850-1950 range which resulted in fairly dense urbanization. The city has roughly 300 square blocks of grid system that people equate with large cities, so when people drive around in the grid system it "feels" big city. Grid systems also serve to increase density of economic activity.

I think the one thing that Paducah lacks is a university. If Murray State had located in Paducah I think we'd see Paducah as city twice its current population with a county of over 100,000 people. As it is, Paducah's growth really slowed to a snail's pace after the 1960s.

[kygman]

They may not have a university and Murray State is trying to remedy that, but the West Kentucky Community and Technical College has an increase in enrollment after all the lay offs in western Kentucky and surrounding states.