Floyd County, Kentucky

Floyd County is a county in Kentucky, United States, in the eastern coalfield region, about 25 miles northwest of Pikeville. It had a population of 35,942 at the 2020 census, an estimated 34,401 by 2025, and covers 396 square miles (1,030 km2) centred near 37°34′N 82°45′W.

Prestonsburg is the county seat; its postal code is 41653. The county holds 5 incorporated cities and 4 census-designated places among its named communities, plus a wide scatter of unincorporated coal camps and hollows across its ridges, and it runs on Eastern Time.

Towns & Villages in Floyd County

Floyd County has 22 named places on record: 5 incorporated cities, 4 census-designated places (CDPs) with Census Bureau population counts but no local government, and 13 unincorporated communities — former coal camps and crossroads with no formal boundary at all.

One name causes real confusion. Older lists of Floyd County places, including this page’s
own prior version, included Maytown as a local community. Maytown is a genuine census-designated
place, but it sits in Morgan County, roughly 40 miles to the west — it has never been part of
Floyd County, and it is dropped from the table above.

ZIP Codes

• 41653 — Prestonsburg (also serves Dwale under a separate 41621 code)
• 41602 — Auxier
• 41647 — McDowell
• 41605 — Betsy Layne
• 41649 — Martin
• 41669 — Wheelwright
• 41666 — Wayland
• 41621 — Dwale

Allen and the county’s thirteen unincorporated communities — Garrett, Drift, Harold,
Ivel, Langley, Stanville, Weeksbury, David, Grethel, Banner, Hi Hat, Melvin and Minnie — have
no ZIP code confirmed on public record; mail addressed there is delivered under a neighboring post
office town’s code, most often Martin or Prestonsburg.

Geography

Floyd County sits on the Cumberland Plateau in the eastern Kentucky coalfield, a landscape of
narrow ridges and steep hollows cut by the Levisa Fork of the Big Sandy River, which runs the
length of the county from south to north through Prestonsburg. Of the county’s 396 square
miles, 393 are land and 2.4 are water, a fraction typical for this rugged, river-cut part of the
state — there is no natural lake of any size, only the narrow Levisa Fork valley and its
tributary creeks: Beaver Creek, Right Beaver Creek and Otter Creek among them.

Johnson County borders Floyd to the north, Martin County to the northeast, Pike County to the
east and southeast, Knott County to the south and southwest, and Magoffin County to the west. Johnson County, Martin County, Pike County, Knott County and Magoffin County all border Floyd
directly.

Demographics

Floyd County had a population of 35,942 at the 2020 census, and the latest estimate puts the
county near 34,401 residents, a decline typical of the eastern Kentucky coalfield since mining
employment fell. Prestonsburg and Auxier are the two largest communities, though Prestonsburg
alone holds roughly a tenth of the county’s people. Median household income runs $41,279
(Data USA, 2024), well below Kentucky’s statewide figure of $61,118 (2023 ACS). Population
density works out to about 91 people per square mile of land, low even by the standards of rural
Appalachian Kentucky, reflecting how much of the county’s terrain is too steep to settle.

Economy & Local Life

Health care and social assistance is the county’s largest employment sector, with about
2,344 workers, followed by educational services at 1,490 and retail trade at 1,403 (Data USA,
2024). Coal mining once dominated the county’s economy and still employs a smaller share of
the workforce; as of 2016, Floyd County had 23 operating mines producing roughly 640,000 tons of
coal annually. Prestonsburg is home to Big Sandy Community and Technical College and to the
Mountain Arts Center, which hosts the weekly Kentucky Opry stage show through much of the year. The
East Kentucky Science Center, which opened in Prestonsburg in 2004, runs one of the region’s
few planetariums. Floyd County’s poverty rate stood at 28 percent as of 2024 (Data USA), one
of the higher rates in the state, a legacy of the long decline in coal employment.

History

The Kentucky General Assembly authorized Floyd County in 1799, effective in 1800, as the
state’s 40th county, carved from parts of Fleming, Montgomery and Mason counties. It was
named for Colonel John Floyd, a Virginia-born surveyor and militia officer killed by Native
Americans in 1783. Prestonsburg, settled as Preston’s Station in 1797 and named for
landowner John Preston, became the county seat on Floyd’s formation and was formally
established as a town in 1818.

Coal defined the county through the 20th century. The first commercial coal mine in eastern
Kentucky opened at Betsy Layne in 1900, and company towns followed at Wayland (1911, Elk Horn Coal
Company), Wheelwright (1916, also Elk Horn) and Martin, each built and run by a coal operator.
Floyd County’s population peaked above 50,000 by 1950 before decades of mine closures and
out-migration cut it by nearly a third. On 28 February 1958, a school bus carrying students from
the county slid off a wet road and into the Big Sandy River near Prestonsburg, killing 26 children
and the driver, one of the worst school transportation disasters in US history. More recently, on
30 June 2022 a mass shooting in Allen killed three police officers and a police dog before the
suspect was arrested, and on 28 July 2022 flash flooding tied to that summer’s eastern
Kentucky floods struck Wayland and other communities along the Levisa Fork and its tributaries.

Getting There

US Route 23, part of the Country Music Highway corridor named for the region’s recording
artists, is the county’s main north–south route through Prestonsburg; Kentucky Route 80
runs east–west. No interstate highway crosses Floyd County.

• Pikeville — about 25 miles southeast
• Paintsville — about 13 miles north

Big Sandy Regional Airport, about 10 miles northeast of Prestonsburg in neighboring Martin
County, handles general aviation traffic for the area. The nearest airport with scheduled
commercial passenger service is Huntington’s Tri-State Airport in West Virginia. No Amtrak
train reaches Floyd County or anywhere else in the eastern Kentucky coalfield.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Floyd County located?
It sits in Kentucky’s eastern coalfield on the Cumberland Plateau, about 25 miles northwest
of Pikeville, bordered by Johnson, Martin, Pike, Knott and Magoffin counties.

What is the population of Floyd County?
35,942 at the 2020 census, with a 2025 estimate near 34,401.

How big is Floyd County?
396 square miles (1,030 km2), of which 393 square miles are land.

What is the county seat of Floyd County?
Prestonsburg, settled in 1797 and formally established in 1818, is the county seat.

How many towns and cities are in Floyd County?
Five incorporated cities — Prestonsburg, Martin, Wheelwright, Wayland and Allen — plus
four census-designated places: Auxier, McDowell, Betsy Layne and Dwale.

What ZIP codes does Floyd County use?
41653 for Prestonsburg, 41649 for Martin, 41669 for Wheelwright, 41666 for Wayland, plus 41602,
41647, 41605 and 41621 for the Auxier, McDowell, Betsy Layne and Dwale CDPs.

What is Floyd County known for?
Its coal-mining history, US Route 23’s Country Music Highway corridor, and the Mountain Arts
Center in Prestonsburg, home of the weekly Kentucky Opry.

More counties in this state: Towns and villages in Kentucky.