Franklin County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 51,541, making it the second-least populous capital county in the United States after Hughes County, South Dakota. Its county seat and most populous city is Frankfort, the state capital. The county was formed in 1795 from parts of Woodford, Mercer and Shelby counties, and was named after the American inventor and statesman Benjamin Franklin.
Franklin County is part of the Frankfort, Kentucky Micropolitan Statistical Area. It shares a name with Franklin County in Ohio, where Columbus is located. This makes it one of two pairs of capital cities in counties of the same name, along with Marion Counties in Oregon and Indiana.
History
The three original counties of Kentucky (Jefferson, Fayette and Lincoln counties) intersected in what is today Franklin County. Franklin County was established in 1795 from land given by Mercer, Shelby, and Woodford counties. Franklin was the 18th Kentucky county in order of formation.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (2.0%) is water.
Transit
- Frankfort Transit
Major highways
- Interstate 64
- US 127
- US 60
- US 421
- US 460
- KY 676
Adjacent counties
- Owen County (north)
- Scott County (east)
- Woodford County (southeast)
- Anderson County (south)
- Shelby County (west)
- Henry County (northwest)
Politics
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In recent presidential elections the county has supported both Democrats and Republicans. In 2000 Democrat Al Gore won 50% of the vote to Republican George W. Bush's 47%. In 2004, Bush won 50% of the vote to Democrat John Kerry's 48%. In 2008 Republican John McCain defeated Democrat Barack Obama 49.47% to 48.87%, a difference of only 144 votes, only for Obama to narrowly edge out Mitt Romney in 2012. However, Donald Trump won the county in 2016. He won it again in 2020, but only by a slim margin of 248 votes. In 2023, incumbent Democratic governor Andy Beshear won it by a large margin over Republican attorney general Daniel Cameron, getting 68% of the vote.
The county voted "No" on 2022 Kentucky Amendment 2, an anti-abortion ballot measure, by 67% to 33%, and backed Donald Trump with 49.5% of the vote to Joe Biden's 48.5% in the 2020 presidential election.
Elected officials
{| class=wikitable
|-
| colspan="3" |Elected officials as of January 3, 2025
|-
! scope=row|U.S. House
| |James Comer (R)
| |
|-
! scope=row|Ky. Senate
| |Gex Williams (R)
| |20
|-
!rowspan=2 |Ky. House
| |Daniel Fister (R)
| |56
|-
| |Erika Hancock (D)
| |57
|}