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Radon Levels in Letcher County, Kentucky

EPA puts Letcher County in Zone 2, its middle radon zone, and only 22 radon tests from it are on file with CDC (2008 to 2017, laboratory totals). Homes with elevated levels occur in all three zones, so only a test measures yours.

Data checked By Radon411Methodology

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  • Highest bordering

    28.3%

    Wise County

    Wise
    28.3%
    Pike
    17.1%

    2 of 5 neighbours have 30+ tests, 2008 to 2017

  • Nearest county

    17.1%

    Pike County, 35 miles

    Pike
    17.1%
    Kentucky
    43.7%

    Share at 4+ pCi/L, 82 tests, 2008 to 2017

  • Ground above low

    100.0%

    5.7 pts above Kentucky

    Letcher
    100.0%
    Kentucky
    94.3%

    Share of land USGS rates moderate or high potential

  • Tests reported

    22

    Too few for a share

    Letcher
    22
    Needed
    30

    2008 to 2017, laboratory

  • EPA radon zone

    Zone 2

    Moderate potential

    1. 1
    2. Zone 2
    3. 3

    1 highest, 3 lowest

    EPA predicts 2 to 4 pCi/L indoors

Read a result for Letcher County

Starts at EPA's action level

4.0pCi/L

EPA’s own thresholds; the figures are the area’s, never this home’s.

EPA’s reading of 4.0 pCi/L

At or above 4 pCi/L

  1. Under 20 to 1.9 pCi/L
  2. 2 to 4consider a fix
  3. 4 and aboveEPA says fix it

This result is at or above 4 pCi/L. EPA recommends fixing a home when the radon level is 4 pCi/L or higher.

Interpret this readingWhat a fix costs

The data

Letcher County, At a glance

Letcher County at a glance

Predicted: EPA radon zone

EPA Zone 2: moderate predicted potential

Letcher County is a county: EPA's forecast for it as a whole is an average indoor of 2 to 4 pCi/L (75 to 150 Bq/m³). It describes no single address, and homes above EPA's are found in every zone, this one included.

USGS geologic potential: Moderate across 100% of the county's area

Predicted: EPA Map of Radon Zones

Measured: tests reported to CDC

Radon tests reported for Letcher County, 2008 to 2017, laboratory

CDC holds 22 reported tests for Letcher County over the 2008 to 2017 laboratory totals, with a median of 1.8 pCi/L: too few to describe a county (Radon411 reads a share from 30 tests up). Letcher County beside the counties around it is how this page reads it.

What these figures count

Only 22 tests were reported to CDC for Letcher County over 2008 to 2017 (laboratory totals), and tests are often run on homes being sold or already suspected of a problem: so few describe neither the county nor this house.

Measured: CDC tracking data. Figure above: 2008 to 2017, laboratory. Measured data period: 2005 to 2017 (every CDC figure on file).

How to read these figures

Letcher County, Compared

Letcher County radon figures, compared

Calculated by Radon411

CDC's largest figure for Letcher County rests on 22 tests over the 2008 to 2017 laboratory totals, 7 of them at or above 4 pCi/L, so each test moves its share by 4.5 points and no rank or comparison is drawn from it. Results reached as high as 21.2 pCi/L, with a middle value of 1.8 pCi/L.

Of the counties bordering it, 2 have a figure over the 2008 to 2017 laboratory totals: Wise County, VA reported the largest share at or above 4 pCi/L, 28.3%, and Pike County the smallest, 17.1%. Farther out, Breathitt County (38 miles away) at 19.1%, Laurel County (70 miles away) at 22.0% and Menifee County (70 miles away) at 22.0% have figures too. Pooled across 120 Kentucky counties, 43.7% of reported tests reached that level; across every county in the country with a figure, 35.7%.

Statewide for the same period, Meade County reported the highest share (68.4%) and Hopkins County the lowest (9.5%). EPA's 1993 map puts Letcher County in Zone 2, its middle label: a predicted county average between 2 and 4 pCi/L. USGS geology rates 100% of the county's land moderate radon potential.

Kentucky, the United States and the counties around Letcher County, 2008 to 2017, laboratory
AreaTestsAt or above 4 pCi/LMedian
Kentucky, pooled120 counties, pooled28,79343.7%Not pooled
United States, pooled2,661 counties, pooled2,013,54435.7%Not pooled
Meade Countyhighest in the state11768.4%8.2 pCi/L
Hopkins Countylowest in the state429.5%1.7 pCi/L
Wise County, VAborders it5328.3%1.3 pCi/L
Harlan County, KYborders it425.0%0.1 pCi/L
Knott County, KYborders it1323.1%1.7 pCi/L
Perry County, KYborders it2420.8%1.4 pCi/L
Pike County, KYborders it8217.1%1.1 pCi/L
The nearest Kentucky counties to Letcher County with 30 or more tests, 2008 to 2017, laboratory
CountyDistanceTestsAt or above 4 pCi/LMedian
Pike County35 mi8217.1%1.1 pCi/L
Breathitt County38 mi4719.1%1.7 pCi/L
Laurel County70 mi10022.0%1.9 pCi/L
Menifee County70 mi4122.0%1.4 pCi/L
Estill County73 mi17744.1%3.2 pCi/L
Rowan County80 mi7418.9%1.6 pCi/L
Carter County83 mi4131.7%2.2 pCi/L
Montgomery County86 mi10551.4%4.1 pCi/L
Letcher County ten-year laboratory totals, against Kentucky's pooled share
PeriodTestsAt or above 4 pCi/LMedianHighestKentucky, pooledChange from the row before
2008 to 20172231.8%1.8 pCi/L21.2 pCi/L43.7%−18.2 points
2007 to 20161050.0%3.9 pCi/L21.2 pCi/L45.1%Level
2006 to 20151050.0%3.9 pCi/L10.7 pCi/L46.4%Level
2005 to 20141250.0%3.9 pCi/L10.7 pCi/L47.3%First on file

Pooled shares: Radon411's sum of CDC's county counts for one period.

Letcher County, Geology

The ground under Letcher County

Predicted

USGS's geologic map puts all of Letcher County's mapped land in one class: moderate radon potential. All of it lies in the area the map calls Cumberland Plateau, to which USGS gives a radon index of 9, in the moderate band (9 to 11).

USGS's geologic areas under Letcher County
AreaThe rock, in USGS's wordsPotentialRadon indexShare of land
Cumberland PlateauPennsylvanian sandstones, siltstones, and shales.Moderate999.8%

Names, descriptions and indexes: U.S. Geological Survey, Geologic Radon Potential Map (2025). Shares: Radon411, from the map cut to the boundary.

Letcher County beside the ground around it

Across Kentucky 18.2% of the land is rated high; none of Letcher County's is. Of the 5 counties that border it, 2 have more high-potential ground, Wise County, VA the most at 10.6%.

Share of land by USGS radon potential: Letcher County, the 5 counties bordering it and Kentucky
AreaEPA zoneLow potentialModerate potentialHigh potential
Letcher CountyZone 2None100%None
Wise County, VAZone 2None89.4%10.6%
Knott CountyZone 2None100%None
Perry CountyZone 2None100%None
Harlan CountyZone 2None93.1%6.9%
Pike CountyZone 20.1%99.9%None
Kentucky120 counties, pooled by land areaVaries5.7%76.1%18.2%

The map rates the ground, not the air in any home.

Local help

Letcher County, Local resources

Radon testing and mitigation in Letcher County

What Kentucky's program says
Phone
502-782-2782
Email
Radon@ky.gov

What it means

Letcher County, Questions

Questions about radon in Letcher County

Are radon levels high in Letcher County?

Over the 2008 to 2017 laboratory totals, 31.8% of the radon tests reported to CDC for Letcher County, Kentucky were at or above 4 pCi/L, and the median reported pre-mitigation result was 1.8 pCi/L. Of the counties bordering it, 2 have a figure over the 2008 to 2017 laboratory totals: Wise County, VA reported the largest share at or above 4 pCi/L, 28.3%, and Pike County the smallest, 17.1%.

Which counties border Letcher County?

Letcher County borders 5 counties: Wise County, VA, Knott County, KY, Perry County, KY, Harlan County, KY and Pike County, KY.

Products

Letcher County, Products

Testing a home in Letcher County

No CDC figure names Letcher County; the nearest county with one, Pike County (35 miles away), reported 17.1% of its tests at or above 4 pCi/L over the 2008 to 2017 laboratory totals, the only reading nearby until a test of this home. In Zone 2 a short-term kit (2 to 90 days) is the quick first check in Letcher County; a long-term test tells the year-round average.

Test kits and monitors3

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Best radon monitors for Letcher County homes, compared

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Letcher County, Bordering counties

Counties bordering Letcher County

Calculated by Radon411

Letcher County, Cities and towns

Cities and towns in Letcher County

Letcher County has been losing residents: from 21,465 in 2020 to 19,952 on July 1, 2025, a fall of 7.0% by the Census Bureau's estimates. That works out to 59 people per square mile of land. No town dominates: Jenkins, the largest, has 1,733 residents, 8.7% of the total. Reported testing is thin here: 22 tests over 2008 to 2017, or 1.1 for every 1,000 residents (2025 estimate), where Kentucky as a whole comes to 6.3.

From Jenkins to Blackey, CDC publishes no figure by town: each reads Letcher County's.

The 3 largest cities and towns in Letcher County by residents, July 1, 2025
PlaceResidentsSince 2020Share of residents
Jenkins1,733−8.6%8.7%
Whitesburg1,609−8.9%8.1%
Fleming-Neon537−6.4%2.7%
  • Blackey

4 incorporated places, as listed in the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 place reference files. Residents: U.S. Census Bureau population estimates for July 1, 2025 (Vintage 2025).

Letcher County, Homes

Homes in Letcher County

Of Letcher County's 10,594 homes, 64% are detached houses, against 68% across Kentucky; 31% are mobile homes. Half of its homes were built before 1978, close to Kentucky's 1982: 28% date from before 1960 and 15% from 2000 or later. 73% of occupied homes are lived in by their owner (Kentucky: 68%); in the rest a tenant can run a test, but a fix is the landlord's to make.

Homes in Letcher County, Kentucky, 2019 to 2023
HomesLetcher CountyKentucky
Housing units10,5942,010,655
Detached houses64%68%
In buildings of 5 or more2%12%
Mobile homes31%11%
Built before 196028%22%
Built since 200015%24%
Middle year built19781982
Owner-occupied73%68%

Census Bureau, American Community Survey, 2019 to 2023: estimates from a sample of homes, looser for a small place. Shares by Radon411.