Kentucky, a state in the United States, has 418 active cities. The two largest, Louisville and Lexington, are designated "first class" cities. A first class city would normally have a mayor-alderman government, but that does not apply to the merged governments in Louisville and Lexington. All other cities have a different form of government, including mayor-council, commission, and city manager, and are designated "home rule class" cities.

Classes

The two-class system went into effect on January 1, 2015, following the 2014 passage of House Bill 331 by the Kentucky General Assembly and the bill's signing into law by Governor Steve Beshear. The new system replaced one in which cities were divided into six classes based on their population at the time of their classification. Before the enactment of House Bill 331, more than 400 classification-related laws affected public safety, alcohol beverage control, revenue options and others. Lexington and Fayette County are completely merged in a unitary urban county government (UCG); Louisville and other cities within Jefferson County have also merged into a single metro government. However, under state law, both major cities retained their pre-merger classification before the new scheme took effect. The General Assembly had historically reclassified cities only when requested by the city government. If all cities had been reclassified in the pre-2015 scheme according to actual population, about one-third of classifications would have changed. In particular, Lexington would have been classified as a first-class (Class 1) city. Although basic city classification changed in 2015, the old classifications will remain relevant for some time. Because many provisions of state law applied only to cities of certain pre-2015 classes, House Bill 331 was explicitly written to address such issues. In certain areas of law, class-based distinctions between cities have been replaced by population-based distinctions. In certain other areas that were more controversial, the pre-2015 status quo is being maintained through a registry of cities that were covered by prior laws. Under the new system, Louisville and Lexington are classified as first class. All other cities in the state are in the home rule class.

List of cities

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Former cities

Since the 2010 census, some cities in Kentucky were disincorporated and did not appear in the next census.

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