About Area Code 502
- Region Code
- 502
- City
- Louisville
- State
- Kentucky
- Population
- 1,395,855
- Largest City
- Louisville
- Time Zone
- Eastern Time
Kentucky
(502) Area Code 502 — Louisville, Kentucky
502 Area Code – Louisville, Kentucky: Location, Time Zone & History
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Map of Area Code 502
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History & Cultural Notes
Louisville's economy has long shaped how the 502 area code has been managed. Assigned in October 1947 to cover the entire Commonwealth of Kentucky, it was pared down by a 1954 split that sent eastern Kentucky to area code 606, then again in 1999 when western and south-central Kentucky became 270, leaving 502 with the north-central territory centered on Louisville and the state capital, Frankfort, that it holds today.
That territory now supports a distinct industrial mix. Louisville hosts UPS's Worldport, one of the largest package-sorting air hubs in the world, alongside a concentration of bourbon distilling, automotive manufacturing, and healthcare and medical-device companies. Frankfort adds a government and higher-education dimension as the seat of state administration.
- Bourbon distilling
- Logistics and package delivery (UPS Worldport)
- Automotive manufacturing
- Healthcare and medical devices
- Higher education and state government
The region is also known for the Kentucky Derby, run at Churchill Downs since 1875. With growth projected to exhaust 502's remaining central office codes by the third quarter of 2027, Kentucky regulators approved a new overlay code, 761, in 2025 to serve the same footprint, which also reaches Georgetown, Shelbyville, Bardstown, and Elizabethtown.