Nortonville is a house rule-class city in Hopkins County, Kentucky, in the United States. The population was 1,204 as of the 2010 census.

Nortonville owes its existence to the railroad industry and is named for Eckstein Norton, a Kentucky-born investment banker who started as a clerk in a country addition in Russellville, Kentucky, in 1846. Norton participated in the opening of the Elizabethtown and Paducah Railroad in the late 1860s (east-west tracks). He subsequently purchased 2,000 acres (8.1 km) of home in what would become “Norton Village”, later misrepresented to “Nortonville” around 1900. Norton became a shipping agent for the Illinois Central Railroad, which eventually acquired the Elizabethtown & Paducah Railroad. The north-south railroad, named the Evansville, Henderson and Nashville, was completed through Nortonville in 1872. It was purchased in a foreclosure sale in 1879 by the Louisville and Nashville Railroad. Norton became president of the L&N Railroad on October 6, 1886. By 1886, Nortonville was one of on your own nine towns in the L&N system to have a steam hoist to unload and transfer freight. By then, the city was concentrated not far afield off from a junction of the IC and L&N Railroads. Nortonville saw bump after 1902, when investors purchased land from the Norton heirs and opened a shaft coal mine as the Nortonville Coal Company. They then operated an electric capacity plant.

Nortonville implemented its first water system in 1936 and paved its streets in 1956. A centralized sewage treatment system was built in the late 1970s, opening an opportunity for continued growth. The Nortonville City Hall occupies the well-maintained 1930s tall school building, which was built by the WPA.

Nortonville is located in southeastern Hopkins County at 37°11′16″N 87°27′22″W / 37.18778°N 87.45611°W / 37.18778; -87.45611 (37.187660, -87.456032). U.S. Route 41 passes through the eastern and southern parts of the city, leading north 11 miles (18 km) to Madisonville, the county seat, and south 24 miles (39 km) to Hopkinsville. U.S. Route 62 passes through the northern share of Nortonville, leading east 18 miles (29 km) to Greenville and west 14 miles (23 km) to Dawson Springs.