Murfreesboro Cities Service Station · Photo: Valis55 · CC BY-SA 4.0Households in Murfreesboro have lower incomes than those in 84% of U.S. towns
Below the poverty line: 20.7% of residents, where Arkansas as a whole has 16.0%. Jobs and income earn Murfreesboro D−; getting around on foot earns it B. Home is the office for <1% of workers; Arkansas has 9%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Murfreesboro: the figures worth knowing
Why Murfreesboro gets the Jobs & income grade it does
On income, poverty and job access, Murfreesboro is better than 5% of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Murfreesboro’s grade.
Unemployment (3.7%) is left out: Murfreesboro’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Murfreesboro could be anywhere from D− to C−.
About 24 minutes each way for Murfreesboro’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Murfreesboro workers work from home, vs 9% across Arkansas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 698 commuters (the <1% who work from home are left out). Across Arkansas: 87% drive alone, <1% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Who commutes out of Murfreesboro, and who commutes in
On a workday 392 residents head out to work, 124 work right here, and 474 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.16 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
12% of working residents work in Nashville
Where Murfreesboro clocks in
12% of workers
3% of workers
3% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
What the 598 jobs in Murfreesboro are
598 jobs are based in Murfreesboro.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Murfreesboro, 2013 → 2023: 583 → 598. Big swings can come from how a large employer reports its locations, not only from real openings or closings.
Primary jobs covered by unemployment insurance (not the self-employed). Pay is monthly earnings. LEHD 2023.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Murfreesboro’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Murfreesboro’s commute, mile by mile
About 23% show a job over 50 miles away. Some of that is real, and some is employers that report every worker at a head office, so a few long commutes are on paper only.
Straight-line distance from each worker’s home block to their main job’s block. LEHD 2023.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Murfreesboro is a driving town
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Murfreesboro is more walkable than 59% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Murfreesboro near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 701 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service: no data. EPA’s transit file has no stops for most of this county (its agencies had not published schedules in the format EPA used in 2020). That is missing data, not a finding that there is no bus or train.
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 1.0% of Murfreesboro households have no vehicle (Arkansas 5.9%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Murfreesboro’s commuters take a bus or train.
U.S. towns of 1,000 to 1,900, and where Murfreesboro sits
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 108 | Roland AR | 1,147 | $175K | 0.0% | 2.7% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 120 | Avilla AR | 1,833 | $106K | 0.0% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 538 | Wooster AR | 1,150 | $112K | 5.8% | 2.3% | <1% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,319 | Moodys OK | 1,108 | $49K | 18.5% | 0.9% | <1% | D− |
| 5,320 | Alto Bonito Heights TX | 1,121 | $36K | 81.0% | 0.0% | 0% | D− |
| 5,321 | Murfreesboro AR | 1,443 | $53K | 20.7% | 3.7% | 24% | D− |
| 5,322 | Diaz AR | 1,200 | $49K | 25.1% | 7.2% | 6% | D− |
| 5,323 | Ordway CO | 1,053 | $55K | 18.6% | 3.5% | 16% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,877 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 0% | D− |
Census ACS 2020–24 (income, poverty, unemployment), Census LEHD (work in town), TownRatings Jobs & income grades. Each town links to its Work & commute page.
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Murfreesboro, the top three, the last and three more from Arkansas.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Two sources, two years. Trips, distances and jobs based here: Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs, where the employer reports them. Income, poverty, unemployment, commute time and how people travel: Census ACS 2020–24 averages.
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Murfreesboro: questions
What is the median household income in Murfreesboro?
$53,264 (±$23,510) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $60,773 across Arkansas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Murfreesboro?
20.7%, against 16.0% across Arkansas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Murfreesboro?
24 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Arkansas and 26 nationally. <1% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Murfreesboro work?
24% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Nashville (12%, 13 mi), Arkadelphia (3%, 36 mi), Little Rock (3%, 89 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Murfreesboro walkable?
Murfreesboro is more walkable than 59% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 7.4 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Murfreesboro without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 1% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Murfreesboro, from the people who make the trip.
More of Murfreesboro
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2023, primary jobs. Commute time, working from home and working out of state: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates. Distances are straight lines between home and work; real drives run longer. Walkability index, job access and transit service: U.S. EPA Smart Location Database. The two grades are our own summaries of these figures, not official ratings.