Photo: Michael Rivera · CC BY-SA 3.0Nashville has lower household incomes than 94% of U.S. towns
Home is the office for 7% of workers, next to 16% for Georgia as a whole. 21.7% of residents are in poverty, next to 13.4% for Georgia as a whole. For jobs and income Nashville is better than 7% of U.S. towns (D); for walkability it is more walkable than 64% of U.S. towns (B).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Nashville apart on work
Nashville is where the jobs are
Nashville has 2,916 jobs, 1.6 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Commutes from Nashville are quick
The average trip to work takes 22 minutes, against 28 across Georgia. That’s about 46 hours a year less on the road than the typical Georgia worker. Time on the road ↓
Nashville’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Nashville is Valdosta, 25 miles away as the crow flies. 10% of working residents (187) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Nashville makes and builds things
38% of the jobs based in Nashville are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Nashville residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 27%. The jobs ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2024, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey.
Inside Nashville’s Jobs & income grade
Unemployment holds Nashville’s grade up (6.0%, U.S. 5.2%); household income pulls it down ($42,516, U.S. $80,734).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Nashville could be anywhere from D− to C.
Nashville fills up on a workday
On a workday 1,272 residents head out to work, 564 work right here, and 2,352 people come in from elsewhere.
About 6,100 people are in Nashville on a workday afternoon, 21% more than live here.
1.6 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2024, primary jobs.
About 22 minutes to work from Nashville
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Nashville workers work from home, vs 16% across Georgia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,932 commuters (the 7% who work from home are left out). Across Georgia: 84% 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.
How many miles Nashville commutes
About 26% 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 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Nashville works in goods: 38% of its jobs
2,916 jobs are based in Nashville.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Nashville, 2014 → 2024: 2,775 → 2,916. 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 2024.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Nashville’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Commuting in to Nashville: where workers come from
Where Nashville clocks in
10% of workers
5% of workers
4% 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.
Few in Nashville walk, bike or ride to work
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 8.2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.1% across Georgia, on an EPA index of 5.8.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 2,073 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). 7.5% of Nashville households have no vehicle (Georgia 5.9%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Nashville’s commuters take a bus or train.
Where Nashville sits among U.S. towns of 3,500 to 6,800
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Mission Hills KS | 3,522 | $250K | 1.2% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 74 | Grayson GA | 5,569 | $131K | 3.5% | 1.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 101 | Avondale Estates GA | 3,543 | $124K | 6.3% | 0.9% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 158 | Senoia GA | 6,276 | $125K | 1.1% | 1.4% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,562 | Deer Park WA | 5,370 | $54K | 19.4% | 14.1% | 17% | D |
| 3,563 | Piney Township MO | 5,071 | $47K | 26.7% | 4.8% | 31% | D |
| 3,564 | Nashville GA | 5,038 | $43K | 21.7% | 6.0% | 31% | D |
| 3,565 | Calumet Township MI | 6,309 | $53K | 16.4% | 7.5% | 30% | D |
| 3,566 | Ozark AR | 3,628 | $48K | 17.8% | 13.0% | 27% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 3,758 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 19% | 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 Nashville, the top three, the last and three more from Georgia.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Two sources, two years. Trips, distances and jobs based here: Census LEHD 2024, 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 Nashville: questions
What is the median household income in Nashville?
$42,516 (±$6,380) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,353 across Georgia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Nashville?
21.7%, against 13.4% across Georgia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Nashville?
22 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Georgia and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Nashville work?
31% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Valdosta (10%, 25 mi), Tifton (5%, 24 mi), Adel (4%, 12 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Nashville walkable?
Nashville is more walkable than 64% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 5.8 out of 20, and 8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Nashville without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Nashville, from the people who make the trip.
More of Nashville
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2024, 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.