Charles Madden House · Photo: Cynthia Jennings · CC BY-SA 4.0Households in Tennille earn less than in almost any other U.S. town
Tennille grades D− for jobs and income and B for walkability. Measured by household income, Tennille is among the lowest-earning towns in the country. The poverty rate is 31.5%, where Georgia as a whole has 13.4%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The work figures that set Tennille apart
Tennille and Sandersville trade workers both ways
Sandersville is the top workplace for Tennille residents (30%) and also where the most people who work in Tennille come from (17% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
A big share show a job far from home
34% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. How far ↓
Commutes from Tennille are quick
The average trip to work takes 21 minutes, against 28 across Georgia. That’s about 54 hours a year less on the road than the typical Georgia worker. Time on the road ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; with 498 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Jobs & income in Tennille: the grade in detail
On income, poverty and job access, Tennille is better than 2% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Tennille’s grade up (ahead of 19% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($29,250, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (3.2%) is left out: Tennille’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A firm grade. At either end of the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Tennille stays D−.
30% of working residents work in Sandersville
Where Tennille clocks in
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.
How far it is to work from Tennille
About 34% 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.
The daily trip from Tennille: about 21 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Tennille workers work from home, vs 16% across Georgia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 553 commuters (the 15% 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.
Tennille on a workday afternoon
On a workday 477 residents head out to work, 21 work right here, and 299 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,600 people are in Tennille on a workday afternoon, 10% fewer than live here.
0.64 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
What Tennille’s employers do
320 jobs are based in Tennille.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Tennille, 2013 → 2023: 242 → 320. 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 Tennille’s own residents hold wherever they work.
In Tennille, most people drive to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Tennille is more walkable than 61% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Tennille 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 652 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). 16.5% of Tennille households have no vehicle (Georgia 5.9%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Tennille’s commuters take a bus or train.
Tennille next to U.S. towns of 1,300 to 2,400
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Hewlett Harbor NY | 1,332 | $250K | 1.9% | 7.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 17 | Berkeley Lake GA | 2,034 | $166K | 1.6% | 1.6% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 118 | Fairplay GA | 1,881 | $120K | 1.6% | 1.2% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 191 | Isle of Hope GA | 2,053 | $105K | 1.4% | 1.3% | 5% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 5,154 | Springfield Township MI | 1,640 | $49K | 27.6% | 2.7% | 1% | D− |
| 5,155 | Pahoa HI | 1,361 | $56K | 34.7% | 7.5% | 11% | D− |
| 5,156 | Tennille GA | 1,805 | $29K | 31.5% | 3.2% | 4% | D− |
| 5,157 | Mount Vernon GA | 1,925 | $33K | 38.8% | 15.1% | 3% | D− |
| 5,158 | Coushatta LA | 1,623 | $31K | 34.6% | 2.4% | 22% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,343 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 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 Tennille, 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 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 Tennille: questions
What is the median household income in Tennille?
$29,250 (±$10,701) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,353 across Georgia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Tennille?
31.5%, against 13.4% across Georgia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Tennille?
21 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Georgia and 26 nationally. 15% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Tennille work?
4% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Sandersville (30%, 3 mi), Augusta (5%, 52 mi), Milledgeville (4%, 27 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Tennille walkable?
Tennille is more walkable than 61% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 7.1 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Tennille without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 16% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Tennille, from the people who make the trip.
More of Tennille
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.