Nash County Courthouse · Photo: Nyttend · Public domainNashville has higher unemployment (7.0%) than 82% of U.S. towns
About one in ten stay in Nashville for work; outside it, Rocky Mount is the main destination (25%, 8 miles). Jobs and income earn Nashville C−; getting around on foot earns it C−. Measured by household income, Nashville is behind 72% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Nashville
The four measures behind Nashville’s grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Nashville is better than 20% of U.S. towns, #221 of 290 in North Carolina. Job access by car holds Nashville’s grade up (ahead of 49% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Nashville could be anywhere from D to B+.
The towns that employ Nashville’s residents
Where Nashville clocks in
25% of workers
8% of workers
7% 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.
Who leaves Nashville for work, and who comes in
On a workday 2,154 residents head out to work, 214 work right here, and 2,886 people come in from elsewhere.
About 6,600 people are in Nashville on a workday afternoon, 12% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.31 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.
The 3,100 jobs based in Nashville
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Nashville, 2013 → 2023: 3,121 → 3,100. 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 Nashville’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Time on the road from Nashville: about 24 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Nashville workers work from home, vs 16% across North Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,045 commuters (the 21% who work from home are left out). Across North Carolina: 85% 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 far Nashville goes to work
About 19% 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.
Most trips from Nashville start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Nashville is more walkable than 23% of U.S. towns, #222 of 290 in North Carolina. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: hardly any commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 2.9% across North Carolina.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 2,582 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 11.9% of Nashville households have no vehicle (North Carolina 5.3%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Nashville’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Nashville is 2,891st among 3,494 U.S. towns of 4,100 to 8,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Ho-Ho-Kus NJ | 4,313 | $250K | 0.0% | 1.7% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 188 | Oak Ridge NC | 7,896 | $155K | 3.6% | 2.5% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 296 | Midland NC | 5,151 | $101K | 4.1% | 1.8% | 3% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 395 | Stokesdale NC | 6,133 | $121K | 5.6% | 1.9% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 2,889 | Huntington Township OH | 6,083 | $65K | 18.2% | 4.8% | 4% | C− |
| 2,890 | Pleasant Township OH | 7,933 | $60K | 17.8% | 5.0% | 17% | C− |
| 2,891 | Nashville NC | 5,911 | $61K | 16.9% | 7.0% | 9% | C− |
| 2,892 | Sheridan OR | 6,243 | $71K | 12.0% | 7.0% | 5% | C− |
| 2,893 | Turtle Creek PA | 4,865 | $46K | 17.6% | 16.1% | 4% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,494 | Medina TX | 4,226 | $22K | 53.8% | 10.1% | 4% | 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 North Carolina.
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 Nashville: questions
What is the median household income in Nashville?
$61,000 (±$12,944) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,388 across North Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Nashville?
16.9%, against 13.0% across North Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Nashville?
24 minutes each way on average, against 25 across North Carolina and 26 nationally. 21% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Nashville work?
9% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Rocky Mount (25%, 8 mi), Raleigh (8%, 40 mi), Wilson (7%, 16 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Nashville walkable?
Nashville is more walkable than 23% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 7.0 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Nashville without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 12% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
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), 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.