ApisonTN
A town of 4,271, settled in 1882.
Is Apison a good place to live?
Apison gives you more for your money than most places: homes are within reach, about $459K for a typical one, or 6.4 years of the Chattanooga metro’s $72K median household income. It grades B+ overall, 32nd of 175 graded towns in Tennessee. On the plus side, the median household earns $129K. Apison’s median household income is $129,000, above both the Tennessee town median ($60,000) and the median of U.S. towns ($80,000). Most errands need a car: it is less walkable than 98% of U.S. towns. The biggest park or preserve is Bauxite Ridge, at 80 acres.
What makes Apison stand out
Where Apison beats most towns.
Apison has grown 79% from 2010 to 2020
2,469 counted in 2010 and 4,428 in 2020.
U.S. Census 2010 & 2020 counts
How Apison grades
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Tennessee), ordered by how far Apison is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Lookout Mountain and 17 more within 40 miles
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Apison. Close and well known come first.
24 mi MountainLookout Mountain
19 mi WaterfallRuby Falls31 mi CaveEllison's Cave
12 mi MuseumTennessee Valley Railroad Museum14 mi Theme parkLake Winnepesaukah
17 mi Zoo & aquariumTennessee AquariumPhoto credits
Lookout Mountain: Teke, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Ruby Falls: Oydman (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0 · Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum: TVSRR at English Wikipedia. Photo by Jason Trew /TVSRR, Public domain · Tennessee Aquarium: Ɱ, CC BY-SA 4.0
Moving to Apison: who provides what
Apison is unincorporated, so Hamilton County and regional agencies provide most services.
EPA SDWIS (Oct 9, 2026) · HIFLD + EIA-861 2025 · Census 2020 ZCTAs · NCES 2024–25 · registration: vote.gov, updated Nov 18, 2024.
The data
Ordered by what stands out in Apison.
Apison draws workers from Chattanooga and beyond, looks healthier within Tennessee than nationally and has household incomes well above the Tennessee norm.
More than half of Apison’s working residents commute to Chattanooga
2,919 jobs are based in Apison, 1.9 for every working resident, so most of the people who work here commute in.
Most working residents leave Apison for work: only 6% work in town. Since 2013, Apison has added 261 jobs, to 2,919 in 2023. 16% of workers work from home in Apison.
| Apison | Tennessee towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Work from home | 16% | 9.5% | 11% |
| Working residents who work in town | 5.7% | 12% | 8% |
| Average trip to work | 26 minutes | 25 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Below the poverty line | 12% | 14% | 9.6% |
Where working residents work
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Public schools in Apison beat 59% of Tennessee districts
Its public schools are run by the Hamilton County school district. Two of its 3 schools are below, each with why it’s listed.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| East Hamilton Middle SchoolLargest public middle schoolGrades 6–8 | Grades 6–8 | 913 | A |
| Apison Elementary SchoolTop results in townGrades PK–5 | Grades PK–5 | 617 | A+ |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within TN on state tests and graduation
More middle-aged adults than Tennessee overall
The median household earns $129,307, against $69,595 across Tennessee, one input to its A− for jobs and income.
Adults 35 to 64 are 58% of residents (38% statewide); adults 18 to 34 are 9% of residents (23% statewide). 11% of Apison residents are 65 or older. 39% of adults 25 and older have a bachelor’s degree or more, vs 31% across Tennessee.
| Apison | Tennessee towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aged 65 or older | 11% | 18% | 18% |
| Bachelor’s degree or more, 25+ | 39% | 23% | 29% |
| Median age | 45.6 years | 40 years | 40.5 years |
Ages · share of residents
Education · adults 25 and older
Women and men · all residents
50% women, 50% men
That’s an even split within the survey’s margin of ±7.1 points. Across Tennessee, 50.9% of residents are women.
| Apison | TN | U.S. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10 | 12.1% | 11.9% | 11.6% |
| 10 to 17 | 10.3% | 10.3% | 10.3% |
| 18 to 24 | 6.3% | 8.9% | 9.1% |
| 25 to 34 | 2.7% | 13.8% | 13.7% |
| 35 to 44 | 15.5% | 12.8% | 13.2% |
| 45 to 54 | 27.7% | 12.4% | 12.2% |
| 55 to 64 | 14.3% | 12.8% | 12.7% |
| 65 to 74 | 7.6% | 10.3% | 10.2% |
| 75 and older | 3.4% | 6.7% | 7% |
| No diploma | 5.6% | 10% | 10.4% |
| High school | 16.2% | 31.2% | 26% |
| Some college | 24.7% | 19.9% | 19.1% |
| Associate’s | 14.5% | 7.9% | 8.8% |
| Bachelor’s | 19.6% | 19.4% | 21.6% |
| Graduate | 19.4% | 11.7% | 14.1% |
U.S. Census Bureau · ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates · in a town of 4,300, single groups can be off by several points
| Apison | Tennessee towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conserved land | 1.3% | 1.8% | 4.3% |
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.3 miles per square mile | 0.2 | 0.4 |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Bauxite Ridge | 0.7 mi | 80 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Apison has mild winters and hot summers
Apison has mild winters and warm summers, with plenty of rain. Apison’s July high is 89°F.
Typical low → high °F
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Apison ranks healthier than 62% of the country’s towns
Within Tennessee it is healthier than 85% of the 176 graded towns: much of Tennessee scores lower on these measures. Its widest gap with Tennessee is food insecurity: 9.7% of its 3,317 adults worry about having enough food, against 16.2% statewide.
Apison beats the Tennessee average on 11 of 31 CDC measures and trails it on 1.
| Apison | Tennessee towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Get no exercise (CDC PLACES) | 20% | 28% | 25% |
| Food insecurity (CDC PLACES) | 9.7% | 16% | 14% |
| Depression (CDC PLACES) | 27% | 29% | 23% |
| Obesity (CDC PLACES) | 33% | 39% | 35% |
| What stands out | Apison | TN |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 9.7% | 16.2% |
| Fewer adults facing housing insecurity | 8.8% | 13.3% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 9.5% | 8.2% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Inland flooding leads a moderate hazard risk in Apison
Expected storm and flood damage is lower than in 57% of U.S. communities. One flood insurance claim has been paid in Apison since 2003.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Everything we know about Apison
Colleges nearby
5 within 15 miles of the center of Apison
About 6 of every 100 Apison residents are enrolled in college, about the same as Tennessee.
Every workday, about 2,831 people come to Apison for work
Where Apison’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
About Apison
Census-designated place in Tennessee, United States
Apison is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States. It is a rural area east of the city of Chattanooga, and it is near Ooltewah, Collegedale, and north Georgia to the south. It is part of the Chattanooga, TN–GA Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2020 census, its population was 4,428. Apison is fifteen miles (24 km) from Enterprise South Industrial Park, the location of Volkswagen North America.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
- Area
- 14 sq mi
- Elevation
- 860 ft
- ZIP code
- 37302
Apison’s neighbors
One town shares a border with Apison.
| Town | TN rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apison | #32 | B+ | B | — | B | B |
| Collegedale | #31 | B+ | C− | B+ | B | A− |
Apison reports no FBI crime data of its own. Compare Apison with a neighbor →
Questions about Apison
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Is Apison, TN a good place to live?
By most measures, yes. Apison grades B+ overall, better than 66% of U.S. towns and #32 of 175 in Tennessee. It grades B for health and B for schools. Walkability is its weak spot, with a D−.
Is Apison, TN expensive?
Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades B.