Photo: Brian Stansberry · CC BY 4.0Household incomes in Bells are lower than in 80% of U.S. towns
2% of workers work from home (Tennessee 13%). 25.7% of residents are in poverty, next to 13.8% for Tennessee as a whole. For jobs and income Bells is better than 32% of U.S. towns (C); for walkability it is more walkable than 6% of U.S. towns (D).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Bells and work: the main findings
Jobs in Bells have more than doubled in ten years
Jobs based in Bells went from 367 in 2013 to 1,321 in 2023, +260%. The jobs ↓
Bells makes and builds things
73% of the jobs based in Bells are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Bells residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 30%. The jobs ↓
Bells and Jackson trade workers both ways
Jackson is the top workplace for Bells residents (27%) and also where the most people who work in Bells come from (11% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Few Bells workers work from home
Only 2% of workers work from home, against 13% across Tennessee. Almost everyone here travels to a job. Time on the road ↓
Commutes from Bells are quick
The average trip to work takes 21 minutes, against 26 across Tennessee. That’s about 38 hours a year less on the road than the typical Tennessee 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; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
Income, poverty and work: Bells’ grade explained
Unemployment holds Bells’ grade up (2.7%, U.S. 5.2%); the poverty rate pulls it down.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Bells could be anywhere from D to B.
73% of the jobs in Bells make or build things
1,321 jobs are based in Bells.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Bells, 2013 → 2023: 367 → 1,321. 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 Bells’s own residents hold wherever they work.
27% of working residents work in Jackson
Where Bells clocks in
27% of workers
6% 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.
Commuting from Bells: about 21 minutes a trip
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Bells workers work from home, vs 13% across Tennessee. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,160 commuters (the 2% who work from home are left out). Across Tennessee: 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.
The daily flow of workers through Bells
On a workday 878 residents head out to work, 157 work right here, and 1,164 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,800 people are in Bells on a workday afternoon, 12% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.28 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.
How far it is to work from Bells
About 21% 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 commute in Bells is mostly behind the wheel
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,187 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). 11.2% of Bells households have no vehicle (Tennessee 5.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Bells’ commuters take a bus or train.
3,284th of 5,207: where Bells ranks among U.S. towns of 1,700 to 3,300
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 54 | Lookout Mountain TN | 2,044 | $201K | 2.3% | 0.4% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 205 | Walden TN | 1,965 | $124K | 3.1% | 4.1% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 3,282 | Newbury VT | 2,371 | $62K | 14.0% | 2.0% | 10% | C |
| 3,283 | Berlin PA | 1,956 | $57K | 7.2% | 8.0% | 11% | C |
| 3,284 | Bells TN | 2,473 | $56K | 25.7% | 2.7% | 15% | C |
| 3,285 | Idalou TX | 2,105 | $59K | 15.9% | 2.9% | 12% | C |
| 3,286 | Mondovi WI | 2,853 | $54K | 13.3% | 3.4% | 22% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 5,207 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Bells, the top three, the last and three more from Tennessee.
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 Bells: questions
What is the median household income in Bells?
$56,027 (±$14,586) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $69,595 across Tennessee and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Bells?
25.7%, against 13.8% across Tennessee and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Bells?
21 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Tennessee and 26 nationally. 2% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Bells work?
15% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Jackson (27%, 14 mi), Alamo (6%, 5 mi), Memphis (4%, 65 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Bells walkable?
Bells is more walkable than 6% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 4.8 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Bells without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 11% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Bells, from the people who make the trip.
More of Bells
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.