Photo: Thomas R Machnitzki ([email protected]) · CC BY 3.0Household incomes in Brownsville are lower than in 94% of U.S. towns
Poverty touches 25.7% of residents, next to 13.8% for Tennessee as a whole. The two grades for Brownsville are D for jobs and income and B− for walkability. 4% of workers have no commute at all, next to 13% for Tennessee as a whole.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Brownsville at work: what stands out
Brownsville’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Brownsville is Jackson, 24 miles away as the crow flies. 17% of working residents (669) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Brownsville makes and builds things
38% of the jobs based in Brownsville are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Brownsville residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 32%. The jobs ↓
Few Brownsville workers work from home
Only 4% of workers work from home, against 13% across Tennessee. Almost everyone here travels to a job. Time on the road ↓
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.
What’s behind Brownsville’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Brownsville is better than 7% of U.S. towns, #165 of 177 in Tennessee. Job access by car holds Brownsville’s grade up (ahead of 44% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($43,494, U.S. $80,734).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Brownsville could be anywhere from D to C−.
Short hops and long hauls from Brownsville
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 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Making and building: 38% of jobs based in Brownsville
4,379 jobs are based in Brownsville.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Brownsville, 2014 → 2024: 4,132 → 4,379. 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 Brownsville’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The trip to work from Brownsville: about 24 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Brownsville workers work from home, vs 13% across Tennessee. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,621 commuters (the 4% 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.
A workday in Brownsville: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 2,637 residents head out to work, 1,367 work right here, and 3,012 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.09 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2024, primary jobs.
17% of working residents work in Jackson
Where Brownsville clocks in
17% of workers
6% 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.
Most trips from Brownsville start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Brownsville is more walkable than 46% of U.S. towns, #67 of 177 in Tennessee. Both inputs place Brownsville 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 3,757 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). 16.4% of Brownsville households have no vehicle (Tennessee 5.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Brownsville’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Brownsville compares with U.S. towns of 6,500 to 12,600
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| 2 | Pimmit Hills VA | 6,589 | $173K | 1.6% | 1.3% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Braddock VA | 6,536 | $212K | 0.9% | 1.0% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 226 | Signal Mountain TN | 8,824 | $141K | 3.3% | 2.4% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 340 | Harrison TN | 8,011 | $89K | 3.9% | 1.4% | <1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 388 | Tellico Village TN | 7,414 | $107K | 3.3% | 1.9% | 10% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 2,764 | Homeland Park SC | 6,632 | $40K | 36.2% | 15.3% | 2% | D |
| 2,765 | Kewanee IL | 12,115 | $51K | 17.9% | 8.9% | 39% | D |
| 2,766 | Brownsville TN | 9,301 | $43K | 25.7% | 8.6% | 34% | D |
| 2,767 | Makaha HI | 10,066 | $65K | 25.0% | 10.0% | 3% | D |
| 2,768 | Albion MI | 7,474 | $40K | 25.2% | 13.5% | 17% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 2,867 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 6% | 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 Brownsville, 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 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 Brownsville: questions
What is the median household income in Brownsville?
$43,494 (±$3,894) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $69,595 across Tennessee and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Brownsville?
25.7%, against 13.8% across Tennessee and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Brownsville?
24 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Tennessee and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Brownsville work?
34% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Jackson (17%, 24 mi), Memphis (6%, 52 mi), Nashville (3%, 144 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Brownsville walkable?
Brownsville is more walkable than 46% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 6.5 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Brownsville 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 Brownsville, from the people who make the trip.
More of Brownsville
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.