Photo: Brian Stansberry · CC BY 4.0Bruceton’s household incomes are lower than in 92% of U.S. towns
Jobs & income D: better than 6% of U.S. towns on income, poverty and job access.
Walkability D: more walkable than 7% of U.S. towns.
Working residents average 27 minutes each way (Tennessee 26, U.S. 26). About one in ten work in Bruceton; the top destination outside it is Huntingdon (15%, 10 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What’s behind Bruceton’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Bruceton is better than 6% of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Bruceton’s grade.
Unemployment (2.8%) is left out: Bruceton’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Bruceton could be anywhere from D− to C−.
Bruceton quiets down on a workday
On a workday 494 residents head out to work, 54 work right here, and 326 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,400 people are in Bruceton on a workday afternoon, 11% fewer than live here.
0.69 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.
15% of working residents work in Huntingdon
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
Where Bruceton clocks in
15% of workers
5% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
What the 380 jobs in Bruceton are
380 jobs are based in Bruceton. Here is what they are, next to the jobs Bruceton’s own residents hold wherever they work.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Bruceton, 2013 → 2023: 262 → 380. 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.
About 27 minutes each way, about the TN average
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Bruceton workers work from home, vs 13% across Tennessee. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 470 commuters (the 5% who work from home are left out). Across Tennessee: 87% drive alone, <1% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
Half of Bruceton commutes less than 18 miles
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
About 29% 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.
Most trips from Bruceton start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Bruceton is more walkable than 7% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Bruceton 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 494 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). 7.5% of Bruceton households have no vehicle (Tennessee 5.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Bruceton’s commuters take a bus or train.
Bruceton is 5,140th of 5,794 U.S. towns of 1,100 to 2,100 on jobs and income
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Bruceton, the top three, the last and three more from Tennessee.
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 67 | Lookout Mountain TN | 2,044 | $201K | 2.3% | 0.4% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 192 | Walden TN | 1,965 | $124K | 3.1% | 4.1% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 253 | Pegram TN | 2,036 | $111K | 0.3% | 3.6% | <1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 5,138 | Basin City WA | 1,176 | $60K | 20.0% | 25.9% | 4% | D |
| 5,139 | Freeman SD | 1,305 | $57K | 20.9% | 2.5% | 25% | D |
| 5,140 | Bruceton TN | 1,522 | $45K | 19.1% | 2.8% | 10% | D |
| 5,141 | Marion Township MI | 1,547 | $53K | 16.2% | 5.5% | 13% | D |
| 5,142 | Rose Township MI | 1,257 | $55K | 16.1% | 6.8% | 6% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,794 | 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.
Bruceton and the towns next door
Darker towns draw more of Bruceton’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Bruceton workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bruceton | – | D | D | 27 min | $45,469 |
| Hollow Rock | under 3% | — | — | 23 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Hollow Rock: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
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 Bruceton: questions
What is the median household income in Bruceton?
$45,469 (±$17,050) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $69,595 across Tennessee and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Bruceton?
19.1%, against 13.8% across Tennessee and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Bruceton?
27 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Tennessee and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Bruceton work?
10% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Huntingdon (15%, 10 mi), Nashville (6%, 82 mi), Jackson (5%, 42 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Bruceton walkable?
Bruceton is more walkable than 7% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 5.0 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Bruceton without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Bruceton, from the people who make the trip.
More of Bruceton
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.