Photo: Brian Stansberry · CC BY 4.0Household incomes put Celina near the very bottom of U.S. towns
28.0% of residents are in poverty, where Tennessee as a whole has 13.8%. Household incomes here are among the lowest in the country. Jobs and income earn Celina D−; getting around on foot earns it B−.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Celina: the figures worth knowing
Celina’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Celina is Nashville, 76 miles away as the crow flies. 9% of working residents (48) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
A big share show a job far from home
33% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. How far ↓
Few Celina workers work from home
Only 3% 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 2023, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; with 522 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What’s behind Celina’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Celina is better than 2% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Celina’s grade up (ahead of 19% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($32,220, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (22.2%) is left out: Celina’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, Celina could be anywhere from D− to D.
How many miles Celina commutes
About 33% 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.
How long Celina spends getting to work: about 29 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Celina workers work from home, vs 13% across Tennessee. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 455 commuters (the 3% 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.
Who leaves Celina for work, and who comes in
On a workday 417 residents head out to work, 105 work right here, and 608 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,600 people are in Celina on a workday afternoon, 14% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.37 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.
9% of working residents work in Nashville
Where Celina clocks in
9% of workers
8% 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.
The kinds of work in Celina
713 jobs are based in Celina.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Celina, 2013 → 2023: 935 → 713. 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 Celina’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Driving is how Celina gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Celina is more walkable than 45% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 2.0% across Tennessee.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 469 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). 15.3% of Celina households have no vehicle (Tennessee 5.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Celina’s commuters take a bus or train.
Celina and other U.S. towns of 1,000 to 1,900
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 422 | Rossville TN | 1,215 | $120K | 7.3% | 6.1% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 472 | Berry Hill TN | 1,864 | $80K | 11.2% | 3.1% | 5% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 910 | Orlinda TN | 1,028 | $84K | 6.4% | 3.1% | 2% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,599 | Burnsville NC | 1,655 | $51K | 26.1% | 10.9% | 11% | D− |
| 5,600 | Linden TN | 1,161 | $48K | 26.6% | 3.8% | 26% | D− |
| 5,601 | Celina TN | 1,412 | $32K | 28.0% | 22.2% | 20% | D− |
| 5,602 | Independence VA | 1,000 | $39K | 23.6% | 4.8% | 17% | D− |
| 5,603 | Stampers Creek Township IN | 1,024 | $51K | 55.0% | 0.0% | <1% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,877 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 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.
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Celina, 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 Celina: questions
What is the median household income in Celina?
$32,220 (±$10,395) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $69,595 across Tennessee and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Celina?
28.0%, against 13.8% across Tennessee and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Celina?
29 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Tennessee and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Celina work?
20% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Nashville (9%, 76 mi), Cookeville (9%, 28 mi), Livingston (8%, 15 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Celina walkable?
Celina is more walkable than 45% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 8.8 out of 20, and <1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Celina without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 15% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Celina, from the people who make the trip.
More of Celina
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.