Photo: GatewayPolitics · CC BY-SA 4.0Unemployment in Clarksville (5.5%) is higher than in 68% of U.S. towns
Commuters spend 27 minutes getting to work on average, against 26 across Tennessee and 26 nationally. For jobs and income Clarksville is better than 38% of U.S. towns (C+); for walkability it is more walkable than 42% of U.S. towns (C+). About one in three work in Clarksville itself; outside it, Nashville draws the most (19%, 42 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Clarksville and work: the main findings
Clarksville’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Clarksville is Nashville, 42 miles away as the crow flies. 19% of working residents (11,195) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Most jobs in Clarksville go to people who live here
Of the 48,435 jobs based in Clarksville, 46% are held by Clarksville residents. In most towns, people from elsewhere hold most of the local jobs. Day and night ↓
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.
Why Clarksville gets the Jobs & income grade it does
Job access by car holds Clarksville’s grade up (ahead of 55% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Clarksville could be anywhere from C to B−.
How far it is to work from Clarksville
About 23% 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 daily flow of workers through Clarksville
On a workday 36,574 residents head out to work, 22,374 work right here, and 26,061 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 (0.82 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.
Out of Clarksville to work: where people go
Where Clarksville clocks in
2% of workers
2% 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 Clarksville
48,435 jobs are based in Clarksville.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Clarksville, 2013 → 2023: 37,851 → 48,435. 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 Clarksville’s own residents hold wherever they work.
A commute of about 27 minutes in Clarksville
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Clarksville workers work from home, vs 13% across Tennessee. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 77,351 commuters (the 8% 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.
In Clarksville, the car does most of the work
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 84,497 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). 4.4% of Clarksville households have no vehicle (Tennessee 5.2%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Clarksville’s commuters take a bus or train.
These are town averages; neighborhoods differ.
For jobs and income, Clarksville is 108th of 150 U.S. towns of 132,000 to 255,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | North Hempstead NY | 238,982 | $158K | 4.5% | 4.1% | 20% | A |
| 2 | Frisco TX | 236,955 | $150K | 3.6% | 4.6% | 14% | A |
| 3 | Olathe KS | 150,025 | $114K | 5.6% | 2.7% | 26% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 54 | Murfreesboro TN | 171,178 | $80K | 8.8% | 4.3% | 28% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 106 | North Township IN | 152,714 | $62K | 17.1% | 6.4% | 32% | C+ |
| 107 | Wayne Township IN | 150,959 | $57K | 18.5% | 5.3% | 15% | C+ |
| 108 | Clarksville TN | 188,829 | $69K | 12.3% | 5.5% | 38% | C+ |
| 109 | Chattanooga TN | 194,144 | $65K | 19.1% | 5.4% | 67% | C+ |
| 110 | Knoxville TN | 202,021 | $54K | 20.2% | 4.5% | 52% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 150 | Macon-Bibb County GA | 157,556 | $51K | 24.7% | 8.1% | 53% | 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 Clarksville, 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 Clarksville: questions
What is the median household income in Clarksville?
$69,303 (±$1,681) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $69,595 across Tennessee and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Clarksville?
12.3%, against 13.8% across Tennessee and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Clarksville?
27 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Tennessee and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Clarksville work?
38% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Nashville (19%, 42 mi), Hopkinsville (2%, 20 mi), Memphis (2%, 178 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Clarksville walkable?
Clarksville is more walkable than 42% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 6.5 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Clarksville without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Clarksville, from the people who make the trip.
More of Clarksville
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.