Photo: MissDashwood · CC BY-SA 3.0With 0.1 jobs for every working resident, most of Cross Plains works elsewhere
Hardly any work in Cross Plains itself; outside it, Nashville draws the most (33%, 26 miles). 109 jobs are based in Cross Plains; 900 of its residents have a job. Jobs and income earn Cross Plains B+; getting around on foot earns it D.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Cross Plains in brief
Cross Plains is a place people come home to
There are 109 jobs based in Cross Plains, about one for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Cross Plains has about 1,100 people in it, 41% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
One in three of Cross Plains works in Nashville
297 working residents, 33%, have their main job in Nashville, 26 miles away. That’s 33 times as many as work in Cross Plains itself. The commute map ↓
Cross Plains workers spend longer getting to work
The average trip takes 34 minutes each way, against 26 across Tennessee. Over a year that’s about 261 hours of commuting, 61 more than the state’s typical 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; with 900 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Income, poverty and work: Cross Plains’ grade explained
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Cross Plains is better than 70% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Cross Plains’ grade up (3.9%, U.S. 12.5%); unemployment pulls it down (4.6%, U.S. 5.2%). It also does well on household income and job access by car.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Cross Plains could be anywhere from B− to A.
Who leaves Cross Plains for work, and who comes in
On a workday 894 residents head out to work, 6 work right here, and 103 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,100 people are in Cross Plains on a workday afternoon, 41% fewer than live here.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
The places Cross Plains commutes to
Where Cross Plains clocks in
9% of workers
7% 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.
About 34 minutes each way for Cross Plains’ commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 10.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Cross Plains workers work from home, vs 13% across Tennessee. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 943 commuters (the 6% 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.
What Cross Plains’ employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Cross Plains, 2013 → 2023: 58 → 109. 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 Cross Plains’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Cross Plains’ commute, mile by mile
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.
Driving is how Cross Plains gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Cross Plains is more walkable than 11% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: hardly any 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 1,006 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 0.8% of Cross Plains households have no vehicle (Tennessee 5.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Cross Plains’ commuters take a bus or train.
1,213th of 5,921: where Cross Plains ranks among U.S. towns of 1,300 to 2,600
| # | 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 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 67 | Lookout Mountain TN | 2,044 | $201K | 2.3% | 0.4% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 206 | Walden TN | 1,965 | $124K | 3.1% | 4.1% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 243 | Fairmount TN | 2,110 | $137K | 3.7% | 0.0% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,211 | Rocky Point WA | 1,716 | $86K | 5.2% | 4.7% | 0% | B+ |
| 1,212 | South Palm Beach FL | 1,488 | $92K | 12.3% | 2.3% | 1% | B+ |
| 1,213 | Cross Plains TN | 1,919 | $76K | 3.9% | 4.6% | 1% | B+ |
| 1,214 | Erie Township IL | 1,842 | $82K | 3.1% | 5.7% | 12% | B+ |
| 1,215 | Phippsburg ME | 2,232 | $108K | 7.5% | 1.5% | 2% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,921 | 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.
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Cross Plains, 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 Cross Plains: questions
What is the median household income in Cross Plains?
$76,319 (±$11,161) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $69,595 across Tennessee and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Cross Plains?
3.9%, against 13.8% across Tennessee and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Cross Plains?
34 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Tennessee and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Cross Plains work?
1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Nashville (33%, 26 mi), Springfield (9%, 11 mi), White House (7%, 5 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Cross Plains walkable?
Cross Plains is more walkable than 11% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 5.6 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Cross Plains without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 1% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Cross Plains, from the people who make the trip.
More of Cross Plains
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.