Photo: Ralf Peter Reimann · CC BY-SA 2.0How Dickson works: jobs, income and commuting
The average commute takes 27 minutes each way; Tennessee averages 26, the U.S. 26. Dickson grades C+ for jobs and income and B for walkability. About one in four work in Dickson; the top destination outside it is Nashville (27%, 33 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Dickson: the figures worth knowing
Dickson’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Dickson is Nashville, 33 miles away as the crow flies. 27% of working residents (2,045) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Dickson draws workers from far and wide
The 11,862 jobs in Dickson are filled from a wide area. Dickson’s own residents hold 16% and the ten next-biggest home towns 17%; the other 67% come from many towns beyond those. The commute map ↓
Dickson is where the jobs are
Dickson has 11,862 jobs, 1.6 for every working resident. 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.
What’s behind Dickson’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Dickson is better than 44% of U.S. towns, #80 of 177 in Tennessee. Job access by car holds Dickson’s grade up (ahead of 64% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (12.8%, U.S. 12.5%).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Dickson could be anywhere from C to B+.
Half of Dickson commutes less than 31 miles
About 15% 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 towns that send workers to Dickson
Where Dickson clocks in
4% 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.
Who leaves Dickson for work, and who comes in
On a workday 5,634 residents head out to work, 1,933 work right here, and 9,929 people come in from elsewhere.
About 21,000 people are in Dickson on a workday afternoon, 25% more than live here.
1.6 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than 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.
Making and building: 30% of jobs based in Dickson
11,862 jobs are based in Dickson.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Dickson, 2013 → 2023: 10,135 → 11,862. 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 Dickson’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The trip to work from Dickson: about 27 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Dickson workers work from home, vs 13% across Tennessee. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 7,465 commuters (the 11% 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.
The commute in Dickson is mostly behind the wheel
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Dickson is more walkable than 64% of U.S. towns, #32 of 177 in Tennessee. Both inputs place Dickson 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 8,370 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). 4.6% of Dickson households have no vehicle (Tennessee 5.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 2% of Dickson’s commuters take a bus or train.
1,378th of 1,999: where Dickson ranks among U.S. towns of 12,000 to 23,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Plain Township OH | 13,257 | $219K | 2.1% | 0.8% | 10% | A+ |
| 2 | Rogers MN | 15,606 | $159K | 1.9% | 1.2% | 10% | A+ |
| 3 | Trophy Club TX | 13,695 | $201K | 2.1% | 2.0% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 30 | Nolensville TN | 15,789 | $177K | 2.1% | 2.4% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 167 | Lakeland TN | 14,422 | $116K | 3.2% | 2.8% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 309 | Arlington TN | 15,703 | $135K | 4.9% | 3.4% | 9% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,376 | Langley Park MD | 21,508 | $85K | 28.3% | 6.9% | 2% | C+ |
| 1,377 | East Moline IL | 20,453 | $62K | 19.8% | 3.4% | 14% | C+ |
| 1,378 | Dickson TN | 17,051 | $70K | 12.8% | 4.8% | 26% | C+ |
| 1,379 | Mamakating NY | 12,701 | $91K | 13.5% | 5.2% | 6% | C+ |
| 1,380 | Knik-Fairview AK | 19,972 | $96K | 9.2% | 4.3% | — | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,999 | Douglas AZ | 16,038 | $42K | 27.8% | 12.3% | 29% | 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 Dickson, the top three, the last and three more from Tennessee.
Work in the towns next to Dickson
Jobs & commute next door
Darker towns draw more of Dickson’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
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 Dickson: questions
What is the median household income in Dickson?
$69,678 (±$3,408) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $69,595 across Tennessee and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Dickson?
12.8%, against 13.8% across Tennessee and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Dickson?
27 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Tennessee and 26 nationally. 11% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Dickson work?
26% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Nashville (27%, 33 mi), Franklin (4%, 31 mi), Clarksville (2%, 35 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Dickson walkable?
Dickson is more walkable than 64% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 7.4 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Dickson without a car?
2% of commuters take transit and 5% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Dickson, from the people who make the trip.
More of Dickson
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.