Photo: rjones0856 from USA · CC BY 2.0Dover draws 1,015 commuters a day, with 1.8 jobs for every working resident
Dover grades C+ for jobs and income and C− for walkability. 1,152 jobs are based in Dover, and 634 of its residents work somewhere. For 5% of workers, the job is at home (Tennessee 13%).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work and commuting in Dover, in brief
Dover is where the jobs are
Dover has 1,152 jobs, 1.8 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Dover’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Dover is Clarksville, 28 miles away as the crow flies. 20% of working residents (124) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
A big share show a job far from home
32% 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 ↓
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 634 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Breaking down the Jobs & income grade for Dover
On income, poverty and job access, Dover is better than 39% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Dover’s grade up (7.0%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 11% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (2.2%) is left out: Dover’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, Dover could be anywhere from C− to B.
The daily flow of workers through Dover
On a workday 497 residents head out to work and 137 work right here.
About 2,400 people are in Dover on a workday afternoon, 27% more 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.
How far Dover’s workers travel
About 32% 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.
Who travels to work in Dover, and from where
Where Dover clocks in
20% of workers
4% 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.
What Dover’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Dover, 2013 → 2023: 894 → 1,152. 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 Dover’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The daily trip from Dover: about 28 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 Dover workers work from home, vs 13% across Tennessee. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 864 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.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Getting around Dover: mostly by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Dover is more walkable than 24% 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 912 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). 4.9% of Dover households have no vehicle (Tennessee 5.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Dover’s commuters take a bus or train.
2,997th of 5,921: where Dover 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 |
| … | |||||||
| 2,995 | Minco OK | 1,580 | $61K | 11.3% | 4.8% | 13% | C+ |
| 2,996 | Liberty PA | 2,242 | $74K | 13.3% | 8.9% | 3% | C+ |
| 2,997 | Dover TN | 1,918 | $75K | 7.0% | 2.2% | 22% | C+ |
| 2,998 | Limestone Township PA | 1,952 | $72K | 9.6% | 2.5% | 5% | C+ |
| 2,999 | Midway FL | 1,407 | $61K | 17.2% | 5.4% | <1% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 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 Dover, 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 Dover: questions
What is the median household income in Dover?
$75,190 (±$12,910) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $69,595 across Tennessee and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Dover?
7.0%, against 13.8% across Tennessee and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Dover?
28 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Tennessee and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Dover work?
22% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Clarksville (20%, 28 mi), Nashville (7%, 63 mi), Jackson (4%, 80 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Dover walkable?
Dover is more walkable than 24% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 7.1 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Dover without a car?
0% 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 Dover, from the people who make the trip.
More of Dover
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.