Dubuisson-Neuhoff House · Photo: Skye Marthaler · CC BY-SA 3.0Few U.S. towns have household incomes as high as Forest Hills’
Below the poverty line: 6.7% of residents, where Tennessee as a whole has 13.8%. Household incomes here are among the highest in the country. Forest Hills grades A+ for jobs and income and C− for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Forest Hills apart on work
More than half of Forest Hills works in Nashville
1,056 working residents, 59%, have their main job in Nashville, 7.4 miles away. That’s 30 times as many as work in Forest Hills itself. The commute map ↓
Most Forest Hills residents work close to home
74% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home, about three in four. How far ↓
Home offices are common in Forest Hills
28% of Forest Hills workers work from home, against 13% across Tennessee. Time on the road ↓
Commutes from Forest Hills are quick
The average trip to work takes 18 minutes, against 26 across Tennessee. That’s about 61 hours a year less on the road than the typical Tennessee worker. Time on the road ↓
Three in four Forest Hills workers earn over $40,000 a year
76% of Forest Hills’ working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, the top earnings band in the Census data. The jobs ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2024, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey.
Income, poverty and work: Forest Hills’ grade explained
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Forest Hills is among the top U.S. towns, #3 of 177 in Tennessee. Household income is its strongest input ($250,000+, U.S. $80,734); the poverty rate ranks lowest, though still above most U.S. towns. It also does well on the poverty rate and unemployment and job access by car.
The Census reports Forest Hills’ median household income as $250,000+, the top of its scale; the grade ranks it as tied with the 111 other graded places at that ceiling.
A firm grade. At either end of the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Forest Hills stays A+.
59% of working residents work in Nashville
Where Forest Hills clocks in
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.
Half of Forest Hills commutes less than 7 miles
Straight-line distance from each worker’s home block to their main job’s block. LEHD 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Commuting from Forest Hills: about 18 minutes a trip
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Forest Hills workers work from home, vs 13% across Tennessee. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,457 commuters (the 28% 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.
Mostly health care, schools and offices in Forest Hills
739 jobs are based in Forest Hills.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Forest Hills, 2014 → 2024: 669 → 739. 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 2024.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Forest Hills’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The daily commute in and out of Forest Hills
On a workday 1,768 residents head out to work, 35 work right here, and 704 people come in from elsewhere.
About 3,400 people are in Forest Hills on a workday afternoon, 24% fewer than live here.
0.41 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2024, primary jobs.
In Forest Hills, most people drive to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Forest Hills is more walkable than 17% of U.S. towns, #146 of 177 in Tennessee. Both inputs place Forest Hills 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 2,010 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). 0.0% of Forest Hills households have no vehicle (Tennessee 5.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Forest Hills’ commuters take a bus or train.
Forest Hills next to U.S. towns of 3,100 to 6,000: 61st of 4,000 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Mission Hills KS | 3,522 | $250K | 1.2% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Ho-Ho-Kus NJ | 4,313 | $250K | 0.0% | 1.7% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 10 | Oak Hill TN | 4,581 | $216K | 1.2% | 1.7% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 59 | Jackson WI | 3,950 | $117K | 0.6% | 0.3% | 3% | A+ |
| 60 | Monrovia MD | 3,568 | $207K | 0.0% | 2.2% | <1% | A+ |
| 61 | Forest Hills TN | 4,473 | $250K | 6.7% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 62 | Shavano Park TX | 3,861 | $165K | 2.3% | 2.6% | 2% | A+ |
| 63 | Bristol WI | 4,347 | $141K | 1.2% | 0.8% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 428 | Coopertown TN | 4,843 | $118K | 9.2% | 0.3% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 485 | Christiana TN | 4,777 | $101K | 4.9% | 2.5% | <1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 4,000 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 19% | 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 Forest Hills, the top three, the last and three more from Tennessee.
Next door to Forest Hills
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Forest Hills workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forest Hills | – | A+ | C− | 18 min | $250,000+ |
| Belle Meade | under 1% | A+ | B | 17 min | $250,000+ |
| Oak Hill | under 1% | A+ | C | 21 min | $215,530 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Forest Hills’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 2024, primary jobs, where the employer reports them. Income, poverty, unemployment, commute time and how people travel: Census ACS 2020–24 averages.
- A ceiling on income. The Census stops at $250,000+, so the true median may be higher.
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Forest Hills: questions
What is the median household income in Forest Hills?
$250,000+ (Census ACS 2020–24), against $69,595 across Tennessee and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Forest Hills?
6.7%, against 13.8% across Tennessee and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Forest Hills?
18 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Tennessee and 26 nationally. 28% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Forest Hills work?
2% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Nashville (59%, 7 mi), Brentwood (9%, 6 mi), Franklin (7%, 11 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Forest Hills walkable?
Forest Hills is more walkable than 17% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 5.5 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Forest Hills without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 0% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Forest Hills, from the people who make the trip.
More of Forest Hills
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2024, 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.