Photo: Ichabod · CC BY-SA 3.0A job hub: Franklin has 2.3 jobs per working resident, and 74,615 people come in to work
Measured by household income, Franklin is ahead of 88% of U.S. towns. Franklin has 85,972 jobs, against 37,200 working residents. For jobs and income Franklin is better than 96% of U.S. towns (A+); for walkability it is more walkable than 63% of U.S. towns (B).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Franklin apart on work
A lot of Franklin works from home
30% of Franklin workers work from home, against 13% across Tennessee. Time on the road ↓
Franklin is where the jobs are
Franklin has 85,972 jobs, 2.3 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 139,000 people are in town, 54% more than the 90,000 who live here. Day and night ↓
Franklin and Nashville trade workers both ways
Nashville is the top workplace for Franklin residents (36%) and also where the most people who work in Franklin come from (19% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Franklin has added jobs fast
Jobs based in Franklin went from 57,674 in 2013 to 85,972 in 2023, +49%. The jobs ↓
The biggest group of Franklin’s workers comes from Nashville
16,340 of the people who work in Franklin live in Nashville, 18 miles away, more than from any other town. The commute map ↓
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; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
How Franklin earns its Jobs & income grade
All four inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Franklin’s grade. It also does well on household income and the poverty rate and unemployment.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Franklin could be anywhere from A to A+.
Commuting from Franklin: about 24 minutes a trip
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Franklin workers work from home, vs 13% across Tennessee. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 32,069 commuters (the 30% 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.
A workday in Franklin: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 25,843 residents head out to work and 11,357 work right here.
About 139,000 people are in Franklin on a workday afternoon, 54% 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.
Who travels to work in Franklin, and from where
Where Franklin clocks in
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.
67% of the jobs in Franklin pay over $3,333 a month
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Franklin, 2013 → 2023: 57,674 → 85,972. 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 Franklin’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The distance from Franklin to work
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.
Franklin is a driving town
The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.4% of 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 46,072 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 32% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 4% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 1.3 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 62% 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). 3.1% of Franklin households have no vehicle (Tennessee 5.2%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Franklin’s commuters take a bus or train.
Franklin is 10th of 502 U.S. towns of 63,000 to 122,000 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lakeville MN | 79,270 | $139K | 2.9% | 2.0% | 11% | A+ |
| 2 | Fulshear TX | 64,630 | $187K | 1.6% | 2.8% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Plymouth MN | 78,942 | $137K | 4.3% | 2.3% | 12% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 8 | Carmel IN | 105,634 | $142K | 3.9% | 2.7% | 23% | A+ |
| 9 | Clay Township IN | 104,932 | $142K | 3.9% | 2.7% | 23% | A+ |
| 10 | Franklin TN | 90,226 | $120K | 4.6% | 2.2% | 31% | A+ |
| 11 | Flower Mound TX | 79,540 | $161K | 4.3% | 3.4% | 10% | A+ |
| 12 | Celina TX | 64,427 | $171K | 4.7% | 2.8% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 146 | Hendersonville TN | 64,266 | $97K | 6.3% | 4.3% | 13% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 291 | Smyrna TN | 63,321 | $82K | 12.5% | 5.0% | 14% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 450 | Johnson City TN | 74,943 | $57K | 20.3% | 5.6% | 44% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 502 | Albany GA | 66,907 | $47K | 27.5% | 11.2% | 51% | 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 Franklin, the top three, the last and three more from Tennessee.
Franklin and its neighbors
The biggest share goes to Brentwood (8%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Franklin workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Franklin | – | A+ | B | 24 min | $119,528 |
| Brentwood | 8% | A+ | C | 26 min | $182,088 |
| Thompson's Station | under 1% | A− | C− | 31 min | $132,647 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Franklin’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 Franklin: questions
What is the median household income in Franklin?
$119,528 (±$6,576) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $69,595 across Tennessee and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Franklin?
4.6%, against 13.8% across Tennessee and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Franklin?
24 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Tennessee and 26 nationally. 30% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Franklin work?
31% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Nashville (36%, 18 mi), Brentwood (8%, 7 mi), Memphis (2%, 184 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Franklin walkable?
Franklin is more walkable than 63% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 9.7 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Franklin without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. 4% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Franklin, from the people who make the trip.
More of Franklin
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.