Photo: Thomas R. Machnitzki (DoxTxob at en.wikipedia) · CC BY-SA 3.0Household incomes in Kenton trail those of 95% of U.S. towns
24.3% of residents live below the poverty line, against 13.8% across Tennessee. The two grades for Kenton are D− for jobs and income and D for walkability. Working from home is the commute for 5% of workers, next to 13% for Tennessee as a whole.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Kenton
Kenton’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
On income, poverty and job access, Kenton is better than 2% of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Kenton’s grade.
Unemployment (3.7%) is left out: Kenton’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, Kenton could be anywhere from D− to D.
In and out of Kenton on a workday
On a workday 477 residents head out to work, 13 work right here, and 124 people come in from elsewhere.
About 900 people are in Kenton on a workday afternoon, 28% fewer than live here.
0.28 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 2023, primary jobs.
19% of working residents work in Union City
Where Kenton clocks in
19% of workers
8% 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.
What Kenton’s employers do
137 jobs are based in Kenton.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Kenton, 2013 → 2023: 128 → 137. 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 Kenton’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Time on the road from Kenton: about 29 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Kenton workers work from home, vs 13% across Tennessee. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 471 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.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Kenton
About 18% 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.
Driving is how Kenton gets around
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 1.1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 2.0% across Tennessee, on an EPA index of 4.2.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 495 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). 6.2% of Kenton households have no vehicle (Tennessee 5.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Kenton’s commuters take a bus or train.
Kenton next to U.S. towns of 900 to 1,700
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 334 | Rossville TN | 1,215 | $120K | 7.3% | 6.1% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 721 | Orlinda TN | 1,028 | $84K | 6.4% | 3.1% | 2% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 804 | Unionville TN | 1,275 | $71K | 1.4% | 0.0% | 2% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,627 | Whitehall MT | 1,131 | $45K | 20.6% | 8.9% | 13% | D− |
| 4,628 | Westville OK | 1,413 | $39K | 34.1% | 12.8% | 23% | D− |
| 4,629 | Kenton TN | 1,248 | $42K | 24.3% | 3.7% | 3% | D− |
| 4,630 | Knox City TX | 1,009 | $42K | 17.5% | 1.7% | 17% | D− |
| 4,631 | Appalachia VA | 1,369 | $43K | 28.3% | 13.1% | 4% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,866 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 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 Kenton, 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 Kenton: questions
What is the median household income in Kenton?
$41,525 (±$5,071) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $69,595 across Tennessee and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Kenton?
24.3%, against 13.8% across Tennessee and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Kenton?
29 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Tennessee and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Kenton work?
3% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Union City (19%, 16 mi), Dyersburg (8%, 23 mi), Trenton (7%, 16 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Kenton walkable?
Kenton is more walkable than 13% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 4.2 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Kenton without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Kenton, from the people who make the trip.
More of Kenton
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.