Photo: Brian Stansberry · CC BY 4.0There are 1.8 jobs in Lafayette for every working resident, and 3,855 people commute in
For jobs and income Lafayette is better than 9% of U.S. towns (D); for walkability it is more walkable than 52% of U.S. towns (B−). Employers in Lafayette report 4,391 jobs for 2,375 working residents. Measured by household income, Lafayette is behind 86% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Lafayette and work: the main findings
Lafayette’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Lafayette is Nashville, 49 miles away as the crow flies. 13% of working residents (317) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Lafayette is where the jobs are
Lafayette has 4,391 jobs, 1.9 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Few Lafayette workers work from home
Only 2% of workers work from home, against 13% across Tennessee. Almost everyone here travels to a job. Time on the road ↓
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.
The figures behind Lafayette’s Jobs & income grade
Unemployment holds Lafayette’s grade up (5.4%, U.S. 5.2%); the poverty rate pulls it down (27.6%, U.S. 12.5%).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Lafayette could be anywhere from D− to C+.
How far Lafayette’s workers travel
About 26% 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 commutes out of Lafayette, and who commutes in
On a workday 1,839 residents head out to work and 536 work right here.
About 8,000 people are in Lafayette on a workday afternoon, 33% more than live here.
1.8 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.
How long Lafayette spends getting to work: about 28 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Lafayette workers work from home, vs 13% across Tennessee. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,070 commuters (the 2% 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 towns that send workers to Lafayette
Where Lafayette clocks in
9% of workers
5% 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.
The kinds of work in Lafayette
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Lafayette, 2013 → 2023: 3,636 → 4,391. 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 Lafayette’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Lafayette is a driving town
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 2,102 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). 3.0% of Lafayette households have no vehicle (Tennessee 5.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Lafayette’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Lafayette compares with U.S. towns of 4,200 to 8,100
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Ho-Ho-Kus NJ | 4,313 | $250K | 0.0% | 1.7% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 9 | Oak Hill TN | 4,581 | $216K | 1.2% | 1.7% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 58 | Forest Hills TN | 4,473 | $250K | 6.7% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 325 | Harrison TN | 8,011 | $89K | 3.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 3,162 | Thermalito CA | 6,720 | $55K | 20.4% | 9.9% | 3% | D |
| 3,163 | Rockwood TN | 5,607 | $48K | 22.1% | 10.5% | 7% | D |
| 3,164 | Lafayette TN | 6,020 | $52K | 27.6% | 5.4% | 23% | D |
| 3,165 | Galax VA | 6,670 | $39K | 31.1% | 5.1% | 33% | D |
| 3,166 | Westfield NY | 4,423 | $51K | 12.6% | 9.0% | 26% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 3,394 | Medina TX | 4,226 | $22K | 53.8% | 10.1% | 4% | 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 Lafayette, 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 Lafayette: questions
What is the median household income in Lafayette?
$51,736 (±$16,813) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $69,595 across Tennessee and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Lafayette?
27.6%, against 13.8% across Tennessee and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Lafayette?
28 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Tennessee and 26 nationally. 2% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Lafayette work?
23% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Nashville (13%, 49 mi), Gallatin (9%, 26 mi), Lebanon (5%, 28 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Lafayette walkable?
Lafayette is more walkable than 52% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 7.2 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Lafayette without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Lafayette, from the people who make the trip.
More of Lafayette
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.