Photo: Brian Stansberry · CC BY 4.0Household incomes in Loretto trail those of 81% of U.S. towns
About one in ten stay in Loretto for work; outside it, Lawrenceburg is the main destination (28%, 13 miles). 8.6% of residents live below the poverty line (Tennessee 13.8%). The two grades for Loretto are C for jobs and income and C+ for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Loretto apart on work
28% of Loretto works in Lawrenceburg
198 working residents, 28%, have their main job in Lawrenceburg, 13 miles away. That’s 3 times as many as work in Loretto itself. The commute map ↓
Loretto makes and builds things
43% of the jobs based in Loretto are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Loretto residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 29%. The jobs ↓
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 710 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Breaking down the Jobs & income grade for Loretto
On income, poverty and job access, Loretto is better than 26% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Loretto’s grade up; household income pulls it down ($55,592, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (0.3%) is left out: Loretto’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Loretto could be anywhere from D to B−.
Where people from Loretto work
Where Loretto clocks in
28% of workers
6% 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.
Factories, building and farms: 43% of the jobs in Loretto
596 jobs are based in Loretto.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Loretto, 2013 → 2023: 476 → 596. 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 Loretto’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Where in the region Loretto works
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.
A workday in Loretto: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 638 residents head out to work, 72 work right here, and 524 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (0.84 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
The daily trip from Loretto: about 28 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Loretto workers work from home, vs 13% across Tennessee. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 725 commuters (the 7% 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.
Most trips from Loretto start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Loretto is more walkable than 36% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 2.5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 2.0% across Tennessee, on an EPA index of 5.4.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 778 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). 2.0% of Loretto households have no vehicle (Tennessee 5.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Loretto’s commuters take a bus or train.
Loretto places 3,473rd of 5,343 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 1,300 to 2,400
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Hewlett Harbor NY | 1,332 | $250K | 1.9% | 7.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 61 | Lookout Mountain TN | 2,044 | $201K | 2.3% | 0.4% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 187 | Walden TN | 1,965 | $124K | 3.1% | 4.1% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 220 | Fairmount TN | 2,110 | $137K | 3.7% | 0.0% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 3,471 | Chesaning MI | 2,399 | $60K | 13.9% | 4.9% | 23% | C |
| 3,472 | Allegany NY | 1,615 | $71K | 16.6% | 2.3% | 5% | C |
| 3,473 | Loretto TN | 1,813 | $56K | 8.6% | 0.3% | 10% | C |
| 3,474 | Olean NY | 1,846 | $75K | 16.3% | 2.7% | 5% | C |
| 3,475 | Caldwell OH | 1,866 | $51K | 7.7% | 2.1% | 15% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 5,343 | 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 Loretto, 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 Loretto: questions
What is the median household income in Loretto?
$55,592 (±$10,244) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $69,595 across Tennessee and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Loretto?
8.6%, against 13.8% across Tennessee and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Loretto?
28 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Tennessee and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Loretto work?
10% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Lawrenceburg (28%, 13 mi), Nashville (11%, 84 mi), Florence (6%, 22 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Loretto walkable?
Loretto is more walkable than 36% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 5.4 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Loretto without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Loretto, from the people who make the trip.
More of Loretto
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.