Photo: Brian Stansberry · CC BY 3.0Household incomes in Madisonville trail those of 96% of U.S. towns
Madisonville grades D for jobs and income and B+ for walkability. The poverty rate is 18.1%, against 13.8% across Tennessee. About one in seven work in Madisonville itself; outside it, Vonore draws the most (17%, 9 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Madisonville
Madisonville’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Madisonville is better than 12% of U.S. towns, #151 of 177 in Tennessee. Job access by car holds Madisonville’s grade up (ahead of 45% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($39,878, U.S. $80,734).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Madisonville could be anywhere from D to C+.
Madisonville on a workday afternoon
On a workday 1,821 residents head out to work, 278 work right here, and 2,982 people come in from elsewhere.
About 6,600 people are in Madisonville on a workday afternoon, 21% more than live here.
1.6 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 2024, primary jobs.
Commuting in to Madisonville: where workers come from
Where Madisonville clocks in
17% of workers
10% 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.
What the 3,260 jobs in Madisonville are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Madisonville, 2014 → 2024: 3,172 → 3,260. 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 Madisonville’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How long Madisonville spends getting to work: about 24 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Madisonville workers work from home, vs 13% across Tennessee. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,890 commuters (the 6% 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.
Short hops and long hauls from Madisonville
About 16% 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 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
The commute in Madisonville is mostly behind the wheel
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Madisonville is more walkable than 66% of U.S. towns, #25 of 177 in Tennessee. Both inputs place Madisonville 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 2,012 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). 7.2% of Madisonville households have no vehicle (Tennessee 5.2%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Madisonville’s commuters take a bus or train.
U.S. towns of 3,800 to 7,300, and where Madisonville sits
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 10 | Oak Hill TN | 4,581 | $216K | 1.2% | 1.7% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 62 | Forest Hills TN | 4,473 | $250K | 6.7% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 434 | Coopertown TN | 4,843 | $118K | 9.2% | 0.3% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 3,200 | Greenville KY | 4,350 | $46K | 21.3% | 5.3% | 15% | D |
| 3,201 | Edwardsville PA | 4,927 | $45K | 26.1% | 12.5% | 2% | D |
| 3,202 | Madisonville TN | 5,428 | $40K | 18.1% | 6.8% | 13% | D |
| 3,203 | Canton NY | 6,894 | $62K | 19.8% | 6.5% | 29% | D |
| 3,204 | Pauls Valley OK | 6,157 | $50K | 24.4% | 5.2% | 34% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 3,541 | 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 Madisonville, 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 2024, 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 Madisonville: questions
What is the median household income in Madisonville?
$39,878 (±$5,249) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $69,595 across Tennessee and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Madisonville?
18.1%, against 13.8% across Tennessee and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Madisonville?
24 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Tennessee and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Madisonville work?
13% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Vonore (17%, 9 mi), Knoxville (10%, 39 mi), Athens (5%, 14 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Madisonville walkable?
Madisonville is more walkable than 66% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 7.6 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Madisonville without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 7% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Madisonville, from the people who make the trip.
More of Madisonville
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.