Rattle and Snap · Photo: National Park Service photographer · Public domainMount Pleasant’s household incomes are lower than in 88% of U.S. towns
Poverty touches 22.8% of residents (Tennessee 13.8%). For jobs and income Mount Pleasant is better than 22% of U.S. towns (C−); for walkability it is more walkable than 21% of U.S. towns (C−). At home: 4% of workers have no commute at all (Tennessee 13%).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Mount Pleasant stands out on work
Mount Pleasant trades workers with the towns around it
Mount Pleasant has about as many jobs (1,838) as working residents (2,157), but they are mostly different people: 1,951 residents leave for work each day while 1,632 people come in. Only 11% of the jobs in Mount Pleasant are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
Mount Pleasant and Columbia trade workers both ways
Columbia is the top workplace for Mount Pleasant residents (27%) and also where the most people who work in Mount Pleasant come from (15% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Mount Pleasant makes and builds things
46% of the jobs based in Mount Pleasant are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Mount Pleasant residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 20%. The jobs ↓
Few Mount Pleasant workers work from home
Only 4% 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.
What’s behind Mount Pleasant’s Jobs & income grade
Unemployment holds Mount Pleasant’s grade up (3.8%, U.S. 5.2%); the poverty rate pulls it down.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Mount Pleasant could be anywhere from D to B−.
A workday in Mount Pleasant: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 1,951 residents head out to work, 206 work right here, and 1,632 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 (0.85 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.
27% of working residents work in Columbia
Where Mount Pleasant clocks in
27% 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.
In Mount Pleasant, 46% of jobs are in factories, building or farming
1,838 jobs are based in Mount Pleasant.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Mount Pleasant, 2013 → 2023: 1,383 → 1,838. 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 Mount Pleasant’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Time on the road from Mount Pleasant: about 26 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Mount Pleasant workers work from home, vs 13% across Tennessee. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,120 commuters (the 4% 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.
How far it is to work from Mount Pleasant
About 20% 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.
In Mount Pleasant, the car does most of the work
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 2,216 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). 6.4% of Mount Pleasant households have no vehicle (Tennessee 5.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Mount Pleasant’s commuters take a bus or train.
2,921st of 3,627: where Mount Pleasant ranks among U.S. towns of 3,600 to 6,900
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 13 | Oak Hill TN | 4,581 | $216K | 1.2% | 1.7% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 65 | Forest Hills TN | 4,473 | $250K | 6.7% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 437 | Coopertown TN | 4,843 | $118K | 9.2% | 0.3% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 2,919 | Center Township OH | 5,663 | $46K | 23.0% | 4.2% | 15% | C− |
| 2,920 | Beardstown IL | 5,691 | $61K | 13.7% | 4.6% | 42% | C− |
| 2,921 | Mount Pleasant TN | 5,103 | $50K | 22.8% | 3.8% | 10% | C− |
| 2,922 | Prosser WA | 6,654 | $77K | 16.8% | 8.0% | 22% | C− |
| 2,923 | Marion Township IN | 6,660 | $62K | 14.3% | 5.4% | 31% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,627 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 18% | 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 Mount Pleasant, 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 Mount Pleasant: questions
What is the median household income in Mount Pleasant?
$50,108 (±$7,523) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $69,595 across Tennessee and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Mount Pleasant?
22.8%, against 13.8% across Tennessee and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Mount Pleasant?
26 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Tennessee and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Mount Pleasant work?
10% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Columbia (27%, 9 mi), Nashville (14%, 48 mi), Franklin (6%, 31 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Mount Pleasant walkable?
Mount Pleasant is more walkable than 21% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 6.0 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Mount Pleasant without a car?
0% 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 Mount Pleasant, from the people who make the trip.
More of Mount Pleasant
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.