Photo: Brian Stansberry · CC BY 3.0Mountain City’s household incomes are lower than in 97% of U.S. towns
About one in five work in Mountain City; the top destination outside it is Boone (7%, 19 miles). 34.1% of residents are in poverty, next to 13.8% for Tennessee as a whole. Mountain City grades D− for jobs and income and C+ for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Mountain City
Where Mountain City’s Jobs & income grade comes from
On income, poverty and job access, Mountain City is near the bottom of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Mountain City’s grade.
Unemployment (6.6%) is left out: Mountain City’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A firm grade. At either end of the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Mountain City stays D−.
In and out of Mountain City on a workday
On a workday 640 residents head out to work, 186 work right here, and 1,263 people come in from elsewhere.
About 3,100 people are in Mountain City on a workday afternoon, 25% 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 2024, primary jobs.
The daily trip into Mountain City
Where Mountain City clocks in
7% of workers
4% of workers
3% 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 Mountain City, services account for most jobs
1,449 jobs are based in Mountain City.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Mountain City, 2014 → 2024: 1,508 → 1,449. 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 Mountain City’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Each way, about 22 minutes from Mountain City
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Mountain City workers work from home, vs 13% across Tennessee. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 640 commuters (the 20% 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 Mountain City
About 23% 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 Mountain City is mostly behind the wheel
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Mountain City is more walkable than 41% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 2.0% across Tennessee.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 801 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). 11.6% of Mountain City households have no vehicle (Tennessee 5.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Mountain City’s commuters take a bus or train.
U.S. towns of 1,700 to 3,400, and where Mountain City sits
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 55 | Lookout Mountain TN | 2,044 | $201K | 2.3% | 0.4% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 210 | Walden TN | 1,965 | $124K | 3.1% | 4.1% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 5,285 | Antlers OK | 2,186 | $36K | 26.2% | 8.6% | 32% | D− |
| 5,286 | Hartshorne OK | 1,877 | $40K | 23.6% | 5.3% | 10% | D− |
| 5,287 | Mountain City TN | 2,490 | $39K | 34.1% | 6.6% | 23% | D− |
| 5,288 | South Bend WA | 1,790 | $45K | 24.2% | 7.8% | 17% | D− |
| 5,289 | DeWitt AR | 2,791 | $48K | 25.9% | 14.2% | 36% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,401 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 61% | 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 Mountain City, 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 Mountain City: questions
What is the median household income in Mountain City?
$38,818 (±$6,711) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $69,595 across Tennessee and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Mountain City?
34.1%, against 13.8% across Tennessee and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Mountain City?
22 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Tennessee and 26 nationally. 20% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Mountain City work?
23% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Boone (7%, 19 mi), Johnson City (4%, 33 mi), Knoxville (3%, 124 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Mountain City walkable?
Mountain City is more walkable than 41% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 7.8 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Mountain City without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 12% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Mountain City, from the people who make the trip.
More of Mountain City
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.