Photo: Brian Stansberry · CC BY 4.0Households in Pikeville have lower incomes than those in 97% of U.S. towns
The poverty rate is 22.6%, against 13.8% across Tennessee. Jobs and income earn Pikeville C−; getting around on foot earns it B+. Home is the office for 3% of workers, where Tennessee as a whole has 13%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Pikeville
Pikeville’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Pikeville is Chattanooga, 38 miles away as the crow flies. 15% of working residents (93) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Pikeville is where the jobs are
Pikeville has 1,196 jobs, 1.9 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Commutes from Pikeville are quick
The average trip to work takes 19 minutes, against 26 across Tennessee. That’s about 54 hours a year less on the road than the typical Tennessee worker. Time on the road ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2024, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; with 615 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Why Pikeville gets the Jobs & income grade it does
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Pikeville is better than 24% of U.S. towns. Unemployment holds Pikeville’s grade up (0.9%, U.S. 5.2%); household income pulls it down ($37,688, U.S. $80,734).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Pikeville could be anywhere from C− to C+.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Pikeville
About 21% 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 daily flow of workers through Pikeville
On a workday 474 residents head out to work, 141 work right here, and 1,055 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,500 people are in Pikeville on a workday afternoon, 31% more than live here.
1.9 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 from Pikeville: about 19 minutes a trip
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Pikeville workers work from home, vs 13% across Tennessee. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,032 commuters (the 3% 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.
Where Pikeville’s workers come from
Where Pikeville clocks in
15% of workers
7% 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 work there is in Pikeville: 1,196 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Pikeville, 2014 → 2024: 1,102 → 1,196. 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 Pikeville’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Driving is how Pikeville gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Pikeville is more walkable than 67% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 2.6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, above 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 1,062 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). 17.7% of Pikeville households have no vehicle (Tennessee 5.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Pikeville’s commuters take a bus or train.
Pikeville is 3,779th of 5,656 U.S. towns of 1,300 to 2,500 on jobs and income
| # | 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 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 64 | Lookout Mountain TN | 2,044 | $201K | 2.3% | 0.4% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 195 | Walden TN | 1,965 | $124K | 3.1% | 4.1% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 230 | Fairmount TN | 2,110 | $137K | 3.7% | 0.0% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 3,777 | Apollo PA | 1,537 | $52K | 18.2% | 5.3% | 2% | C− |
| 3,778 | Eddystone PA | 2,448 | $52K | 25.2% | 8.1% | 5% | C− |
| 3,779 | Pikeville TN | 1,872 | $38K | 22.6% | 0.9% | 23% | C− |
| 3,780 | Richfield NY | 2,052 | $60K | 18.2% | 3.7% | 9% | C− |
| 3,781 | Lincoln Township OH | 2,164 | $70K | 18.1% | 8.0% | 1% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,656 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 7% | 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 Pikeville, 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 Pikeville: questions
What is the median household income in Pikeville?
$37,688 (±$11,707) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $69,595 across Tennessee and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Pikeville?
22.6%, against 13.8% across Tennessee and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Pikeville?
19 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Tennessee and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Pikeville work?
23% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Chattanooga (15%, 38 mi), Dayton (8%, 13 mi), Crossville (7%, 25 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Pikeville walkable?
Pikeville is more walkable than 67% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 8.3 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Pikeville without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 18% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Pikeville, from the people who make the trip.
More of Pikeville
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.