Photo: Brian Stansberry · CC BY 3.0For about half of its working residents, Powells Crossroads is a commute to Chattanooga
Commuters spend 35 minutes getting to work on average, against 26 across Tennessee and 26 nationally. The two grades for Powells Crossroads are B for jobs and income and D for walkability. Hardly any work in Powells Crossroads itself; outside it, Chattanooga draws the most (45%, 16 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Powells Crossroads stands out on work
Powells Crossroads is a place people come home to
There are 17 jobs based in Powells Crossroads, about one for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Powells Crossroads has about 770 people in it, 41% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
Nearly half of Powells Crossroads works in Chattanooga
249 working residents, 45%, have their main job in Chattanooga, 16 miles away. That’s far more as work in Powells Crossroads itself. The commute map ↓
Powells Crossroads workers spend longer getting to work
The average trip takes 35 minutes each way, against 26 across Tennessee. Over a year that’s about 268 hours of commuting, 69 more than the state’s typical worker. 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; with 548 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Inside Powells Crossroads’ Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Powells Crossroads is better than 62% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Powells Crossroads’ grade up (4.5%, U.S. 12.5%); household income pulls it down ($67,549, U.S. $80,734). It also does well on job access by car.
Unemployment (3.1%) is left out: Powells Crossroads’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, Powells Crossroads could be anywhere from C+ to A−.
Powells Crossroads quiets down on a workday
On a workday 546 residents head out to work, 2 work right here, and 15 people come in from elsewhere.
About 770 people are in Powells Crossroads on a workday afternoon, 41% fewer than live here.
0.03 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Where the trip to work from Powells Crossroads ends
Where Powells Crossroads clocks in
45% 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.
From Powells Crossroads, about 35 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 11.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Powells Crossroads workers work from home, vs 13% across Tennessee. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 547 commuters (the 11% 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.
What work there is in Powells Crossroads: 17 jobs
17 jobs are based in Powells Crossroads.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Powells Crossroads, 2013 → 2023: 21 → 17. 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 Powells Crossroads’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How far Powells Crossroads goes to work
About 22% 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 Powells Crossroads, most people drive to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Powells Crossroads is more walkable than 7% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 0.9% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 2.0% across Tennessee, on an EPA index of 2.8.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 614 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). 4.5% of Powells Crossroads households have no vehicle (Tennessee 5.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Powells Crossroads’ commuters take a bus or train.
Powells Crossroads is 1,129th of 4,866 U.S. towns of 900 to 1,700 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 334 | Rossville TN | 1,215 | $120K | 7.3% | 6.1% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 721 | Orlinda TN | 1,028 | $84K | 6.4% | 3.1% | 2% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 804 | Unionville TN | 1,275 | $71K | 1.4% | 0.0% | 2% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,127 | Jackson Township OH | 1,169 | $82K | 8.7% | 0.0% | 2% | B |
| 1,128 | Carlton WI | 1,016 | $81K | 6.0% | 4.0% | 2% | B |
| 1,129 | Powells Crossroads TN | 1,296 | $68K | 4.5% | 3.1% | <1% | B |
| 1,130 | Caney Township KS | 1,096 | $89K | 2.6% | 1.0% | 1% | B |
| 1,131 | Chester MA | 1,222 | $89K | 1.8% | 1.5% | 3% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 4,866 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 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 Powells Crossroads, 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 Powells Crossroads: questions
What is the median household income in Powells Crossroads?
$67,549 (±$13,136) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $69,595 across Tennessee and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Powells Crossroads?
4.5%, against 13.8% across Tennessee and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Powells Crossroads?
35 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Tennessee and 26 nationally. 11% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Powells Crossroads work?
<1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Chattanooga (45%, 16 mi), Jasper (7%, 12 mi), Nashville (4%, 100 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Powells Crossroads walkable?
Powells Crossroads is more walkable than 7% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 2.8 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Powells Crossroads without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Powells Crossroads, from the people who make the trip.
More of Powells Crossroads
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.