Photo: Brian Stansberry · CC BY 3.0Few U.S. towns have household incomes as low as Rocky Top’s
36.6% of residents live below the poverty line, against 13.8% across Tennessee. Household incomes here are among the lowest in the country. The two grades for Rocky Top are 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
Rocky Top and work: the main findings
The better-paid jobs are outside Rocky Top
60% of Rocky Top residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, but only 37% of the jobs based in Rocky Top pay that much. Most residents work elsewhere: 94% leave town for their job. The jobs ↓
Many jobs in Rocky Top pay little
26% of the jobs based in Rocky Top pay $1,250 a month or less, under $15,000 a year. Young workers hold many of them: 34% of all the jobs here go to people 29 or younger. The jobs ↓
Few Rocky Top 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 2024, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; with 684 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Rocky Top
On income, poverty and job access, Rocky Top is better than 12% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Rocky Top’s grade up (ahead of 62% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($32,868, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (10.6%) is left out: Rocky Top’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Rocky Top could be anywhere from D to C−.
What the 746 jobs in Rocky Top are
746 jobs are based in Rocky Top.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Rocky Top, 2014 → 2024: 682 → 746. 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 Rocky Top’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The trip to work from Rocky Top: about 23 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Rocky Top workers work from home, vs 13% across Tennessee. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 578 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.
Who commutes out of Rocky Top, and who commutes in
On a workday 644 residents head out to work, 40 work right here, and 706 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 (1.09 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2024, primary jobs.
18% of working residents work in Knoxville
Where Rocky Top clocks in
18% of workers
17% of workers
12% 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.
Short hops and long hauls from Rocky Top
About 17% 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.
In Rocky Top, the car does most of the work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Rocky Top is more walkable than 35% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.5% 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 600 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). 13.3% of Rocky Top households have no vehicle (Tennessee 5.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Rocky Top’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 1,200 to 2,300, Rocky Top ranks 4,650th of 5,760 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 1% | A+ |
| 2 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Hewlett Harbor NY | 1,332 | $250K | 1.9% | 7.2% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 64 | Lookout Mountain TN | 2,044 | $201K | 2.3% | 0.4% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 192 | Walden TN | 1,965 | $124K | 3.1% | 4.1% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 224 | Fairmount TN | 2,110 | $137K | 3.7% | 0.0% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 4,648 | Thomson IL | 1,606 | $61K | 21.3% | 8.9% | 4% | D |
| 4,649 | Nettleton MS | 1,934 | $42K | 20.8% | 6.0% | 5% | D |
| 4,650 | Rocky Top TN | 1,681 | $33K | 36.6% | 10.6% | 6% | D |
| 4,651 | Sedgwick ME | 1,203 | $70K | 16.9% | 1.9% | 9% | D |
| 4,652 | Waterford ME | 1,632 | $66K | 16.4% | 1.9% | 4% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,760 | 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 Rocky Top, 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 Rocky Top: questions
What is the median household income in Rocky Top?
$32,868 (±$8,579) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $69,595 across Tennessee and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Rocky Top?
36.6%, against 13.8% across Tennessee and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Rocky Top?
23 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Tennessee and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Rocky Top work?
6% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Knoxville (18%, 21 mi), Clinton (17%, 9 mi), Oak Ridge (12%, 19 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Rocky Top walkable?
Rocky Top is more walkable than 35% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 7.4 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Rocky Top without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 13% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Rocky Top, from the people who make the trip.
More of Rocky Top
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.