Photo: AppalachianCentrist · CC BY-SA 4.0Rutledge’s household incomes are lower than in 88% of U.S. towns
Poverty touches 24.8% of residents, where Tennessee as a whole has 13.8%. Rutledge grades D for jobs and income and C for walkability. 3% of workers work from home, next to 13% for Tennessee as a whole.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Rutledge at work: what stands out
Rutledge is where the jobs are
Rutledge has 900 jobs, 1.7 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Rutledge’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Rutledge is Knoxville, 31 miles away as the crow flies. 16% of working residents (85) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Few Rutledge workers work from home
Only 3% 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; with 527 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Rutledge’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
On income, poverty and job access, Rutledge is better than 12% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Rutledge’s grade up (ahead of 46% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down.
Unemployment (7.8%) is left out: Rutledge’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, Rutledge could be anywhere from D to C.
How many people are in Rutledge by day
On a workday 473 residents head out to work, 54 work right here, and 846 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,800 people are in Rutledge on a workday afternoon, 26% more than live here.
1.7 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 2023, primary jobs.
The distance from Rutledge to work
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 2023.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
How long Rutledge spends getting to work: about 28 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Rutledge workers work from home, vs 13% across Tennessee. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 605 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 the people who work in Rutledge live
Where Rutledge clocks in
16% of workers
16% 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 Rutledge, services account for most jobs
900 jobs are based in Rutledge.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Rutledge, 2013 → 2023: 992 → 900. 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 Rutledge’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Most trips from Rutledge start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Rutledge is more walkable than 34% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Rutledge near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 624 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). 11.7% of Rutledge households have no vehicle (Tennessee 5.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Rutledge’s commuters take a bus or train.
4,649th of 5,877: where Rutledge ranks among U.S. towns of 1,000 to 1,900
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 422 | Rossville TN | 1,215 | $120K | 7.3% | 6.1% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 472 | Berry Hill TN | 1,864 | $80K | 11.2% | 3.1% | 5% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 910 | Orlinda TN | 1,028 | $84K | 6.4% | 3.1% | 2% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,647 | Kentland IN | 1,631 | $60K | 14.4% | 20.1% | 22% | D |
| 4,648 | Wilson OK | 1,439 | $61K | 17.4% | 2.9% | 7% | D |
| 4,649 | Rutledge TN | 1,411 | $50K | 24.8% | 7.8% | 10% | D |
| 4,650 | Hemphill TX | 1,027 | $67K | 16.6% | 11.3% | 23% | D |
| 4,651 | Ross Township IL | 1,466 | $62K | 15.3% | 5.1% | 12% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,877 | 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 Rutledge, 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 Rutledge: questions
What is the median household income in Rutledge?
$50,045 (±$15,627) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $69,595 across Tennessee and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Rutledge?
24.8%, against 13.8% across Tennessee and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Rutledge?
28 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Tennessee and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Rutledge work?
10% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Knoxville (16%, 31 mi), Morristown (16%, 14 mi), Jefferson City (6%, 11 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Rutledge walkable?
Rutledge is more walkable than 34% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 6.3 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Rutledge 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 Rutledge, from the people who make the trip.
More of Rutledge
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.