Photo: Brian Stansberry · CC BY 3.0Households in Sneedville earn less than in almost any other U.S. town
For jobs and income Sneedville is near the bottom of U.S. towns (D−); for walkability it is more walkable than 14% of U.S. towns (D). Measured by household income, Sneedville is among the lowest-earning towns in the country. The poverty rate is 48.4%, where Tennessee as a whole has 13.8%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Sneedville: the figures worth knowing
Sneedville is where the jobs are
Sneedville has 771 jobs, 1.9 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Sneedville’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Sneedville is Morristown, 23 miles away as the crow flies. 16% of working residents (65) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Sneedville has added jobs fast
Jobs based in Sneedville went from 499 in 2013 to 771 in 2023, +55%. The jobs ↓
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 403 working residents, small shifts move the shares; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Sneedville
On income, poverty and job access, Sneedville is near the bottom of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Sneedville’s grade.
Unemployment (14.2%) is left out: Sneedville’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, Sneedville stays D−.
The workday shuffle in and out of Sneedville
On a workday 312 residents head out to work, 91 work right here, and 680 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,700 people are in Sneedville on a workday afternoon, 27% 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 2023, primary jobs.
The commute from Sneedville, by distance
About 30% 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.
What work there is in Sneedville: 771 jobs
771 jobs are based in Sneedville.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Sneedville, 2013 → 2023: 499 → 771. 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 Sneedville’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Where Sneedville’s workforce comes from
Where Sneedville clocks in
16% of workers
4% of workers
4% 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.
About 30 minutes to work from Sneedville
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Sneedville workers work from home, vs 13% across Tennessee. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 328 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.
Most trips from Sneedville start in a car
The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: hardly any 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 337 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 Sneedville households have no vehicle (Tennessee 5.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Sneedville’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Sneedville compares with U.S. towns of 900 to 1,800
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 378 | Rossville TN | 1,215 | $120K | 7.3% | 6.1% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 825 | Orlinda TN | 1,028 | $84K | 6.4% | 3.1% | 2% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 921 | Unionville TN | 1,275 | $71K | 1.4% | 0.0% | 2% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,346 | Rosedale MS | 1,423 | $19K | 57.5% | 22.3% | 12% | D− |
| 5,347 | Columbus NM | 1,484 | $26K | 22.7% | 6.3% | 4% | D− |
| 5,348 | Sneedville TN | 1,349 | $25K | 48.4% | 14.2% | 23% | D− |
| 5,349 | Sabinal TX | 1,378 | $34K | 36.5% | 7.8% | 5% | D− |
| 5,350 | Cherryfield ME | 1,093 | $37K | 26.3% | 6.4% | 12% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,400 | 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 Sneedville, 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 Sneedville: questions
What is the median household income in Sneedville?
$24,500 (±$12,921) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $69,595 across Tennessee and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Sneedville?
48.4%, against 13.8% across Tennessee and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Sneedville?
30 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Tennessee and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Sneedville work?
23% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Morristown (16%, 23 mi), Tazewell (4%, 20 mi), Knoxville (4%, 57 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Sneedville walkable?
Sneedville is more walkable than 14% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 6.0 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Sneedville 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 Sneedville, from the people who make the trip.
More of Sneedville
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.