Photo: Brian Stansberry · CC BY 3.0Spring City has lower household incomes than 96% of U.S. towns
Home is the office for 2% of workers, next to 13% for Tennessee as a whole. 18.3% of residents are in poverty, next to 13.8% for Tennessee as a whole. For jobs and income Spring City is better than 6% of U.S. towns (D); for walkability it is more walkable than 54% of U.S. towns (B−).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Spring City in brief
Many jobs in Spring City pay little
28% of the jobs based in Spring City pay $1,250 a month or less, under $15,000 a year. The jobs ↓
Few Spring City workers work from home
Only 2% 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 660 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Spring City
Job access by car holds Spring City’s grade up (ahead of 21% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($38,975, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (9.1%) is left out: Spring City’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, Spring City could be anywhere from D− to D.
What work there is in Spring City: 575 jobs
575 jobs are based in Spring City.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Spring City, 2013 → 2023: 670 → 575. 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 Spring City’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 28 minutes each way for Spring City’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Spring City workers work from home, vs 13% across Tennessee. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 699 commuters (the 2% 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.
The daily flow of workers through Spring City
On a workday 611 residents head out to work, 49 work right here, and 526 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 (0.87 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
26% of working residents work in Dayton
Where Spring City clocks in
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.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Spring City
About 27% 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.
Getting around Spring City: mostly by car
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 3.9% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 2.0% across Tennessee, on an EPA index of 6.1.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 714 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). 9.8% of Spring City households have no vehicle (Tennessee 5.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Spring City’s commuters take a bus or train.
Spring City next to U.S. towns of 1,400 to 2,700
| # | 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% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 4 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 62 | Lookout Mountain TN | 2,044 | $201K | 2.3% | 0.4% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 195 | Walden TN | 1,965 | $124K | 3.1% | 4.1% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 4,985 | Crystal Falls MI | 1,607 | $61K | 21.0% | 5.8% | 15% | D |
| 4,986 | Dobson NC | 1,474 | $44K | 22.4% | 4.9% | 17% | D |
| 4,987 | Spring City TN | 1,989 | $39K | 18.3% | 9.1% | 7% | D |
| 4,988 | Morristown NY | 2,058 | $66K | 29.7% | 7.8% | 12% | D |
| 4,989 | Jackson Township OH | 2,657 | $44K | 22.1% | 7.4% | 10% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,509 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Spring City, 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 Spring City: questions
What is the median household income in Spring City?
$38,975 (±$6,827) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $69,595 across Tennessee and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Spring City?
18.3%, against 13.8% across Tennessee and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Spring City?
28 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Tennessee and 26 nationally. 2% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Spring City work?
7% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Dayton (26%, 16 mi), Chattanooga (12%, 48 mi), Nashville (5%, 112 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Spring City walkable?
Spring City is more walkable than 54% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 6.1 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Spring City without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 10% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Spring City, from the people who make the trip.
More of Spring City
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.