Photo: Bill Showalter from Greeneville Tennessee, USA · CC BY 2.0With 0.3 jobs for every working resident, most of Tusculum works elsewhere
5% of workers have no commute at all, where Tennessee as a whole has 13%. 315 jobs are based in Tusculum; 983 of its residents have a job. Tusculum grades B+ for jobs and income and A− for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Tusculum, in a few figures
41% of Tusculum works in Greeneville
402 working residents, 41%, have their main job in Greeneville, 4.2 miles away across the town line. That’s 41 times as many as work in Tusculum itself. The commute map ↓
Fewer jobs are based in Tusculum than ten years ago
Jobs counted in Tusculum fell from 543 in 2013 to 315 in 2023, −42%. That can be real closings or a large employer now reporting its workers at another address; the data can’t tell the two apart. The jobs ↓
The better-paid jobs are outside Tusculum
54% of Tusculum residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, but only 27% of the jobs based in Tusculum pay that much. Most residents work elsewhere: 99% leave town for their job. 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 983 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Inside Tusculum’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Tusculum is better than 66% of U.S. towns, #50 of 177 in Tennessee. The poverty rate holds Tusculum’s grade up (5.5%, U.S. 12.5%); household income pulls it down ($70,694, U.S. $80,734). It also does well on unemployment and job access by car.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Tusculum could be anywhere from C to A.
41% of working residents work in Greeneville
Where Tusculum clocks in
41% of workers
8% 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.
What Tusculum’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Tusculum, 2013 → 2023: 543 → 315. 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 Tusculum’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Tusculum by day and by night
On a workday 973 residents head out to work, 10 work right here, and 305 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,800 people are in Tusculum on a workday afternoon, 20% fewer than live here.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Getting to work from Tusculum takes about 20 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Tusculum workers work from home, vs 13% across Tennessee. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,259 commuters (the 5% 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.
Miles to work from Tusculum
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.
Tusculum is more walkable than most U.S. towns, with limited transit
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Tusculum is more walkable than 80% of U.S. towns, #7 of 177 in Tennessee. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 13.5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 2.0% across Tennessee, on an EPA index of 7.1.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,327 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). 1.6% of Tusculum households have no vehicle (Tennessee 5.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Tusculum’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Tusculum ranks: 1,422nd of 4,402 U.S. towns of 2,400 to 4,600
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 11 | Oak Hill TN | 4,581 | $216K | 1.2% | 1.7% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 60 | Forest Hills TN | 4,473 | $250K | 6.7% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,420 | Wilkes-Barre Township PA | 3,236 | $68K | 10.0% | 2.1% | 8% | B+ |
| 1,421 | Swedesboro NJ | 2,766 | $89K | 10.9% | 4.8% | 3% | B+ |
| 1,422 | Tusculum TN | 3,421 | $71K | 5.5% | 3.3% | 1% | B+ |
| 1,423 | Kalama WA | 3,165 | $102K | 13.4% | 1.3% | 7% | B+ |
| 1,424 | Salem Township IN | 4,057 | $70K | 6.3% | 3.4% | 9% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,402 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 18% | 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 Tusculum, the top three, the last and three more from Tennessee.
Work next door: 41% of Tusculum’s workers
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Tusculum workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tusculum | – | B+ | A− | 20 min | $70,694 |
| Greeneville | 41% | C− | B | 19 min | $49,889 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Greeneville. Darker towns draw more of Tusculum’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
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 Tusculum: questions
What is the median household income in Tusculum?
$70,694 (±$15,526) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $69,595 across Tennessee and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Tusculum?
5.5%, against 13.8% across Tennessee and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Tusculum?
20 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Tennessee and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Tusculum work?
1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Greeneville (41%, 4 mi), Johnson City (8%, 23 mi), Morristown (4%, 31 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Tusculum walkable?
Tusculum is more walkable than 80% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 7.1 out of 20, and 13% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Tusculum without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Tusculum, from the people who make the trip.
More of Tusculum
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.