Collegedale, Tennessee

Area Profile

11,330 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Collegedale, in Hamilton County.

66out of 100
Area Score
Top 30% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 26% of 3,904 published cities68
SchoolsTop 16% of 2,668 published cities78
GrowthTop 10% of 2,973 published cities75
Housing affordability3572nd of 4,223 published cities56
ClimateTop 38% of 4,223 published cities73
Physical resilience2096th of 4,182 published cities58
Access4102nd of 4,226 published cities46
Economic stabilityTop 48% of 4,226 published cities61
The quick read

Unemployment is 3.6% and median household income $70,246, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published city profiles.

Development activity is both elevated and accelerating — 66 housing units permitted over the past twelve months, up 200% on the prior year.

Buying strains local incomes far more than renting does — the median home is 5.2 times median household income, against a historic benchmark near three — while rent takes 27% of it.

At a glance

Population
11,330
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$70,246
Top 45% nationally
Density
908/sq mi
12.5 sq mi of land
Median age
36.4
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Hamilton County
Tennessee
Metro area
Chattanooga, TN-GA
Nearest major airport
TYS
79 mi · Mc Ghee Tyson
Median home value
$365,100
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.6% is lower than 80% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 1.4% over the past year, to 193,834 employed residents.

51% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 89% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$14,040$70,246Top 45%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$4,727$37,819Top 38%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate7.3%Bottom 35%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute22.9 minBottom 30%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher50.7%Top 11%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment193,834Top 30%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)2.4%Top 19%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.4%Bottom 38%June 2026
Labor force201,105Top 30%June 2026
Labor force participation63.4%Top 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$58,680Bottom 10%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$46,700Bottom 14%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.2%Bottom 39%June 2026
Unemployment rate3.6%Bottom 20%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202470k64k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $70,246 in the 2024 ACS 5-Year. Consecutive releases share four years of sample, so AreaProfile shows them as a record of successive estimates and does not compute a year-over-year change from them.
Largest occupations — Chattanooga, TN-GA
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Miscellaneous Assemblers and Fabricators8,120$45,330
Fast Food and Counter Workers7,770$27,140
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand7,730$37,830
Retail Salespersons7,020$31,460
Registered Nurses6,460$79,770
Cashiers5,530$28,440

Occupational employment and wages are published for metropolitan areas rather than for individual cities or ZIP areas, so these describe the wider labor market this location sits in. 2025 OEWS, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes city-level labor data only for places of 25,000 or more. This is the figure for Hamilton County, TN, which contains this city.

44% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 38% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

Public schools
8
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
Math proficiency
43.9%
Top 22% in Tennessee
Reading proficiency
37.5%
Top 21% in Tennessee
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
East Hamilton High SchoolHamilton County1,293
Ooltewah High SchoolHamilton County1,233
Ooltewah Elementary SchoolHamilton County85860%52%
Hunter Middle SchoolHamilton County74542%27%
Wolftever Creek Elementary SchoolHamilton County63225%29%
Wallace A. Smith Elementary SchoolHamilton County58964%55%
Snow Hill Elementary SchoolHamilton County58248%41%
Ooltewah Middle SchoolHamilton County54717%17%

Public schools only, from the NCES Common Core of Data. Schools are placed by ZIP code, so this is which schools are in this place rather than which one a particular address is zoned for — district boundaries do not follow municipal ones, and enrollment zones change. Fully virtual schools are excluded: they enroll students from across the state while reporting one administrative address, and counting them here would describe a school population this place does not have. The assessment covers grades 3 through 8, so a high school shows no proficiency figure — a dash in those columns means the test was not given at that school, not that it performed badly. Proficiency is measured against Tennessee’s own standard, so it compares cleanly within the state and only broadly against other states; AreaProfile therefore ranks it within state. The directory is current, while the proficiency figures are from the last school year with national coverage before the pandemic interrupted testing.

Housing & affordability

How it’s calculated →

Median rent of $1,581 takes 27% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 5.2 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Rent as a share of income
27.0%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
5.2×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,581
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$365,100
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income5.20Top 14%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate44.0%Bottom 6%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±3194,688Top 12%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$145$1,581Top 18%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$31,928$365,100Top 21%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income27.0%Top 12%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate8.2%Bottom 43%2024 ACS 5-Year

Both affordability measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with, so the comparison is like for like. They describe housing cost against local earnings and are not a cost-of-living index — transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not included, and a place can look affordable here and still be expensive to live in for reasons this does not capture.

Growth & development

How it’s calculated →
Development Momentum
75/ 100
Top 10% of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing, measured from 2022 to 2025.

An AreaProfile calculation combining permit volume per resident, its direction over one and three years, population change and employment growth. Permit volume alone is not the measure.

Population has grown 3% since 2020, reaching 11,510 in 2024.

Permitting has turned upward after moving the other way the year before.

At 5.8 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
66
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
5.8
Top 25% nationally
Year over year
+200%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
24.2%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202412k11k
Census Population Estimates Program, July 1 of each year. These annual estimates are designed for year-over-year comparison, unlike the ACS five-year figure shown as this profile's population.
Housing units permitted per year
202220232024202511613
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2022 (−71%).

Weather & climate

6 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 91°F and January a low of 32°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 55.0 inches, including 3.6 inches of snow.

20°40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station CHATTANOOGA LOVELL AP, 8.8 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND5.3"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation55.0"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall3.6"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low32°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high91°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months61991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing39°F1991-2020 Normals

Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. They describe what a typical year looks like rather than what the weather is doing today.

Physical risk

58 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are inland flooding, tornado and earthquake.

TornadoModerate
EarthquakeElevated
LandslideModerate
Inland floodingModerate
LightningModerate
Winter weatherModerate

Low or minimal exposure: strong wind, ice storm, cold wave, hail, heat wave, wildfire, hurricane, drought.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. City values are the population-weighted mean of the counties the city overlaps, using AreaProfile place-to-county land-area weights. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.

These are deaths, not offences. AreaProfile does not publish reported crime, and this is not a substitute for it — it says nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Hamilton County records 8.2 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, higher than most counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 16.8 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 27.4 per 100,000 residents in Hamilton County.

Homicide
8.2
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
16.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
27.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
16.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths

Firearm deaths count every intent together, and nationally the majority are suicides rather than homicides. The two columns overlap and should not be added.

Age-adjusted rates from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC for Hamilton County as a whole — these rates are not published below county level. A county can hold both a dense city centre and a suburb whose experience of it is nothing alike, so this describes the county around Collegedale rather than Collegedale itself. That is why AreaProfile shows these figures and does not put them in the Area Score. Where fewer than ten deaths were recorded the count is suppressed at source, and a rate built on single figures moves sharply between releases. What this measure has that reported crime does not: a death certificate is filed whether or not the local police agency submitted a return that year, so the figures stay comparable between places and over time.

What this profile does not cover

Three things people look for are missing from every AreaProfile page, and each is missing for a reason rather than by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them and the weighting is documented on the methodology page.

Reported crime
The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer is the only source for reported offences with national coverage and a published method, and it requires an API key AreaProfile does not hold. Arrest counts, news volume and commercial “safety scores” are not substituted in the meantime. What is published above under Safety is a different measurement — deaths rather than offences, from death certificates rather than police returns — and it covers no property crime at all.
Taxes
No tax dataset has met the source admission test for coverage, transparent methodology and update cadence. Nothing here is individualized tax advice.
Full cost of living
No public source publishes one with national coverage and a documented method. Housing affordability above is computed from published rent, price and income, and excludes transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes — commuting cost in particular tends to offset suburban housing savings.

Access

1 major airport lies within 100 miles, the nearest 79 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Mc Ghee TysonTYS79 mi10,000 ft
Huntsville Intl-Carl T Jones FldHSV102 mi10,001 ft
Hartsfield/Jackson Atlanta IntlATL104 mi12,390 ft

Airport identity, position and runway data come from the FAA. “Major airport” is an AreaProfile classification — a public-use civil airport with a paved runway of at least 8,000 feet — not an FAA hub designation. Distances are straight-line, not driving distance.

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Area Score
66
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Other cities in Chattanooga, TN-GA

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
ChattanoogaHamilton County185,78359vs Collegedale
East RidgeHamilton County22,07057vs Collegedale
Soddy-DaisyHamilton County13,23165vs Collegedale
Middle ValleyHamilton County12,187vs Collegedale
Red BankHamilton County12,01062vs Collegedale
Fort OglethorpeCatoosa County10,416vs Collegedale

Every city here is measured on the same scale from the same source releases, so the comparison is like for like. A higher Area Score reflects AreaProfile’s standardized weighting rather than a judgment about which is the better place to live.

Data & methodology

Used forSourceSource periodUpdated
AccessFederal Aviation Administration
Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service
NASR current cycle28-day NASR cycle
Physical riskFederal Emergency Management Agency
National Risk Index
National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0)Periodic dataset versions (v1.20.0 current)
ClimateNOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly)
1991-2020 NormalsEvery ten years (next release follows the 2001–2030 period)
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Local Area Unemployment Statistics
June 2026Monthly
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
2025 OEWSAnnual (spring release)
DemographicsU.S. Census Bureau
Population Estimates Program
July 1, 2024 estimateAnnual (vintage released each spring)
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month
Demographics, Housing, Income, JobsU.S. Census Bureau
American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File)
2024 ACS 5-YearAnnual (5-year estimates released each December)
safetyU.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics
Provisional county-level mortality by intent
April, 2025 to March, 2026Quarterly, with a rolling twelve-month window alongside complete calendar years
schoolsU.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics
Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments
2019-20 school year; 2024-25 school yearDirectory annually; assessment results as EDFacts releases them

Profile recalculated August 30, 2026. Recalculation is not the same as new source data — each figure above shows the period its source actually covers. Read the full methodology or browse every source.

ZIP codes in Collegedale

2 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
3736342,093$97,39971
373151,825