Anderson County, TN

County Profile

79,153 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Anderson County, TN.

Several figures AreaProfile publishes are measured by county and nowhere finer — death rates by intent among them. On this page those describe the geography they are printed on, which is not true of the city and ZIP pages that inherit them.

68out of 100
Area Score
Top 30% of 1,225 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 36% of 1,255 counties62
SchoolsTop 33% of 973 counties65
GrowthTop 16% of 1,226 counties68
Housing affordability675th of 1,255 counties91
ClimateTop 17% of 1,254 counties76
Physical resilience807th of 1,255 counties50
AccessTop 49% of 1,255 counties82
Economic stability742nd of 1,255 counties55
The quick read

Unemployment is 3.7% and median household income $66,183, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published profiles.

432 housing units were authorized over the past twelve months, essentially level with the prior year — steady rather than turning.

Rent takes 19% of median household income here, below the 30% threshold conventionally called cost-burdened, and the median home is 3.6 times that income.

At a glance

Population
79,153
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$66,183
Top 47% nationally
Density
235/sq mi
337.2 sq mi of land
Median age
41.5
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Anderson County
Tennessee
Metro area
Knoxville, TN
Nearest major airport
TYS
24 mi · Mc Ghee Tyson
Median home value
$239,400
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.7% is lower than 70% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment fell 1.3% over the past year, to 35,023 employed residents.

28% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 70% of measured US locations.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$2,450$66,183Top 47%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,394$37,400Top 37%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate13.4%Top 50%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute26.2 minTop 47%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher27.5%Top 30%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment35,023Bottom 45%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)3.4%Top 17%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.3%Bottom 36%June 2026
Labor force36,363Bottom 44%June 2026
Labor force participation58.1%Bottom 46%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.1%Bottom 43%June 2026
Unemployment rate3.7%Bottom 30%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/065.22.9
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 3.7% in June 2026. A break in the line is a month the Bureau of Labor Statistics did not publish for this area — it is left empty rather than estimated.
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202466k55k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $66,183 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 — Knoxville, TN
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Fast Food and Counter Workers12,730$27,720
Retail Salespersons12,430$31,150
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand10,120$37,400
Registered Nurses9,500$77,240
General and Operations Managers8,660$104,590
Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers8,130$59,100

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.

36% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 33% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

Public schools
29
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
Math proficiency
36.0%
Top 39% in Tennessee
Reading proficiency
32.7%
Top 31% in Tennessee
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Oak Ridge High SchoolOak Ridge1,635
Clinton High SchoolAnderson County1,021
Anderson County High SchoolAnderson County1,019
Robertsville Middle SchoolOak Ridge76832%29%
Jefferson Middle SchoolOak Ridge71734%32%
Clinton Middle SchoolAnderson County62427%27%
Clinton ElementaryClinton54047%45%
Linden ElementaryOak Ridge52458%51%
Claxton ElementaryAnderson County45618%24%
Norris Middle SchoolAnderson County44812%22%
Woodland ElementaryOak Ridge42652%39%
Willow Brook ElementaryOak Ridge41130%22%

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 $1,031 takes 19% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.6 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
18.7%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.6×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,031
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$239,400
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.62Top 28%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate71.7%Bottom 36%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±5735,880Top 23%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$40$1,031Top 28%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$7,939$239,400Top 31%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income18.7%Top 32%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate8.7%Bottom 23%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
68/ 100
Top 16% of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing — 2 consecutive years, measured from 2020 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 5% since 2020, reaching 81,449 in 2024.

Population is still rising, but more slowly than in the preceding year.

New construction is predominantly single-family: only 20% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 5.5 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
432
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
5.5
Top 26% nationally
Year over year
−1%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
19.9%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202481k77k
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
202020212022202320242025457386
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was close to 2020 (−2%).

Weather & climate

7 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 89°F and January a low of 30°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 55.5 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 41, in the Good band, and no day in the year passed 100.

20°40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station OAK RIDGE ASOS, 6.9 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND5.6"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index50.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation55.5"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low30°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high89°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months71991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10002024 calendar year
Median air quality index41.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing40°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
41
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
50
90th percentile index
Days above 100
0
unhealthy for sensitive groups

A comfortable median and a bad tail are different problems. Wildfire smoke and summer ozone show up in the worst tenth of days, not in the middle of the year.

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. Air quality is measured rather than modelled, by EPA monitors, and published by county only where a monitor sits — roughly half the counties AreaProfile publishes have one, and the rest show nothing rather than an estimate. Air masses are regional, so a county reading describes the air over a place reasonably well, but it is still the county reading.

Physical risk

50 / 100
Physical resilience

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

LandslideModerate
EarthquakeElevated
TornadoModerate
LightningModerate
Inland floodingModerate
Winter weatherModerate

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

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA National Risk Index county record. 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.

Anderson County records 3.4 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, near the middle of counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 12.5 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 68.5 per 100,000 residents in Anderson County.

Homicide
3.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
12.5
per 100,000 residents
Drug overdose
68.5
per 100,000 residents
Suicide
17.4
per 100,000 residents

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 Anderson 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 Anderson County rather than Anderson County 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 24 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Mc Ghee TysonTYS24 mi10,000 ft
Tri-CitiesTRI103 mi8,000 ft
Asheville RgnlAVL104 mi8,002 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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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
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
ClimateU.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Air Quality System
Daily Air Quality Index by county
2024 calendar yearAnnually, once a calendar year is complete

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.