Dickson County, TN

County Profile

55,983 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Dickson 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.

74out of 100
Area Score
Top 11% of 1,225 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 16% of 1,255 counties74
SchoolsTop 24% of 973 counties71
GrowthTop 15% of 1,226 counties69
Housing affordability798th of 1,255 counties88
ClimateTop 19% of 1,254 counties76
Physical resilienceTop 43% of 1,255 counties66
Access762nd of 1,255 counties76
Economic stabilityTop 31% of 1,255 counties74
The quick read

Dickson County ranks in the top 16% of published profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 3.1% and median household income of $75,003.

Residential permitting has slowed: 463 units authorized over the past twelve months, 16% below the prior year.

Rent takes 16% of median household income here, below the 30% threshold conventionally called cost-burdened, and the median home is 4.1 times that income.

At a glance

Population
55,983
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$75,003
Top 26% nationally
Density
114/sq mi
489.9 sq mi of land
Median age
39.1
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Dickson County
Tennessee
Metro area
Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin, TN
Nearest major airport
BNA
38 mi · Nashville Intl
Median home value
$306,400
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.1% is lower than 92% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment fell 0.3% over the past year, to 28,825 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$3,342$75,003Top 26%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,416$39,457Top 28%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate10.9%Bottom 30%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute36.4 minTop 4%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher22.0%Bottom 49%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment28,825Bottom 38%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)2.9%Top 20%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.3%Top 39%June 2026
Labor force29,747Bottom 38%June 2026
Labor force participation63.5%Top 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.2%Bottom 36%June 2026
Unemployment rate3.1%Bottom 8%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/064.62.4
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 3.1% 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
202120222023202475k61k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $75,003 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 — Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin, TN
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand33,120$39,790
Fast Food and Counter Workers28,680$29,150
Retail Salespersons28,580$34,420
Registered Nurses25,100$84,040
General and Operations Managers23,820$119,990
Customer Service Representatives20,770$45,510

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.

37% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 34% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

Public schools
16
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
Math proficiency
37.3%
Top 31% in Tennessee
Reading proficiency
34.0%
Top 28% in Tennessee
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Dickson County High SchoolDickson County1,337
Creek Wood High SchoolDickson County919
Centennial ElementaryDickson County71350%40%
Stuart Burns ElementaryDickson County70648%40%
Charlotte ElementaryDickson County60134%32%
Dickson Middle SchoolDickson County57032%27%
Burns Middle SchoolDickson County49427%32%
Oakmont ElementaryDickson County48241%38%
White Bluff ElementaryDickson County47930%32%
Charlotte Middle SchoolDickson County43337%22%
Vanleer ElementaryDickson County26931%31%
W James Middle SchoolDickson County23932%32%

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 $1,015 takes 16% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 4.1 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
16.2%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
4.1×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,015
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$306,400
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income4.09Top 19%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate80.3%Top 18%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±4023,657Top 31%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$75$1,015Top 29%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$13,687$306,400Top 18%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income16.2%Bottom 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate8.0%Bottom 19%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
69/ 100
Top 15% of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing, 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 6% since 2020, reaching 57,641 in 2024.

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

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

New construction is predominantly single-family: only 0% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 8.3 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
463
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
8.3
Top 12% nationally
Year over year
−16%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202458k54k
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
202020212022202320242025617376
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2020 (+28%).

Weather & climate

7 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 87°F and January a low of 28°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 54.1 inches, including 2.5 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 DICKSON, 5.2 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND5.8"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation54.1"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall2.5"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low28°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high87°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months71991-2020 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

66 / 100
Physical resilience

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

EarthquakeModerate
TornadoElevated
Ice stormModerate
LightningModerate
Strong windElevated

Low or minimal exposure: cold wave, landslide, heat wave, inland flooding, drought, hurricane, winter weather, wildfire, hail.

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.

Dickson County records 4.9 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 21.2 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 21.2 per 100,000 residents in Dickson County.

Homicide
4.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
21.2
per 100,000 residents
Drug overdose
21.2
per 100,000 residents
Suicide
22.9
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 Dickson 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 Dickson County rather than Dickson 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

2 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 38 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Nashville IntlBNA38 mi11,030 ft
SmyrnaMQY48 mi8,038 ft
Huntsville Intl-Carl T Jones FldHSV109 mi10,001 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
74
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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

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.

Cities in Dickson County, TN