Madison County, TN

County Profile

99,295 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Madison 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.

54out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 23% of 1,225 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity826th of 1,255 counties measured48
Schools973rd of 973 counties measured0
GrowthTop 50% of 1,226 counties measured50
Housing affordability893rd of 1,255 counties measured84
ClimateTop 24% of 1,254 counties measured75
Physical resilienceTop 41% of 1,255 counties measured68
Access994th of 1,255 counties measured64
Economic stability832nd of 1,255 counties measured51
The quick read

Unemployment is 4.3% and median household income $60,042, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published profiles.

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

Rent takes 22% of median household income here, below the 30% threshold conventionally called cost-burdened, and the median home is 3.5 times that income.

At a glance

Population
99,295
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$60,042
Bottom 35% nationally
Density
178/sq mi
557.2 sq mi of land
Median age
38.3
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Madison County
Tennessee
Metro area
Jackson, TN
Nearest major airport
NQA
61 mi · Millington/Memphis
Median home value
$211,800
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.3% is lower than 46% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment fell 1.6% over the past year, to 43,676 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$3,188$60,042Bottom 35%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,373$33,572Bottom 43%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate18.2%Top 23%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute21.8 minBottom 24%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher26.6%Top 32%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Employment43,676Top 49%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (3 years)2.2%Top 27%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.6%Bottom 29%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force45,616Top 49%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force participation61.6%Top 35%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.1%Bottom 38%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate4.3%Top 46%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/066.53.2
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 4.3% 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
202120222023202460k52k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $60,042 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 — Jackson, TN
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand2,410$36,710
Retail Salespersons2,390$30,990
Fast Food and Counter Workers2,370$26,360
Home Health and Personal Care Aides2,280$31,120
Registered Nurses1,930$75,610
Miscellaneous Assemblers and Fabricators1,890$40,340

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.

12% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 16% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

Public schools
26
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
Math proficiency
12.3%
Bottom 1% in Tennessee
Reading proficiency
16.4%
Bottom 1% in Tennessee
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
North Side High SchoolMadison County903
Northeast Middle SchoolMadison County80413%17%
Thelma Barker ElementaryMadison County77614%20%
South Side High SchoolMadison County756
Community Montessori SchoolMadison County66542%50%
Pope SchoolMadison County62820%19%
Arlington Elementary SchoolMadison County6263%9%
Liberty Technology Magnet High SchoolMadison County604
Andrew Jackson Elementary SchoolMadison County5666%10%
Isaac Lane Technology Magnet ElementaryMadison County5633%3%
Rose Hill SchoolMadison County5116%11%
Jackson Central Merry High SchoolMadison County507

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 $1,123 takes 22% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.5 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
22.4%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.5×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,123
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$211,800
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income3.53Top 30%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate62.0%Bottom 10%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±7344,091Top 19%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$26$1,123Top 21%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$8,157$211,800Top 40%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income22.4%Top 10%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate8.9%Bottom 24%of 3,2222024 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
50/ 100
Top 50% of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is decreasing, 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 2% since 2020, reaching 100,409 in 2024.

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

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

At 2.4 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
238
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
2.4
Bottom 42% nationally
Year over year
−1%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
20202021202220232024100k99k
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
2022202320242025248235
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was close to 2022 (−5%).

Weather & climate

7 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 90°F and January a low of 29°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 53.9 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 33, 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 JACKSON MCKELLAR AP, 4.8 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND5.6"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index54.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation53.9"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low29°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high90°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months71991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10002024 calendar year
Median air quality index33.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing41°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
33
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
54
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

68 / 100
Physical resilience

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

EarthquakeModerate
TornadoModerate
Ice stormModerate
LandslideModerate

Low or minimal exposure: cold wave, heat wave, lightning, strong wind, inland flooding, hurricane, drought, 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.

Madison County records 13.1 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 17.1 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 19.2 per 100,000 residents in Madison County.

Homicide
13.1
per 100,000 residents
Firearm deaths, all intents
17.1
per 100,000 residents
Drug overdose
19.2
per 100,000 residents
Suicide
11.1
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 Madison 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 Madison County rather than Madison 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
Offences reported to police are published by department rather than by town, and only where a department reported every month of the year. No municipal department reports for this place — many smaller communities are policed by the county — so there is no figure to show. A partial year is never scaled up to look complete, and arrest counts or news volume are never substituted for it.
Taxes and full cost of living
No public source publishes either with national coverage and a method open enough to check. 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. Nothing here is individualised tax advice.
Anything about a specific address
Every figure describes an area, not a street or a house. School attendance zones, insurance pricing and the character of a neighbourhood all vary within the places measured here.

Access

3 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 61 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Millington/MemphisNQA61 mi8,001 ft
Arkansas IntlBYH67 mi11,602 ft
Frederick W Smith Intl/MemphisMEM75 mi11,120 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
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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.

Cities in Madison County, TN