Obion County, TN

County Profile

30,453 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Obion 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.

55out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 26% of 1,225 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity904th of 1,255 counties measured44
SchoolsTop 26% of 973 counties measured70
Growth1199th of 1,226 counties measured14
Housing affordabilityTop 22% of 1,255 counties measured100
ClimateTop 40% of 1,254 counties measured71
Physical resilience871st of 1,255 counties measured46
Access891st of 1,255 counties measured70
Economic stability1091st of 1,255 counties measured34
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published profiles: unemployment is 3.7% and the Opportunity signal places Obion County in the bottom 28%.

Residential permitting has slowed: 21 units authorized over the past twelve months, 22% below the prior year.

Rent takes 17% of median household income here, below the 30% threshold conventionally called cost-burdened, and the median home is 2.4 times that income.

At a glance

Population
30,453
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$54,613
Bottom 22% nationally
Density
56/sq mi
544.8 sq mi of land
Median age
41.8
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Obion County
Tennessee
Metro area
Union City, TN
Nearest major airport
BYH
52 mi · Arkansas Intl
Median home value
$133,600
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

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

Employment fell 0.6% over the past year, to 13,045 employed residents.

Median household income of $54,613 is below 78% of measured US locations.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$3,708$54,613Bottom 22%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,671$30,429Bottom 27%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate18.6%Top 22%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute21.8 minBottom 24%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher18.3%Bottom 28%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Employment13,045Bottom 9%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-1.8%Bottom 24%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.6%Top 48%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force13,545Bottom 9%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force participation54.8%Bottom 31%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.3%Bottom 29%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate3.7%Bottom 30%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/065.73.1
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
202120222023202455k46k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $54,613 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.

37% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 35% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

Public schools
10
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
Math proficiency
36.9%
Top 36% in Tennessee
Reading proficiency
34.9%
Top 22% in Tennessee
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Union City Elementary SchoolUnion City79322%32%
Obion County Central High SchoolObion County652
Hillcrest ElementaryObion County58752%37%
Lake Road ElementaryObion County49234%33%
Union City Middle SchoolUnion City43842%34%
Union City High SchoolUnion City416
Ridgemont ElementaryObion County38532%31%
South Fulton Middle / High SchoolObion County33435%35%
South Fulton ElementaryObion County28954%48%
Black Oak ElementaryObion County22036%33%

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 $770 takes 17% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 2.4 times median household income here, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.

Rent as a share of income
16.9%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
2.4×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$770
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$133,600
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income2.45Bottom 26%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate68.1%Bottom 23%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±6614,326Top 46%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$28$770Bottom 27%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$10,724$133,600Bottom 23%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income16.9%Bottom 49%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate12.6%Bottom 42%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
14/ 100
Ranks 1199 of 1,226 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 fallen 2% since 2020, reaching 30,261 in 2024.

Permitting has turned upward 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 0.7 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
21
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
0.7
Bottom 10% nationally
Year over year
−22%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202431k30k
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
20222023202420253721
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2022 (−21%).

Weather & climate

6 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 53.3 inches.

20°40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station DYERSBURG III GOLF, 28.9 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND5.9"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation53.3"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low29°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high90°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months61991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing42°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

46 / 100
Physical resilience

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

EarthquakeModerate
Ice stormModerate
Cold waveModerate
DroughtModerate
Winter weatherModerate
Strong windModerate
LandslideModerate
TornadoHigh

Low or minimal exposure: heat wave, lightning, hurricane, inland flooding, hail, wildfire.

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.

Obion County records 8.1 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 36.2 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 11.6 per 100,000 residents in Obion County.

Homicide
8.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
36.2
per 100,000 residents
Drug overdose
11.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
21.9
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 Obion 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 Obion County rather than Obion 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 52 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Arkansas IntlBYH52 mi11,602 ft
Millington/MemphisNQA80 mi8,001 ft
Veterans Airport of Southern IllinoisMWA97 mi8,012 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
55
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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 Obion County, TN