38555Crossville, Tennessee

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 38555.

65out of 100
Area Score
Top 33% of 5,298 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity3180th of 6,210 published ZIP areas54
Schools2390th of 4,422 published ZIP areas49
GrowthTop 15% of 5,428 published ZIP areas71
Housing affordabilityTop 38% of 6,685 published ZIP areas87
ClimateTop 29% of 6,789 published ZIP areas75
Physical resilienceTop 38% of 6,709 published ZIP areas68
Access6096th of 6,791 published ZIP areas68
Economic stability6024th of 6,742 published ZIP areas32
The quick read

Unemployment is 4.4% and median household income $56,818, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published ZIP profiles.

Development activity is both elevated and accelerating — 125 housing units permitted over the past twelve months, up 29% on the prior year.

Rent takes 17% of median household income here, below the 30% threshold conventionally called cost-burdened, and the median home is 4.2 times that income.

At a glance

Population
21,584
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$56,818
Bottom 24% nationally
Density
234/sq mi
92.3 sq mi of land
Median age
42.1
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Crossville
Tennessee
Metro area
Crossville, TN
Nearest major airport
TYS
56 mi · Mc Ghee Tyson
Median home value
$236,300
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.4% is lower than 52% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

Employment grew 0.6% over the past year, to 22,854 employed residents.

Median household income of $56,818 is below 76% of measured US ZIP areas.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$3,572$56,818Bottom 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,529$29,219Bottom 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate19.5%Top 19%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute22.0 minBottom 20%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher16.2%Bottom 28%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment22,854Bottom 23%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)3.0%Top 14%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)0.6%Top 17%June 2026
Labor force23,911Bottom 23%June 2026
Labor force participation52.5%Bottom 25%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.5%Bottom 18%June 2026
Unemployment rate4.4%Bottom 48%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202457k48k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $56,818 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.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish labor-force data for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Crossville, TN, the city containing this ZIP code.

33% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 30% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

Public schools
4
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
Math proficiency
33.0%
Bottom 47% in Tennessee
Reading proficiency
30.3%
Top 49% in Tennessee
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Cumberland County High SchoolCumberland County949
Glenn Martin ElementaryCumberland County73530%29%
Stone ElementaryCumberland County61137%32%
The Phoenix SchoolCumberland County72

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 $804 takes 17% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 4.2 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
17.0%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
4.2×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$804
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$236,300
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income4.16Top 26%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate65.8%Bottom 23%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±5809,995Top 16%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$55$804Bottom 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$13,969$236,300Top 45%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income17.0%Bottom 45%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate7.9%Bottom 37%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
71/ 100
Top 15% of 5,428 published city profiles

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.

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

At 10.1 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US ZIP areas.

Units permitted
125
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
10.1
Top 11% nationally
Year over year
+29%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings

The Building Permits Survey is not published for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Crossville, TN, the city containing this ZIP code.

Weather & climate

7 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 83°F and January a low of 26°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 57.5 inches.

20°40°60°80°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station CROSSVILLE MEM AP, 6.8 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND5.5"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation57.5"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low26°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high83°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months71991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing38°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

68 / 100
Physical resilience

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

Winter weatherModerate
EarthquakeElevated
LightningElevated
Strong windModerate
DroughtModerate

Low or minimal exposure: cold wave, tornado, landslide, wildfire, hail, ice storm, inland flooding, hurricane.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. ZIP values are the land-area-weighted mean of the counties the ZIP Code Tabulation Area intersects. Expected annual loss is not allocated below county level. 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.

Cumberland County records 6.2 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 18.5 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 35.5 per 100,000 residents in Cumberland County.

Homicide
6.2
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
18.5
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
35.5
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
20.1
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 Cumberland 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 38555 rather than 38555 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

3 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 56 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Mc Ghee TysonTYS56 mi10,000 ft
SmyrnaMQY86 mi8,038 ft
Nashville IntlBNA96 mi11,030 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
65
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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.

38555 vs Crossville

How this ZIP area compares with Crossville as a whole. Both figures come from the same ACS release, so the comparison is like for like.

38555
Crossville
Median household income
$56,818
vs
$48,802
Per capita income
$29,219
vs
$26,881
Population density
234/sq mi
vs
608/sq mi
Median home value
$236,300
vs
$246,300
Median gross rent
$804
vs
$815
Homeownership rate
65.8%
vs
51.2%
Bachelor's degree or higher
16.2%
vs
17.6%
Poverty rate
19.5%
vs
22.9%
Median age
42.1
vs
39.4

Some demographic statistics use Census ZIP Code Tabulation Areas, which approximate but do not exactly match USPS ZIP delivery geography. See the methodology for how AreaProfile maps between them.