Lebanon, Tennessee

Area Profile

44,788 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Lebanon, in Wilson County.

64out of 100
Area Score
Top 39% of 2,944 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 16% of 3,904 cities measured74
Schools2124th of 2,668 cities measured28
GrowthTop 5% of 2,973 cities measured79
Housing affordability2895th of 4,223 cities measured68
ClimateTop 49% of 4,223 cities measured71
Physical resilience2356th of 4,182 cities measured51
Access2371st of 4,226 cities measured90
Economic stability2349th of 4,226 cities measured58
The quick read

Lebanon ranks in the top 16% of published city profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 3.4% and median household income of $72,848.

1,062 housing units were authorized over the past twelve months, within 6% of the prior year — steady rather than turning.

A major airport is 16 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
44,788
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$72,848
Top 42% nationally
Density
1,101/sq mi
40.7 sq mi of land
Median age
35.0
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Wilson County
Tennessee
Metro area
Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin, TN
Nearest major airport
MQY
16 mi · Smyrna
Median home value
$378,400
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.4% is lower than 87% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 0.6% over the past year, to 26,108 employed residents.

31% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 71% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$6,129$72,848Top 42%of 29,5732024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,988$37,959Top 37%of 31,4202024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate13.1%Top 42%of 31,9002024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute29.6 minTop 36%of 31,5432024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher30.8%Top 29%of 31,9192024 ACS 5-Year
Employment26,108Bottom 34%of 3,904June 2026
Employment change (3 years)8.1%Top 2%of 3,903June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.6%Top 47%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force27,028Bottom 33%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force participation65.3%Top 33%of 31,9332024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$66,390Bottom 38%of 3,6582025 OEWS
Median annual wage$50,390Bottom 45%of 3,6582025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.1%Bottom 41%of 3,904June 2026
Unemployment rate3.4%Bottom 13%of 3,904June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/064.72.4
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 3.4% 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
202120222023202473k61k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $72,848 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.

31% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 27% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

Public schools
14
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
Math proficiency
31.0%
Bottom 33% in Tennessee
Reading proficiency
27.4%
Bottom 22% in Tennessee
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Lebanon High SchoolWilson County1,816
Wilson Central High SchoolWilson County1,686
Southside ElementaryWilson County80632%30%
Sam Houston ElementaryLebanon75934%25%
Walter J. Baird Middle SchoolLebanon75737%22%
Carroll Oakland ElementaryWilson County74136%25%
Jones Brummett Elementary SchoolLebanon740
Castle Heights ElementaryLebanon65725%34%
Winfree Bryant Middle SchoolLebanon58922%22%
Coles Ferry ElementaryLebanon58135%34%
Byars Dowdy ElementaryLebanon54520%27%
Tuckers Crossroads ElementaryWilson County35236%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 →

Prices for everything a household buys run about 3% below the national average, on the Bureau of Economic Analysis index. Housing drives most of that difference.

Median rent of $1,306 takes 22% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 5.2 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Cost of living
97.0

Prices here run about 3% below the national average. The spread between places is driven mostly by housing — goods vary far less — and this excludes taxes.

Rent as a share of income
21.5%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
5.2×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,306
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$378,400
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Cost of living index97.0Bottom 33%of 3,6582023
Home price to income5.19Top 14%of 28,4732024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate62.4%Bottom 24%of 31,8432024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±58218,262Top 3%of 32,3302024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$53$1,306Top 28%of 23,4322024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$12,995$378,400Top 20%of 29,3422024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income21.5%Top 32%of 23,2012024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate5.3%Bottom 30%of 32,0012024 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
79/ 100
Top 5% of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is decreasing — 3 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 32% since 2020, reaching 51,501 in 2024.

Permit activity has fallen for 3 consecutive years.

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 23.7 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
1,062
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
23.7
Top 2% nationally
Year over year
−6%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
19.9%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202452k39k
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
202020222023202420252k924
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2020 (−27%).

Weather & climate

6 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 91°F and January a low of 30°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 50.5 inches, including 4.7 inches of snow.

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 NASHVILLE INTL AP, 20.0 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND5.0"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index51.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation50.5"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall4.7"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low30°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high91°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months61991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10002024 calendar year
Median air quality index41.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing41°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
41
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
51
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

51 / 100
Physical resilience

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

EarthquakeElevated
TornadoElevated
Inland floodingModerate
HailModerate
Ice stormModerate
LightningModerate

Low or minimal exposure: cold wave, winter weather, strong wind, heat wave, hurricane, wildfire, drought, landslide.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. City values are the population-weighted mean of the counties the city overlaps, using AreaProfile place-to-county land-area weights. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.

Violent crime
266
per 100,000 residents · 2025 calendar year
Property crime
711
per 100,000 residents · 2025 calendar year

Below these are deaths rather than offences, published for the county. The two measure different things and are not comparable with each other.

Lebanon's police department reported 266 violent offences per 100,000 residents, near the middle of places with a department reporting. Property crime runs at 711.

Wilson County records 2.9 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 14.1 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 18.9 per 100,000 residents in Wilson County.

Homicide
2.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
14.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
18.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
17.7
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.

Offences are reported to the FBI by Lebanon’s own police department, for the population it serves, and are shown only where it reported every month of the year — a partial year is withheld rather than scaled up. Reported crime counts what was reported to and recorded by police, which is not the same as what happened, and a place that draws a large daytime workforce carries incidents its residents did not generate. Age-adjusted rates from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC for Wilson 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 Lebanon rather than Lebanon 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.

Taxes
Taxes are not published: no source covers them nationally with a method open enough to check. Cost of living now is — the index above is the Bureau of Economic Analysis price parity for this area — but it is a price level for all consumption rather than a budget for a household, its spread is driven mostly by housing, and it excludes taxes. Housing affordability is computed separately from rent, price and income, because that answers a narrower and more actionable question. 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

2 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 16 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
SmyrnaMQY16 mi8,038 ft
Nashville IntlBNA19 mi11,030 ft
Huntsville Intl-Carl T Jones FldHSV111 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
64
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Other cities in Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin, TN

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
Nashville-DavidsonDavidson County690,130vs Lebanon
MurfreesboroRutherford County161,44573vs Lebanon
FranklinWilliamson County87,13380vs Lebanon
HendersonvilleSumner County63,09172vs Lebanon
SmyrnaRutherford County56,69272vs Lebanon
Spring HillMaury County55,76578vs Lebanon
GallatinSumner County48,53269vs Lebanon
BrentwoodWilliamson County45,55677vs Lebanon
ColumbiaMaury County45,44157vs Lebanon
Mount JulietWilson County42,07375vs Lebanon
La VergneRutherford County40,24365vs Lebanon
SpringfieldRobertson County19,25571vs Lebanon

Every city here is measured on the same scale from the same source releases, so the comparison is like for like. A higher Area Score reflects AreaProfile’s standardized weighting rather than a judgment about which is the better place to live.

Compare

Put Lebanon side by side with a similar place.

Lebanon vs MonroeLebanon vs HuntsvilleLebanon vs KannapolisLebanon vs La Vergne

Data & methodology

Used forSourceSource periodUpdated
AccessFederal Aviation Administration
Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service
NASR current cycle28-day NASR cycle
safetyFederal Bureau of Investigation, Crime Data Explorer
Summarized offense counts by law enforcement agency
2025 calendar yearAnnually, with monthly revisions
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)
HousingU.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis
Regional price parities and county personal income
2023Annually, each December
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Local Area Unemployment Statistics
June 2026Monthly
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
2025 OEWSAnnual (spring release)
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)
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month
DemographicsU.S. Census Bureau
Population Estimates Program
July 1, 2024 estimateAnnual (vintage released each spring)
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.

ZIP codes in Lebanon

2 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
3708756,655$82,14367
3709019,774$84,29972