Middle Valley, Tennessee

Area Profile

12,187 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Middle Valley, in Hamilton County.

Area Score unavailable

Missing required signal: growth. AreaProfile withholds a score rather than inferring the missing dimensions.

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 22% of 3,904 published cities70
Housing affordabilityTop 17% of 4,223 published cities96
ClimateTop 38% of 4,223 published cities73
Physical resilience2097th of 4,182 published cities58
Access4043rd of 4,226 published cities52
Economic stabilityTop 19% of 4,226 published cities74
The quick read

Middle Valley ranks in the top 22% of published city profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 3.6% and median household income of $95,000.

Housing is more affordable relative to local incomes than in most published city profiles: rent takes 15% of median household income and the median home is 3.4 times it.

A typical July reaches 91°F and a typical January falls to 32°F, on thirty-year normals.

At a glance

Population
12,187
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$95,000
Top 22% nationally
Density
1,248/sq mi
9.8 sq mi of land
Median age
45.4
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Hamilton County
Tennessee
Metro area
Chattanooga, TN-GA
Nearest major airport
TYS
80 mi · Mc Ghee Tyson
Median home value
$319,400
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.6% is lower than 80% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 1.4% over the past year, to 193,834 employed residents.

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

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$10,028$95,000Top 22%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$8,966$51,778Top 16%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate5.0%Bottom 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute26.4 minBottom 49%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher30.8%Top 29%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment193,834Top 30%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)2.4%Top 19%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.4%Bottom 38%June 2026
Labor force201,105Top 30%June 2026
Labor force participation66.3%Top 30%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$58,680Bottom 10%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$46,700Bottom 14%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.2%Bottom 39%June 2026
Unemployment rate3.6%Bottom 20%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202495k80k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $95,000 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 — Chattanooga, TN-GA
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Miscellaneous Assemblers and Fabricators8,120$45,330
Fast Food and Counter Workers7,770$27,140
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand7,730$37,830
Retail Salespersons7,020$31,460
Registered Nurses6,460$79,770
Cashiers5,530$28,440

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.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes city-level labor data only for places of 25,000 or more. This is the figure for Hamilton County, TN, which contains this city.

Housing & affordability

How it’s calculated →

Median rent of $1,180 takes 15% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.4 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
14.9%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.4×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,180
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$319,400
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.36Top 39%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate83.7%Top 34%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±3775,037Top 11%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$104$1,180Top 34%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$25,171$319,400Top 26%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income14.9%Bottom 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate3.8%Bottom 23%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 →

No building-permit activity is published for this location by the Census Building Permits Survey.

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 32°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 55.0 inches, including 3.6 inches of snow.

Air quality measures a median index of 48, in the Good band, and about 3 days a year pass 100, the threshold at which the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups.

20°40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station CHATTANOOGA LOVELL AP, 11.0 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND5.3"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index63.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation55.0"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall3.6"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low32°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high91°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months61991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10032024 calendar year
Median air quality index48.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing39°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
48
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
63
90th percentile index
Days above 100
3
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

58 / 100
Physical resilience

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

TornadoModerate
EarthquakeElevated
LandslideModerate
Inland floodingModerate
LightningModerate
Winter weatherModerate

Low or minimal exposure: strong wind, ice storm, cold wave, hail, heat wave, wildfire, hurricane, drought.

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.

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.

Hamilton County records 8.2 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 16.8 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 27.4 per 100,000 residents in Hamilton County.

Homicide
8.2
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
16.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
27.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
16.1
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 Hamilton 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 Middle Valley rather than Middle Valley 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 80 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Mc Ghee TysonTYS80 mi10,000 ft
SmyrnaMQY93 mi8,038 ft
Huntsville Intl-Carl T Jones FldHSV97 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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Other cities in Chattanooga, TN-GA

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
ChattanoogaHamilton County185,78359vs Middle Valley
East RidgeHamilton County22,07057vs Middle Valley
Soddy-DaisyHamilton County13,23165vs Middle Valley
Red BankHamilton County12,01062vs Middle Valley
CollegedaleHamilton County11,33066vs Middle Valley
Fort OglethorpeCatoosa County10,416vs Middle Valley

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.

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
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)
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
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.