Shelbyville, Tennessee
Area Profile
24,661 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Shelbyville, in Bedford County.
How this area ranks
Data updated · 13 sourcesUnemployment is 3.5% and median household income $55,073, putting employment conditions in the middle range of cities measured.
198 housing units were authorized over the past twelve months, within 11% of the prior year — steady rather than turning.
Rent takes 29% of renter income here, below the 30% threshold conventionally called cost-burdened, and the median home is 3.5 times what its owners earn.
These sentences are written by fixed rules from the measurements below — a statement appears because a number crossed a stated threshold, and the values behind it are stored with it. No figure anywhere on this site is invented, estimated or inferred to fill a gap. How this works.
At a glance
Jobs & opportunity
Unemployment of 3.5%, lower than in 81% of the 4,226 measured US cities.
Employment fell 1.8% over the past year, to 11,609 employed residents.
| Metric | Value | Compared nationally | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Income of new arrivalsBedford County, TN’s figurefiling years 2022–2023 | $59,156 | 24th percentileof 4,101 | filing years 2022–2023 |
| Income of those who leftBedford County, TN’s figurefiling years 2022–2023 | $48,855 | 5th percentileof 4,101 | filing years 2022–2023 |
| Median household income ±$6,5332024 ACS 5-Year | $55,073 | Bottom 31%of 29,223 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Per capita income ±$1,6112024 ACS 5-Year | $25,611 | Bottom 22%of 31,420 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Poverty rate ±6%2024 ACS 5-Year | 21.2% | Bottom 20%of 31,773 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Average commute ±2.5 min2024 ACS 5-Year | 29.8 min | Bottom 35%of 31,543 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Bachelor's degree or higher ±3%2024 ACS 5-Year | 13.1% | Bottom 29%of 31,919 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Drove alone to work ±5%2024 ACS 5-Year | 73.7% | 38th percentileof 31,433 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| EmploymentJuly 2026 | 11,609 | Bottom 5%of 4,226 | July 2026 |
| Employment change (3 years)July 2026 | +0.3% | Top 41%of 4,226 | July 2026 |
| Employment change (year over year)July 2026 | −1.8% | Bottom 27%of 4,226 | July 2026 |
| Labor forceJuly 2026 | 12,030 | 5th percentileof 4,226 | July 2026 |
| Labor force participation ±3%2024 ACS 5-Year | 79.7% | Top 45%of 31,513 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Public transit to work ±0.2%2024 ACS 5-Year | 0.0% | 1st percentileof 31,433 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Unemployment change (year over year)July 2026 | −0.7% | Top 19%of 4,226 | July 2026 |
| Unemployment rateJuly 2026 | 3.5% | Top 19%of 4,226 | July 2026 |
| Worked from home ±3%2024 ACS 5-Year | 6.8% | 46th percentileof 31,433 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
Unemployment rate
Median household income, successive ACS releases
21% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 25% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.
| School | District | Students | Per teacher | Math | Reading |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shelbyville Central High School | Bedford County | 1,604 | — | 6% | 32% |
| Harris Middle School | Bedford County | 977 | — | 23% | 18% |
| Learning Way Elementary | Bedford County | 638 | — | 11% | 13% |
| Liberty Elementary | Bedford County | 631 | — | 24% | 24% |
| Thomas Magnet School | Bedford County | 436 | — | 72% | 67% |
| Eakin Elementary | Bedford County | 399 | — | 16% | 11% |
| South Side Elementary | Bedford County | 352 | — | 27% | 12% |
| East Side Elementary | Bedford County | 323 | — | 27% | 18% |
Public schools only, from the NCES Common Core of Data, placed by ZIP code — which schools are in this place, not which one a particular address is zoned for. A dash in a proficiency column is a gap in the federal file, not a bad result. Proficiency is measured against Tennessee’s own standard, so it is ranked within state. How to read school figures.
Housing & affordability
How it’s calculated — housing affordability →The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s house price index for the non-metropolitan parts of Tennessee is up 58% over five years, and up 3.6% over the last year. It follows repeat sales of the same homes, so it measures price change rather than which homes happened to sell.
Homeowners here who pay a tax bill pay a median of $1,371 a year in real estate taxes, about 0.56% of the median home value.
HUD’s Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom, set near the 40th percentile of recent new leases, is $1,320, some 25% above the $1,056 tenants already here pay.
At HUD’s Fair Market Rent of $1,320 a month for a two-bedroom, keeping rent to 30% of income takes a household income of about $52,800 a year, about 96% of the median household income here of $55,073.
The typical renter household here spends 29% of its income on rent, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened. Median gross rent runs $1,056 a month.
A median home at $244,000 costs 3.5 times the median income of its owner-occupied households, $69,452, above the historic benchmark of about 3 times income.
The figures above are measured against Shelbyville’s median household income of $55,073, which describes the place rather than you. Enter your own and the ratio is recomputed against it. It stays in this browser.
| Metric | Value | Compared nationally | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home price change (1 year)the non-metropolitan parts of Tennessee’s figure2026 Q2 | +3.6% | 61st percentileof 4,154 | 2026 Q2 |
| Home price change (5 years)the non-metropolitan parts of Tennessee’s figure2026 Q2 | +58.3% | 93rd percentileof 4,154 | 2026 Q2 |
| Home price change (10 years)the non-metropolitan parts of Tennessee’s figure2026 Q2 | +130.8% | 95th percentileof 4,154 | 2026 Q2 |
| Home price to income ±0.52024 ACS 5-Year | 3.5 | Bottom 24%of 26,815 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Homeownership rate ±6%2024 ACS 5-Year | 50.7% | 10th percentileof 31,717 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Housing units ±3652024 ACS 5-Year | 9,498 | 94th percentileof 32,177 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Market rent, one bedroomFY2026 | $1,170 | Top 35%of 4,072 | FY2026 |
| Market rent, three bedroomFY2026 | $1,660 | Top 27%of 4,072 | FY2026 |
| Market rent, two bedroomFY2026 | $1,320 | Top 28%of 4,072 | FY2026 |
| Median gross rent ±$1002024 ACS 5-Year | $1,056 | Bottom 43%of 23,120 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Median home value ±$16,0972024 ACS 5-Year | $244,000 | 64th percentileof 29,111 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Median property taxes ±$1152024 ACS 5-Year | $1,371 | 37th percentileof 26,440 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Owner household income ±$9,5872024 ACS 5-Year | $69,452 | Bottom 37%of 27,548 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Property tax rate ±0.06%2024 ACS 5-Year | 0.56% | 16th percentileof 20,543 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Rent as a share of income ±5%2024 ACS 5-Year | 29.0% | Bottom 46%of 22,950 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Seasonal and second homes ±1432024 ACS 5-Year | 153 | 92nd percentileof 32,330 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Second homes2024 ACS 5-Year | 1.6% | 67th percentileof 31,895 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Vacancy rate2024 ACS 5-Year | 2.7% | 25th percentileof 31,769 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Vacant housing units ±2452024 ACS 5-Year | 409 | 88th percentileof 32,330 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
These measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with. They compare housing cost with local earnings only: transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not in them. How to read affordability, the two rent figures.
Growth & development
How it’s calculated — growth →Development Momentum
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 9% since 2020, reaching 25,792 in 2024.
Permitting has turned downward after moving the other way the year before: 191 units authorized in 2025, 22% below the prior year.
Population is still rising but the pace is easing: 25,792 residents in 2024, up 2.0% over the year, a smaller gain than the year before.
New construction is predominantly single-family: of 198 units permitted over the past twelve months, none were in buildings of five or more homes.
Federal tax returns show Bedford County, which contains Shelbyville, gained about 1.1% of its residents through moves within the US in the most recent year, counting those who arrived against those who left. Households that moved in reported an average income of $59,156, above the $48,855 of households that moved out.
At 8.0 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US cities.
Population, annual estimates
People moving in and out
Where newcomers came from
- Rutherford County, TN 878 people · 30% of arrivals
- Coffee County, TN 265 people · 9.0% of arrivals
- Davidson County, TN 136 people · 4.6% of arrivals
- Marshall County, TN 129 people · 4.4% of arrivals
- Williamson County, TN 111 people · 3.8% of arrivals
Where people who left went
- Rutherford County, TN 606 people · 25% of departures
- Coffee County, TN 282 people · 11% of departures
- Marshall County, TN 148 people · 6.0% of departures
- Davidson County, TN 97 people · 3.9% of departures
- Franklin County, TN 95 people · 3.8% of departures
Based on the address on federal tax returns, compared with the same filers a year earlier. It counts people who file, and sees a move only when the address on a return changes. Domestic moves only: people arriving from abroad are left out. This is the figure for Bedford County, TN. IRS Statistics of Income, filing years 2022–2023.
Housing units permitted per year
Weather & climate
7 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 89°F and January a low of 29°F.
Normal annual precipitation is 59.4 inches, including 1.1 inches of snow.
Precipitation
| Metric | Value | Source period |
|---|---|---|
| Annual precipitation1991-2020 Normals | 59.4" | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Annual snowfall1991-2020 Normals | 1.1" | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Average January low1991-2020 Normals | 29°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Average July high1991-2020 Normals | 89°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Comfortable months1991-2020 Normals | 7 | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Seasonal temperature swing1991-2020 Normals | 40°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. How to read climate and air quality.
Physical risk
The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are inland flooding, cold wave and tornado, with inland flooding alone responsible for 47% of it. Cold wave is independently rated low or minimal nationally, so this describes how the loss is composed, not how large that hazard is.
Low or minimal exposure: cold wave, winter weather, ice storm, drought, hurricane, landslide, wildfire, coastal flooding, tsunami, avalanche, volcanic activity.
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.
Below these are deaths rather than offenses, published for the county. The two measure different things and are not comparable with each other.
Shelbyville's police department reported 417 violent offenses per 100,000 residents, higher than most places with a department reporting. Property crime runs at 1,389.
Bedford County has a modeled homicide rate of about 4.2 per 100,000 residents a year, because the CDC suppresses counts this small, near the middle of counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.
Firearm deaths of all intents run at about 12.7 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, since the figure counts suicides and accidents as well as homicides.
Drug overdose deaths run at 22.6 per 100,000 residents in Bedford County.
Firearm deaths count every intent together, and nationally the majority are suicides rather than homicides, so the firearm figure and the homicide figure above it count some of the same deaths twice over. They overlap and should not be added together.
Offenses are reported to the FBI by Shelbyville’s own police department and shown only where it reported every month of the year; a partial year is withheld rather than scaled up. Reported crime is what police recorded, which is not the same as what happened. Death rates are crude rates — deaths divided by population, not adjusted for age — except where a count was too small for the CDC to publish and it modeled the rate, which the card marks. They come from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC by county and not below it. So they describe the county around Shelbyville (Bedford County) rather than Shelbyville itself. Neither is part of the Area Score. How to read crime rates and death rates.
What this profile does not cover
Each of these is absent for a reason, not by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them; the weighting is on the methodology page.
- Cost of living
- Price parities are published for metropolitan areas, and this place lies outside one.
- Air quality
- The EPA publishes an air-quality index only where a monitor sits. There is none in this county, and a modeled value would be a different kind of number from the measured ones everywhere else on this page.
- Taxes
- Income and sales taxes are not published: no source covers them nationally with a method open enough to check. Property taxes are shown in the housing section but are not part of the score. Cost of living is published where the Bureau of Economic Analysis measures it, though not for this place. Nothing here is individualized tax advice.
- Anything about a specific address
- Every figure describes an area, not a street or a house.
Access
3 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest Smyrna at 35 miles.
| Metric | Value | Compared nationally | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Broadband access ±3%2024 ACS 5-Year | 86.2% | Bottom 35%of 31,588 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Distance to major airportNASR current cycle | 35 mi | Bottom 23%of 4,226 | NASR current cycle |
| Major airports within 100 milesNASR current cycle | 3 | Bottom 20%of 4,226 | NASR current cycle |
| No internet access ±4%2024 ACS 5-Year | 9.7% | Bottom 39%of 31,588 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Airport | Code | Distance | Longest runway |
|---|---|---|---|
| Smyrna | MQY | 35 mi | 8,038 ft |
| Nashville Intl | BNA | 45 mi | 11,030 ft |
| Huntsville Intl-Carl T Jones Fld | HSV | 62 mi | 10,001 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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Similar places
Matched on AreaProfile signals, not geographyCompare
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Moving to Shelbyville from somewhere else?
You get the difference in prices, rent and weather, and the income that would keep pace.
Data & methodology
| Used for | Source | Source period |
|---|---|---|
| Access | Federal Aviation Administration Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service | NASR current cycle |
| Safety | Federal Bureau of Investigation, Crime Data Explorer Summarized offense counts by law enforcement agency | 2025 calendar year |
| Physical risk | Federal Emergency Management Agency National Risk Index | National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0) |
| Demographics, Income | Internal Revenue Service, Statistics of Income Division U.S. Population Migration Data (county to county) | filing years 2022–2023 |
| Climate | NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly) | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Jobs | U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Local Area Unemployment Statistics | July 2026 |
| Development | U.S. Census Bureau Building Permits Survey | 12 months ending July 2026 |
| Access, Demographics, Housing, Income, Jobs | U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File) | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Demographics | U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program | July 1, 2024 estimate |
| Safety | U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics Provisional county-level mortality by intent | March 2025 to February 2026; May 2025 to April 2026 |
| Schools | U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments | 2018-19 school year; 2024-25 school year |
| Housing | U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Policy Development and Research Fair Market Rents | FY2026 |
| Housing | U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency House Price Index (traditional, all-transactions) | 2026 Q2 |
| Current conditions | NOAA National Weather Service National Weather Service current conditions | Live observation, read when the page opens |
Profile recalculated October 8, 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 every source with how often each updates.
ZIP codes in Shelbyville
1 ZIP areaEvery ZIP area in Shelbyville with census figures of its own, largest first.
| ZIP | Population | Median household income | Median home value | Area Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 37160 | 38,148 | $64,800 | $277,700 | 52 |