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Place dossier plate
SheetTN-HUNTSVILLE-TN · Huntsville, TN 1,632 pop · income 2nd pct
Instrument codes from this place’s ACS population and household income, BEA state COL, FBI safety, national income percentile, photo-finish peer city, home-value band, and matched Census-tract book - not a moving recommendation.
Income neighbourhood around Huntsville
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Huntsville on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Sneedville · lowest
23,482
Sneedville · lowest
23,482 median HH income
17.5% of the leader · rank #1
Olive Branch · near
27,250
Olive Branch · near
27,250 median HH income
20.3% of the leader · rank #2
Henry · near
27,254
Henry · near
27,254 median HH income
20.3% of the leader · rank #3
Prestonsburg · near
27,265
Prestonsburg · near
27,265 median HH income
20.3% of the leader · rank #4
Huntsville · this city
27,266
Huntsville · this city
27,266 median HH income
20.3% of the leader · rank #5
Cheraw · near
27,275
Cheraw · near
27,275 median HH income
20.3% of the leader · rank #6
Wind Point · highest
134,375
Wind Point · highest
134,375 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #7
What this shows Neighbourhood peers only - not a full nationwide city board. Open a near peer when the gap is small; open the poles when the spread is wide.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by population, income
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Huntsville on ACS population and median household income
. Link sets are deduped so each column is a distinct comparison path, not a forecast that peers share a labor market or climate.
Similar population
Nearest out-of-state cities by ACS population. This city: 1,632.
Huntsville ranks in the 2nd percentile for household income nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS.
2nd
percentile, household income
34th
percentile, median rent
📝 How we sourced this
Population, income, and housing-cost figures come from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates (B-series tables). Crime data uses FBI UCR; climate uses NOAA Climate Normals; school counts come from NCES Common Core of Data; permits use the Census Building Permits Survey (BPS). See our methodology page for the full ETL pipeline and OMB / FIPS join keys.
Data Snapshot: Huntsville, TN
1,632 people live in Huntsville, Tennessee - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Households in Huntsville report a median income of $27,266 per year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 31.6%. The median resident age is 42.7 years. About 10.2% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 44.1% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 0 residential units authorized here in 2024 (No Permits).
Living costs in Tennessee run below the national norm: the state registers 91.9 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Well Below Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $1,118 per month. Monthly utility costs average around $218 across Tennessee, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. Natural-hazard exposure scores 52.5 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Huntsville's data
How this reading path is ordered
This is not a composite city score. It is a city-specific route through the available public records, ordered for this profile so the page starts with questions the joined data can actually answer. The route here runs from population change to work and mobility to schools and households to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Huntsville, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, local building permits, commute-mode shares, matched public-school count.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles, FBI reported-crime rates; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
Is Huntsville growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -32 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -1.8% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 0 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Recent estimates point downward. A falling count can reflect migration, household size, annexation boundaries, or estimation noise, so it is a prompt to inspect the full series rather than a claim about local economic health.
What does the journey to work look like in Huntsville?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 79.9%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. No single mode completely explains the work trip here. The mix is more useful than a one-number commute grade, especially when comparing places where transit, walking, and remote work divide the non-driving share differently.
What does the education layer cover for Huntsville?
The city has a broader matched school footprint, but count alone does not describe performance, capacity, program availability, or attendance boundaries. This profile deliberately avoids converting it into an unsupported family-friendliness score.
The NCES join finds 4 public schools within the city match. 10.2% of adults age 25+ hold a bachelor's degree or higher in the ACS estimate. These measures answer different questions: the school count describes local institutions, while adult attainment describes residents and cannot be used as a school-quality rating.
Which cities make useful reference points for Huntsville?
Use the in-state set to hold state policy and broad price conditions more nearly constant. Use the nationwide size set to ask whether cities with a similar resident count produce different housing, income, or commute outcomes. The income set is a third lens, deliberately separate from population matching.
Within Tennessee, the closest population matches are Greenback (1,631 residents, $83,750 income); Englewood (1,643 residents, $48,688 income); Gruetli-Laager (1,619 residents, $50,164 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Fort Fairfield, ME (1,632 residents); Ainsworth, NE (1,632 residents); New Middletown, OH (1,632 residents). A third, income-matched reference set of 6 out-of-state cities sits in the income neighbourhood chart near the Place Dossier plate. These are mechanical peer sets, not claims that the places share a labor market, climate, culture, or metro context.
Lowest-decile income · poverty 31.6% (Highest-decile poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
91.9 (US=100)
Affordable · BEA RPP 2024, Tennessee average
F
City profile score · Huntsville, TN
21/100
4 published dimensions · ACS/FBI 2023
Comparative score against U.S. cities with population of 1,000 or more on Census ACS medians
(income, poverty, bachelor's share, cost of living) and FBI UCR violent-crime rates when
published. Higher means a stronger standing on those published figures, not a livability
rating, not a recommendation to move, buy, or pick a "best" city. Missing inputs drop out
and redistribute weight.
How it is calculated.
Cost of living B+
91.9 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Bachelor's+ share F
10.2%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$27,266
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
31.6%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Huntsville profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 78/100 (B+) · 91.9 index
Bachelor's+ share: 7/100 (F) · 10.2%
Household income: 0/100 (F) · $27,266
Poverty rate: 0/100 (F) · 31.6%
How does Huntsville compare to other US cities?
Where Huntsville sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income2% higher than other cities
Median rent34% pricier than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Huntsville against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Tennessee only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Tennessee-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Huntsville near the bottom of Tennessee's cities
Among the 482 Tennessee cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Huntsville ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Huntsville only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#448 of 458
2nd percentile in Tennessee
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 482
0th percentile in Tennessee
Poverty Rate
#26 of 482
94th percentile in Tennessee
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#375 of 482
22nd percentile in Tennessee
How in-state ranks are ordered
Ranked by raw value (highest first); a higher rank is not automatically "better" for every measure, see each metric's own context above. This is a comparison within Tennessee only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
2nd percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Income distribution context
$27,266Huntsville, TN median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Huntsville, TN median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Huntsville, TN.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)10.2%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)31.6%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)44.1%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
1,632
Median Income
$27,266
Median Home Value
N/A
Median Age
42.7
Poverty Rate
31.6%
Labor force participation
44.1%
Bachelor's Degree+
10.2%
Schools
Total Schools
4
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Huntsville's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
1,741 residents
2021
1,712 residents
2022
1,733 residents
2023
1,733 residents
2024
1,742 residents
2025
1,709 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
Total Permits (2024)
0
housing units authorized
Single-Family
0
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
0
0
0
-
2020
0
0
0
-
2021
0
0
0
-
2022
0
0
0
-
2023
0
0
0
-
2024
0
0
0
-
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
79.9%
Carpool
10.7%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
5.2%
Work from Home
3.3%
Other
0.9%
Based on 638 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Tennessee statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $218
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Tennessee at $218 (electricity about $120 , water and sewer about $40 ).
These are Tennessee statewide averages, not a meter reading for Huntsville. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Tennessee's BEA cost-of-living index is 91.9 (Well Below Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Huntsville is $1,118/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Tennessee statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 52.5 / 100 (Low).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Tennessee statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Huntsville sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Huntsville compares to similar-size Tennessee cities
Same-state peer method
Closest same-state population matches, not geographic neighbors. Population + median household income come from Census Bureau ACS 5-year B01001 and B19013.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year 2023, NCES CCD, Census BPS 2024, Census ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.