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Place dossier plate
SheetTN-JOHNSON-CITY-TN · Johnson City, TN 71,455 pop · income 28th pct · 32 tracts
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 Johnson City
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Johnson City on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Camden · lowest
40,450
Camden · lowest
40,450 median HH income
35.2% of the leader · rank #1
Bloomingdale · near
55,427
Bloomingdale · near
55,427 median HH income
48.2% of the leader · rank #2
Havana · near
55,428
Havana · near
55,428 median HH income
48.2% of the leader · rank #3
Johnson City · this city
55,429
Johnson City · this city
55,429 median HH income
48.2% of the leader · rank #4
Attalla · near
55,429
Attalla · near
55,429 median HH income
48.2% of the leader · rank #5
Scottsmoor · near
55,433
Scottsmoor · near
55,433 median HH income
48.2% of the leader · rank #6
Franklin · highest
115,000
Franklin · highest
115,000 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, and FBI crime rate
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Johnson City on ACS population and median household income
, plus FBI UCR reporting rate when the extract covers this place. 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: 71,455.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Johnson City - the verdict
Johnson City ranks in the 28th percentile for household income and the 19th percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
28th
percentile, household income
53rd
percentile, home value
34th
percentile, median rent
19th
percentile, safety
📝 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: Johnson City, TN
Johnson City is a small city in Tennessee, home to 71,455 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Households in Johnson City report a median income of $55,429 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 12.0%. Typical homes in Johnson City are valued around $238,000, and the median resident age is 35.1 years. 41.8% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 58.7% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 615 residential building permits were authorized in Johnson City (Building Boom), up 166% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Crime here tracks close to the national norm: per-100,000 total crime stands at 2704.7 in FBI UCR data, near the national average (a voluntary reporting program, read this as reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
Living costs in Tennessee run below the national norm: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts Tennessee at 91.9 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Well Below Average). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $1,118 per month. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Tennessee run around $218, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. The average commute for Johnson City workers runs 16.8 minutes, with 78.7% driving alone and 10.4% working from home. 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 Johnson City'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 comparison shortlist to housing and income to reported crime to schools and households to population change to work and mobility to within-city variation; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Johnson City, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, within-city Census tract profiles, FBI reported-crime rates, commute-mode shares, local building permits, matched public-school count.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
Question 1
Which cities make useful reference points for Johnson City?
Within Tennessee, the closest population matches are Jackson (68,098 residents, $51,552 income); Hendersonville (62,390 residents, $91,503 income); Franklin (85,575 residents, $115,000 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Camden, NJ (71,471 residents); Rogers, AR (71,411 residents); Lake Elsinore, CA (71,516 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.
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. The nationwide peer panel below adds a fourth FBI UCR reporting-rate lens, not personal risk.
How far does income reach against housing in Johnson City?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 4.3 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 12.0%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
This is a citywide price-to-income reference, not a mortgage-affordability test; it does not include interest rates, taxes, insurance, household size, or an individual buyer's down payment. Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median. That flags a question for comparison, not a verdict: tenure, household composition, financing costs, and the age of the ACS estimate can all change what a resident actually pays.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Johnson City?
Treat this as a reporting-rate comparison, not a prediction of personal risk or a neighborhood-level safety grade. Tourism, daytime population, reporting practices, and variation inside the city are not adjusted away. The state rank and same-state peer table are the narrower comparisons available on this page.
The joined FBI UCR record reports 2704.7 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 19% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
What can 32 Census tracts reveal inside Johnson City?
That layer breaks the citywide income, rent, and home-value medians into smaller Census geographies, which can reveal differences that one municipal median necessarily hides. A tract is a statistical area, not a locally defined neighborhood or a promise about conditions on a particular block. Start with the city profile for the broad comparison, then use the tract layer to test whether the same housing and income pattern is consistent across the city. Large within-city spreads are a reason to avoid treating any citywide median as a universal resident experience.
PlainCities matches 32 Census tracts to this city.
These joined records add useful context, but they do not need another full-size panel. Each remains a separate measure with its own geography and source boundary.
Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Johnson City?
The NCES join finds 17 public schools within the city match. 41.8% 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.
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.
Matched public schools
17
Bachelor's degree+
41.8%
Poverty estimate
12.0%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Is Johnson City growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Recent estimates point upward. Growth can increase housing demand and service needs, but the permit record must move in the same direction before calling it a supply response; the two series measure different things.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +3,871 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +5.4% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 615 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Period change
+5.4%
2025 estimate
74,943
2020 estimate
71,072
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
What does the journey to work look like in Johnson City?
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.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 78.7%. The reported mean trip to work is 16.8 minutes.
Public transit
0.5%
Work from home
10.4%
Drive alone
78.7%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 34,120 workers age 16+.
Below median income · poverty 12.0% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
91.9 (US=100)
Affordable · BEA RPP 2024, Tennessee average
D
City profile score · Johnson City, TN
45/100
5 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 B+
41.8%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate F
12.0%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$55,429
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime F
402 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Johnson City profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 78/100 (B+) · 91.9 index
Bachelor's+ share: 77/100 (B+) · 41.8%
Poverty rate: 32/100 (F) · 12.0%
Household income: 28/100 (F) · $55,429
Violent crime: 22/100 (F) · 402 /100k
Where Johnson City sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Johnson City's median home value and FBI crime rate plotted with similar-size and
same-state peers (padded with large cities when the peer set is thin). The second
read: pricey does not always mean safer, check which quadrant this city lands in.
Census ACS median home value vs FBI UCR crime rate - Johnson City highlighted among 12 peers.Read the chart values
Johnson City, TN (this city): home $238,000, crime 2,705/100k
Rogers, AR : home $278,000, crime 1,616/100k
Lake Elsinore, CA : home $505,700, crime 2,027/100k
St. Joseph, MO : home $144,200, crime 4,580/100k
Marysville, WA : home $521,500, crime 2,187/100k
Blaine, MN : home $327,500, crime 1,500/100k
Jackson, TN : home $195,000, crime 4,111/100k
Hendersonville, TN : home $396,500, crime 837/100k
Franklin, TN : home $646,300, crime 1,075/100k
Bartlett, TN : home $283,700, crime 1,534/100k
Kingsport, TN : home $203,000, crime 3,401/100k
Smyrna, TN : home $326,700, crime 2,665/100k
How does Johnson City compare to other US cities?
Here's how Johnson City stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income28% higher than other cities
Home value53% pricier than other cities
Median rent34% pricier than other cities
Safety19% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
National percentiles can mask local variation. Looking only at Tennessee, Johnson City ranks #137 of 174 Tennessee cities by lowest crime rate - a narrower, more locally useful cut than the national comparison above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Johnson City 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 Johnson City near the bottom of Tennessee's cities
Among the 482 Tennessee cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Johnson City ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Johnson City only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#239 of 458
48th percentile in Tennessee
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 482
0th percentile in Tennessee
Median Home Value
#129 of 455
71st percentile in Tennessee
Poverty Rate
#198 of 482
59th percentile in Tennessee
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#41 of 482
91st 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
28th percentile nationally for median household income · 19th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Johnson City's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Johnson City's percentile rank on 3 favorable-direction measures (income, affordability, safety) vs. every tracked US city -- higher on every axis is more favorable. Not a composite quality score, just the arithmetic mean of the axes shown.
How Johnson City's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$238,00047th percentilemore affordable than 47% of 15,600 US cities
Show national distribution
Each bar is a $25K-wide band; taller bars hold more US cities. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year Estimates · 2023
Johnson City's home-value-to-income ratio: 4.3×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#11,506 of 15,516
More affordable than 26% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#361 of 750
Mid-size cities (50,000–199,999)
At 4.3×, Johnson City sits in the moderate band:
national rank #11,506 of 15,516 and #361 of 750mid-size cities (50,000–199,999).
Income and home value move in the same broad scale; check same-state peers before treating the multiple as an advantage or a warning.
How this ratio is calculated
Ratio = Census ACS 2023 median home value ÷ median household income for cities with both fields and population ≥ 1,000.
Rank 1 = lowest ratio (most compact). Bands match the fleet affordability thresholds used on guides (<3.0 / 3.0–5.0 / >5.0).
This is not a mortgage payment estimate and does not include rates, taxes, insurance, or down payment.
Income distribution context
$55,429Johnson City, TN median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Johnson City, 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 Johnson City, TN.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)41.8%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)12.0%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)58.7%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
71,455
Median Income
$55,429
Median Home Value
$238,000
Median Age
35.1
Poverty Rate
12.0%
Labor force participation
58.7%
Bachelor's Degree+
41.8%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
2704.7
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
402.2
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
2302.5
per 100,000 residents
Crime reporting caveat
Reflects incidents reported to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program — agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies by jurisdiction and year, so this reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score. Not adjusted for tourism, commuter, or daytime population.
Schools
Total Schools
17
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Johnson City's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
71,072 residents
2021
71,097 residents
2022
72,548 residents
2023
73,361 residents
2024
73,600 residents
2025
74,943 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
615
housing units authorized
Single-Family
241
detached homes
Multifamily
374
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
8.6
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
231
135
96
$37.2M
2020
535
185
350
$42.4M
2021
247
241
6
$53.0M
2022
210
210
0
$61.2M
2023
371
210
161
$96.0M
2024
615
241
374
$166.3M
Permit volume increased 166% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
16.8 minutes
Drive Alone
78.7%
Carpool
7.4%
Public Transit
0.5%
Walk
2.1%
Work from Home
10.4%
Other
0.9%
Based on 34,120 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 Johnson City. 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 Johnson City 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 Johnson City sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Johnson City 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, FBI UCR, 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.