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Place dossier plate
SheetTN-OAK-RIDGE-TN · Oak Ridge, TN 32,088 pop · income 51st pct · 20 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 Oak Ridge
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Oak Ridge on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Nacogdoches · lowest
38,855
Nacogdoches · lowest
38,855 median HH income
18.3% of the leader · rank #1
Oak Ridge · this city
71,000
Oak Ridge · this city
71,000 median HH income
33.5% of the leader · rank #2
Venice Gardens · near
71,000
Venice Gardens · near
71,000 median HH income
33.5% of the leader · rank #3
McCullom Lake · near
71,000
McCullom Lake · near
71,000 median HH income
33.5% of the leader · rank #4
Vancleave · near
71,000
Vancleave · near
71,000 median HH income
33.5% of the leader · rank #5
Bolivia · near
71,000
Bolivia · near
71,000 median HH income
33.5% of the leader · rank #6
Needham · highest
212,241
Needham · highest
212,241 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 Oak Ridge 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: 32,088.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Oak Ridge - the verdict
Nationally, Oak Ridge sits in the 51st percentile for household income and the 44th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
51st
percentile, household income
52nd
percentile, home value
34th
percentile, median rent
44th
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: Oak Ridge, TN
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 32,088 residents in Oak Ridge, a small city within Tennessee. Oak Ridge households earn a median of $71,000 annually, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 7.6%. Home values in Oak Ridge run a median of $233,500, and the median resident age is 39.2 years. 39.4% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 55.3% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 230 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Building Boom), up 259% from five years earlier. Oak Ridge reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR figures show 1567.3 crimes per 100,000 residents, below the national average (reporting is voluntary across agencies, so treat this as reporting activity rather than a definitive danger score). NOAA climate normals record an annual average temperature of 59.8°F with 55.5 inches of precipitation per year.
Living costs in Tennessee run below the national norm: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, Tennessee scores 91.9 (Well Below Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,118 monthly. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Tennessee run around $218, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. 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 Oak Ridge'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 schools and households to within-city variation to population change to climate and hazard context to comparison shortlist to reported crime to work and mobility to housing and income; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Oak Ridge, city-specific coverage includes within-city Census tract profiles, FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count, commute-mode shares, annual population history, local building permits.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
Question 1
What does the education layer cover for Oak Ridge?
The NCES join finds 8 public schools within the city match. 39.4% 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.
What can 20 Census tracts reveal inside Oak Ridge?
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 20 Census tracts to this city.
Is Oak Ridge 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 +3,679 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +11.6% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 230 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Which cities make useful reference points for Oak Ridge?
Within Tennessee, the closest population matches are Maryville (32,196 residents, $79,340 income); Morristown (30,983 residents, $44,811 income); Cookeville (35,544 residents, $48,501 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Nacogdoches, TX (32,104 residents); Needham, MA (32,059 residents); Elk Grove Village, IL (32,132 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.
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.
Climate and hazard context
What physical conditions frame life in Oak Ridge?
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 59.8°F, with 55.5 inches of precipitation. FEMA's state-averaged National Risk Index score for Tennessee is 52.5 out of 100. Climate normals describe long-run weather; the FEMA score on PlainCities is a state average of county NRI inputs and combines hazards, exposure, vulnerability, and resilience.
The two sources should not be blended into one comfort or safety score. Use the climate values for baseline conditions and the risk index as a prompt to inspect specific hazards, insurance, and local emergency guidance for a particular address.
Mean temperature
59.8°F
Annual precipitation
55.5 in
FEMA risk index (state avg)
52.5
NOAA Climate Normals and FEMA National Risk Index (state-averaged on PlainCities). Hazard context is not address-level.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Oak Ridge?
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 1567.3 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 31% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
1276.7
Violent rate
290.6
Total reported rate
1567.3
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
What does the journey to work look like in Oak Ridge?
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 71.4%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Public transit
0.1%
Work from home
13.9%
Drive alone
71.4%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 13,712 workers age 16+.
How far does income reach against housing in Oak Ridge?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.3 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 7.6%, 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. Income and home value move within the same broad scale here. The useful next check is not a generic affordability label, but whether similar-size cities offer a materially different income, housing, or commute trade-off.
Household income
$71,000
Home value
$233,500
Value / income
3.3×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Above median income · poverty 7.6% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
91.9 (US=100)
Affordable · BEA RPP 2024, Tennessee average
C
City profile score · Oak Ridge, TN
56/100
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
39.4%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income C-
$71,000
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate D
7.6%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
291 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Oak Ridge profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 78/100 (B+) · 91.9 index
Bachelor's+ share: 74/100 (B) · 39.4%
Household income: 51/100 (C-) · $71,000
Poverty rate: 49/100 (D) · 7.6%
Violent crime: 34/100 (F) · 291 /100k
Where Oak Ridge sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Oak Ridge'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 - Oak Ridge highlighted among 11 peers.Read the chart values
Oak Ridge, TN (this city): home $233,500, crime 1,567/100k
Nacogdoches, TX : home $173,200, crime 1,691/100k
Needham, MA : home $1,146,000, crime 699/100k
Elk Grove Village, IL : home $334,400, crime 1,815/100k
O'Fallon, IL : home $274,100, crime 1,215/100k
North Olmsted, OH : home $202,400, crime 1,062/100k
Maryville, TN : home $310,600, crime 638/100k
Morristown, TN : home $155,700, crime 3,236/100k
Cookeville, TN : home $263,800, crime 1,955/100k
Bristol, TN : home $182,500, crime 2,322/100k
La Vergne, TN : home $273,700, crime 2,311/100k
How does Oak Ridge compare to other US cities?
Oak Ridge measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income51% higher than other cities
Home value52% pricier than other cities
Median rent34% pricier than other cities
Safety44% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
A national percentile can hide a lot of local variation: narrowed to Tennessee alone, Oak Ridge ranks #88 of 174 Tennessee cities by lowest crime rate - a different, more locally useful comparison than stacking it against the entire country.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Oak Ridge 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 Oak Ridge near the bottom of Tennessee's cities
Among the 482 Tennessee cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Oak Ridge ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Oak Ridge only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#124 of 458
73rd percentile in Tennessee
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 482
0th percentile in Tennessee
Median Home Value
#137 of 455
70th percentile in Tennessee
Poverty Rate
#295 of 482
38th percentile in Tennessee
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#49 of 482
90th 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
51st percentile nationally for median household income · 44th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Oak Ridge's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Oak Ridge'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 Oak Ridge's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$233,50048th percentilemore affordable than 48% 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
Oak Ridge's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.3×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#8,071 of 15,516
More affordable than 48% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#1,276 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 3.3×, Oak Ridge sits in the moderate band:
national rank #8,071 of 15,516 and #1,276 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
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
$71,000Oak Ridge, TN median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Oak Ridge, 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 Oak Ridge, TN.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)39.4%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)7.6%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)55.3%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
32,088
Median Income
$71,000
Median Home Value
$233,500
Median Age
39.2
Poverty Rate
7.6%
Labor force participation
55.3%
Bachelor's Degree+
39.4%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1567.3
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
290.6
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1276.7
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.
Climate
Avg Temperature
59.8°F
Annual Precipitation
55.5"
Annual Snowfall
N/A
Schools
Total Schools
8
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Oak Ridge's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
31,716 residents
2021
32,332 residents
2022
33,353 residents
2023
34,210 residents
2024
35,029 residents
2025
35,395 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
230
housing units authorized
Single-Family
139
detached homes
Multifamily
91
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
7.2
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
64
64
0
$8.2M
2020
307
81
226
$31.0M
2021
303
112
191
$34.9M
2022
285
94
191
$32.3M
2023
255
146
109
$37.8M
2024
230
139
91
$34.1M
Permit volume increased 259% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
71.4%
Carpool
11.6%
Public Transit
0.1%
Walk
2.1%
Work from Home
13.9%
Other
0.9%
Based on 13,712 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 Oak Ridge. 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 Oak Ridge 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 Oak Ridge sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Oak Ridge 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, NOAA Climate Normals, 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.