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Place dossier plate
SheetTN-PIGEON-FORGE-TN · Pigeon Forge, TN 6,345 pop · income 25th 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 Pigeon Forge
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Pigeon Forge on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Sweetwater · lowest
44,661
Sweetwater · lowest
44,661 median HH income
47.1% of the leader · rank #1
Pigeon Forge · this city
53,839
Pigeon Forge · this city
53,839 median HH income
56.8% of the leader · rank #2
Duenweg · near
53,839
Duenweg · near
53,839 median HH income
56.8% of the leader · rank #3
Bennington · near
53,839
Bennington · near
53,839 median HH income
56.8% of the leader · rank #4
Westview · near
53,840
Westview · near
53,840 median HH income
56.8% of the leader · rank #5
Green Lake · near
53,841
Green Lake · near
53,841 median HH income
56.8% of the leader · rank #6
Carlstadt · highest
94,854
Carlstadt · highest
94,854 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 Pigeon Forge 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: 6,345.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Pigeon Forge - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Pigeon Forge lands in the 25th percentile for household income and the 8th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
25th
percentile, household income
57th
percentile, home value
34th
percentile, median rent
8th
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: Pigeon Forge, TN
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 6,345 residents in Pigeon Forge, a small town within Tennessee. Median household income here is $53,839 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 20.4%. Typical homes in Pigeon Forge are valued around $258,700, and the median resident age is 35.4 years. About 11.5% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 57.0% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 180 residential building permits were authorized in Pigeon Forge (Building Boom), up 78% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Pigeon Forge's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: FBI UCR figures show 3956.5 crimes per 100,000 residents, above the national average (reporting is voluntary across agencies, so treat this as reporting activity rather than a definitive danger score).
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. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Tennessee's average monthly utility costs around $218 (state average). FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 52.5 out of 100 (Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Pigeon Forge'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 to reported crime to housing and income; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Pigeon Forge, city-specific coverage includes FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history, commute-mode shares, matched public-school count, local building permits.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
Is Pigeon Forge growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +192 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +3.0% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 180 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 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.
What does the journey to work look like in Pigeon Forge?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 76.1%. 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 Pigeon Forge?
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 3 public schools within the city match. 11.5% 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 Pigeon Forge?
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.
Within Tennessee, the closest population matches are Henderson (6,349 residents, $57,727 income); Loudon (6,235 residents, $58,810 income); Munford (6,459 residents, $86,492 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are East End, AR (6,344 residents); El Rio, CA (6,343 residents); Carlstadt, NJ (6,343 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.
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.
Reported crime
What can the FBI record say about safety in Pigeon Forge?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 3956.5 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 73% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
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.
Total reported rate
3956.5
Violent rate
788.1
Property rate
3168.3
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
How far does income reach against housing in Pigeon Forge?
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.
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 4.8 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 20.4%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
4.8×
Home value
$258,700
Household income
$53,839
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Below median income · poverty 20.4% (High poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
91.9 (US=100)
Affordable · BEA RPP 2024, Tennessee average
F
City profile score · Pigeon Forge, TN
27/100
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.
Household income F
$53,839
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
20.4%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
11.5%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Violent crime F
788 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Pigeon Forge profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 78/100 (B+) · 91.9 index
Household income: 25/100 (F) · $53,839
Poverty rate: 13/100 (F) · 20.4%
Bachelor's+ share: 11/100 (F) · 11.5%
Violent crime: 2/100 (F) · 788 /100k
Where Pigeon Forge sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Pigeon Forge'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 - Pigeon Forge highlighted among 26 peers.Read the chart values
Pigeon Forge, TN (this city): home $258,700, crime 3,957/100k
Carlstadt, NJ : home $523,800, crime 1,625/100k
Henderson, TN : home $130,100, crime 776/100k
Loudon, TN : home $220,900, crime 698/100k
Munford, TN : home $234,600, crime 1,072/100k
Sweetwater, TN : home $166,000, crime 1,717/100k
New York, NY : home $751,700, crime 3,039/100k
Los Angeles, CA : home $879,500, crime 2,212/100k
Chicago, IL : home $315,200, crime 4,012/100k
Houston, TX : home $253,400, crime 5,442/100k
Phoenix, AZ : home $381,900, crime 3,125/100k
Philadelphia, PA : home $232,400, crime 5,457/100k
San Antonio, TX : home $219,700, crime 5,218/100k
San Diego, CA : home $848,500, crime 2,082/100k
Dallas, TX : home $295,300, crime 4,010/100k
San Jose, CA : home $1,187,800, crime 3,195/100k
Austin, TX : home $512,700, crime 3,709/100k
Fort Worth, TX : home $277,300, crime 3,158/100k
Columbus, OH : home $234,500, crime 3,088/100k
Indianapolis, IN : home $207,000, crime 4,214/100k
San Francisco, CA : home $1,380,500, crime 4,526/100k
Seattle, WA : home $912,100, crime 5,783/100k
Denver, CO : home $586,700, crime 5,755/100k
Oklahoma City, OK : home $215,100, crime 3,570/100k
El Paso, TX : home $171,700, crime 1,772/100k
Washington, DC : home $724,600, crime 4,514/100k
How does Pigeon Forge compare to other US cities?
Where Pigeon Forge sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income25% higher than other cities
Home value57% pricier than other cities
Median rent34% pricier than other cities
Safety8% 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, Pigeon Forge ranks #161 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 Pigeon Forge 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 Pigeon Forge near the bottom of Tennessee's cities
Among the 482 Tennessee cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Pigeon Forge ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Pigeon Forge only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#256 of 458
44th percentile in Tennessee
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 482
0th percentile in Tennessee
Median Home Value
#110 of 455
76th percentile in Tennessee
Poverty Rate
#83 of 482
82nd percentile in Tennessee
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#352 of 482
27th 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
25th percentile nationally for median household income · 8th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Pigeon Forge's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Pigeon Forge'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 Pigeon Forge's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$258,70043rd percentilemore affordable than 43% 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
Pigeon Forge's home-value-to-income ratio: 4.8×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#12,564 of 15,516
More affordable than 19% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#9,553 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 4.8×, Pigeon Forge sits in the moderate band:
national rank #12,564 of 15,516 and #9,553 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
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
$53,839Pigeon Forge, TN median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Pigeon Forge, 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 Pigeon Forge, TN.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)11.5%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)20.4%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)57.0%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
6,345
Median Income
$53,839
Median Home Value
$258,700
Median Age
35.4
Poverty Rate
20.4%
Labor force participation
57.0%
Bachelor's Degree+
11.5%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
3956.5
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
788.1
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
3168.3
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
3
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Pigeon Forge's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
6,406 residents
2021
6,356 residents
2022
6,228 residents
2023
6,407 residents
2024
6,520 residents
2025
6,598 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
180
housing units authorized
Single-Family
7
detached homes
Multifamily
173
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
28.4
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
101
7
94
$6.9M
2020
13
13
0
$1.2M
2021
6
0
6
$0.3M
2022
191
10
181
$34.7M
2023
136
6
130
$20.0M
2024
180
7
173
$23.9M
Permit volume increased 78% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
76.1%
Carpool
17.4%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
2.0%
Work from Home
4.5%
Based on 2,665 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 Pigeon Forge. 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 Pigeon Forge 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 Pigeon Forge sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Pigeon Forge 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.