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Place dossier plate
SheetTN-PIPERTON-TN · Piperton, TN 2,457 pop · income 89th 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 Piperton
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Piperton on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Horseshoe Bend · lowest
40,868
Horseshoe Bend · lowest
40,868 median HH income
28.8% of the leader · rank #1
Piperton · this city
125,982
Piperton · this city
125,982 median HH income
88.7% of the leader · rank #2
North Amityvi… · near
125,991
North Amityvi… · near
125,991 median HH income
88.7% of the leader · rank #3
Truckee · near
125,995
Truckee · near
125,995 median HH income
88.7% of the leader · rank #4
Detroit · near
126,000
Detroit · near
126,000 median HH income
88.7% of the leader · rank #5
Lakeside · near
126,000
Lakeside · near
126,000 median HH income
88.7% of the leader · rank #6
Stormstown · highest
142,045
Stormstown · highest
142,045 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 Piperton 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: 2,457.
Piperton ranks in the 89th percentile for household income nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS.
89th
percentile, household income
87th
percentile, home value
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: Piperton, TN
Piperton is a small town in Tennessee, home to 2,457 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Piperton households earn a median of $125,982 annually, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 3.1%. Home values in Piperton run a median of $550,200, and the median resident age is 57.1 years. About 47.3% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 57.4% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 48 residential building permits were authorized in Piperton (Construction Slowdown), down 36% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data.
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. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Tennessee's average monthly utility costs around $218 (state average). On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 52.5 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Piperton'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 work and mobility to comparison shortlist to population change to housing and income; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Piperton, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, local building permits, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles, matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Piperton?
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 78.1%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Which cities make useful reference points for Piperton?
Within Tennessee, the closest population matches are Rural Hill (2,453 residents, $84,310 income); Walnut Hill (2,480 residents, $65,074 income); Waynesboro (2,483 residents, $45,000 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Horseshoe Bend, AR (2,458 residents); Emsworth, PA (2,458 residents); Kennesaw State University, GA (2,455 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.
Is Piperton 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 +584 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +25.3% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 48 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
How far does income reach against housing in Piperton?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 4.4 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 3.1%, 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.
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.
Household income A
$125,982
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share A-
47.3%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate B+
3.1%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
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.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Piperton profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 88/100 (A) · $125,982
Bachelor's+ share: 81/100 (A-) · 47.3%
Poverty rate: 78/100 (B+) · 3.1%
Cost of living: 78/100 (B+) · 91.9 index
How does Piperton compare to other US cities?
Piperton measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income89% higher than other cities
Home value87% pricier 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 Piperton 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 Piperton near the bottom of Tennessee's cities
Among the 482 Tennessee cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Piperton ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Piperton only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#18 of 458
96th percentile in Tennessee
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 482
0th percentile in Tennessee
Median Home Value
#12 of 455
97th percentile in Tennessee
Poverty Rate
#388 of 482
19th percentile in Tennessee
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#29 of 482
94th 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
89th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Piperton's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$550,20013th percentilemore affordable than 13% 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
Piperton's home-value-to-income ratio: 4.4×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#11,691 of 15,516
More affordable than 25% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#8,993 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 4.4×, Piperton sits in the moderate band:
national rank #11,691 of 15,516 and #8,993 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
$125,982Piperton, TN median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Piperton, 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 Piperton, TN.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)47.3%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)3.1%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)57.4%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
2,457
Median Income
$125,982
Median Home Value
$550,200
Median Age
57.1
Poverty Rate
3.1%
Labor force participation
57.4%
Bachelor's Degree+
47.3%
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Piperton's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
2,305 residents
2021
2,497 residents
2022
2,607 residents
2023
2,693 residents
2024
2,777 residents
2025
2,889 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
48
housing units authorized
Single-Family
48
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
19.5
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
75
75
0
$28.5M
2020
92
92
0
$38.6M
2021
58
58
0
$20.9M
2022
45
45
0
$18.2M
2023
46
46
0
$24.2M
2024
48
48
0
$24.1M
Permit volume decreased 36% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
78.1%
Carpool
7.5%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.0%
Work from Home
12.9%
Other
1.5%
Based on 1,261 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 Piperton. 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 Piperton 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 Piperton sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Piperton 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, 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.