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Place dossier plate
SheetTN-WALDEN-TN · Walden, TN 1,762 pop · income 91st 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 Walden
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Walden on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Celina · lowest
33,430
Celina · lowest
33,430 median HH income
24.7% of the leader · rank #1
Walden · this city
135,000
Walden · this city
135,000 median HH income
99.9% of the leader · rank #2
Duck Key · near
135,000
Duck Key · near
135,000 median HH income
99.9% of the leader · rank #3
Mountain Park · near
135,000
Mountain Park · near
135,000 median HH income
99.9% of the leader · rank #4
Havensville · near
135,046
Havensville · near
135,046 median HH income
99.9% of the leader · rank #5
Coronado · near
135,056
Coronado · near
135,056 median HH income
99.9% of the leader · rank #6
Bearden · highest
135,125
Bearden · highest
135,125 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 Walden 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: 1,762.
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Walden places in the 91st percentile for household income. Source: Census ACS.
91st
percentile, household income
89th
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: Walden, TN
Tennessee's Walden is a small town, with 1,762 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Median household income here is $135,000 per year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 3.4%. Walden's housing stock carries a median value of $600,900, and the median resident age is 43.3 years. About 64.0% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 60.4% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
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. A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,118 per month statewide. 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 Walden'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 housing and income to population change to work and mobility to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Walden, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, annual population history.
No matched row is reported here for matched public-school count, within-city Census tract profiles, local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
How far does income reach against housing in Walden?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 4.5 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 3.4%, 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.
The recent population line is broadly flat. That makes the composition of change more important than the headline count: housing turnover, household size, and age structure can shift even when the total barely moves.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -19 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -1.0% change. No comparable local building-permit series is available here, so population change should not be read as a housing-supply measure. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
What does the journey to work look like in Walden?
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 78.0%. 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 Walden?
Within Tennessee, the closest population matches are Loretto (1,757 residents, $51,771 income); Unionville (1,751 residents, $76,671 income); Cowan (1,777 residents, $37,295 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Fords Prairie, WA (1,762 residents); Aberdeen, IN (1,761 residents); Oberlin, KS (1,763 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.
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.
Bachelor's+ share A+
64.0%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income A+
$135,000
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
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.
Poverty rate B+
3.4%
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).
Walden profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 94/100 (A+) · 64.0%
Household income: 92/100 (A+) · $135,000
Cost of living: 78/100 (B+) · 91.9 index
Poverty rate: 76/100 (B+) · 3.4%
How does Walden compare to other US cities?
Walden measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income91% higher than other cities
Home value89% 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 Walden 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 Walden near the bottom of Tennessee's cities
Among the 482 Tennessee cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Walden ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Walden only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#12 of 458
97th percentile in Tennessee
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 482
0th percentile in Tennessee
Median Home Value
#9 of 455
98th percentile in Tennessee
Poverty Rate
#377 of 482
21st percentile in Tennessee
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#15 of 482
97th 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
91st percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Walden's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$600,90011th percentilemore affordable than 11% 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
Walden's home-value-to-income ratio: 4.5×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#11,880 of 15,516
More affordable than 23% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#9,115 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 4.5×, Walden sits in the moderate band:
national rank #11,880 of 15,516 and #9,115 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
$135,000Walden, TN median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Walden, 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 Walden, TN.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)64.0%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)3.4%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)60.4%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
1,762
Median Income
$135,000
Median Home Value
$600,900
Median Age
43.3
Poverty Rate
3.4%
Labor force participation
60.4%
Bachelor's Degree+
64.0%
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Walden's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
1,984 residents
2021
1,981 residents
2022
1,976 residents
2023
1,982 residents
2024
1,979 residents
2025
1,965 residents
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
78.0%
Carpool
4.3%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
2.7%
Work from Home
13.6%
Other
1.4%
Based on 817 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 Walden. 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 Walden 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 Walden sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Walden 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 ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.