Chattanooga, TN
Chattanooga, TN-GA Metro Area
Figures are medians for the whole Chattanooga, TN-GA Metro Area, not the city proper.
Among the 300 U.S. metros CityLedger tracks, Chattanooga ranks 129th for affordability — how far a typical paycheck stretches after local prices — and 156th for income. A household earns $75,076 a year while median rent runs $1,265/mo, making it moderately affordable for what residents earn. Affordability and price level are different lenses: the raw cost of living here runs 9% below the U.S. average.
Its strongest card is cost of living (77th of 300), while air quality is the soft spot (248th). Housing usually decides a move: rent ranks 156th and home prices 165th among the 300 metros CityLedger tracks.
For your salary & household
Enter your pay and household size to see what it's really worth here — the numbers update live and the link stays shareable.
On $75,000 for just you in Chattanooga, your take-home is worth about $67,036 once local prices are factored in — local prices stretch it further than the U.S. average.
Take-home estimates a single filer taking the standard deduction (2025 federal brackets, FICA, and state income tax) and isn't tax advice. “Real value” rebases take-home to average U.S. prices using the BEA cost-of-living index; the per-person figure uses the OECD square-root equivalence scale.
The numbers
Income & cost
- Median income
- 156th of 300↑35.6%$75,076
- Cost of living?The local price level vs. the U.S. average of 100 (BEA). Lower means cheaper. This is raw prices, not adjusted for income.
- 77th of 30091 (US=100)
- Cost-adj. income?Median household income divided by the local price level — what the typical paycheck is really worth here.
- $82,083
- Per-capita income
- $41,189
- Full-time pay
- $44,822
Housing
- Median rent
- 156th of 300↑48.5%$1,265/mo
- Home value
- 165th of 300↑75.4%$324,500
- Property tax
- $1,785/yr · 0.6%
- Sales tax
- 9.56%
Jobs & education
- Unemployment
- 176th of 3004.7%
- Bachelor's+
- 165th of 30032.4%
- Avg commute
- 164th of 30024.5 min
People
- Population
- 588,763
- Population change
- +4%
- Median age
- 40.3 yrs
- Foreign-born
- 6.2%
- Broadband
- 92.4%
Environment & risk
- Air quality (AQI)
- 248th of 30052
- Natural-hazard loss
- 169th of 300$14/$10k
Health
- Fair/poor health
- 193rd of 30019.8%
- Uninsured (18–64)
- 11.6%
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau (ACS), U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. EPA, FEMA, CDC, NOAA — every figure's source is listed on our methodology page. Data built 2026-06-14. ↑↓ mark the change since 2019.
How CityLedger scores it
Transparent weights — see our methodology.
Strengths
- + Cost of living
Watch-outs
- – Air quality
Climate
30-year normals (1991–2020) from the nearest station — chattanooga ap.
What jobs pay in Chattanooga
Median annual wage by occupation (BLS OEWS 2025) — half of workers in each role earn more, half less.
- Family medicine physicians
- $264,690
- IT managers
- $152,980
- Financial managers
- $151,530
- Lawyers
- $147,640
- Pharmacists
- $132,240
- Software developers
- $106,750
- General & operations managers
- $102,920
- Civil engineers
- $95,630
- Registered nurses
- $79,770
- Accountants & auditors
- $76,680
- Electricians
- $72,330
- Secondary school teachers
- $65,100
- Elementary school teachers
- $59,830
- Plumbers
- $58,720
- Web developers
- $58,060
- Truck drivers (heavy)
- $57,440
- Police officers
- $51,330
- Carpenters
- $50,760
- Maintenance & repair workers
- $47,170
- Customer service reps
- $45,030
- Construction laborers
- $43,260
- Janitors
- $31,760
- Retail salespersons
- $31,460
- Cashiers
- $28,440
- Waiters & waitresses
- $24,240
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS 2025 — annual median wage. Cross-industry, all experience levels.
Where new residents move from
The states sending the most people to the Chattanooga metro, by estimated movers (U.S. Census 2022 migration flows, 5-year). Moves from elsewhere in Tennessee are excluded to show where out-of-state arrivals originate.
- Florida1,946
- Alabama1,479
- California1,414
- Texas861
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2022 Migration Flows (5-year).
Cities like Chattanooga
Closest matches across cost, income, size, education, and age — tap to compare.
Chattanooga metro — frequently asked
- What is the median rent in the Chattanooga metro?
- Median gross rent across the Chattanooga, TN-GA Metro Area is $1,265 a month (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024). That figure covers the whole metro area, not just the city of Chattanooga.
- What is the median household income in the Chattanooga metro?
- A typical household in the Chattanooga, TN-GA Metro Area earns $75,076 a year (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024).
- Is Chattanooga expensive to live in?
- The overall cost of living in the Chattanooga, TN-GA Metro Area runs about 9% below the U.S. average (BEA Regional Price Parities, 2024) — prices are lower than average, before accounting for local pay.
- Does a paycheck go far in the Chattanooga metro?
- After adjusting for local prices, the median household income is worth about $82,083 (versus its face value of $75,076). CityLedger rates the Chattanooga, TN-GA Metro Area moderately affordable for what residents earn.
- What is the typical home value in the Chattanooga metro?
- The median home value across the Chattanooga, TN-GA Metro Area is $324,500 (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024).
- What is the unemployment rate in the Chattanooga metro?
- The unemployment rate in the Chattanooga, TN-GA Metro Area is 4.7% (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024).