Knoxville, TN
Knoxville, TN Metro Area
Figures are medians for the whole Knoxville, TN Metro Area, not the city proper.
Among the 300 U.S. metros CityLedger tracks, Knoxville ranks 151st for affordability — how far a typical paycheck stretches after local prices — and 167th for income. A household earns $74,184 a year while median rent runs $1,219/mo, making it moderately affordable for what residents earn. Affordability and price level are different lenses: the raw cost of living here runs 7% below the U.S. average.
Its strongest card is job market (37th of 300), while air quality is the soft spot (248th). Housing usually decides a move: rent ranks 139th and home prices 185th 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 Knoxville, your take-home is worth about $66,235 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
- 167th of 300↑31%$74,184
- 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.
- 100th of 30093 (US=100)
- Cost-adj. income?Median household income divided by the local price level — what the typical paycheck is really worth here.
- $80,139
- Per-capita income
- $41,725
- Full-time pay
- $43,934
Housing
- Median rent
- 139th of 300↑39.8%$1,219/mo
- Home value
- 185th of 300↑88%$351,400
- Property tax
- $1,300/yr · 0.4%
- Sales tax
- 9.56%
Jobs & education
- Unemployment
- 37th of 3003.1%
- Bachelor's+
- 139th of 30034.2%
- Avg commute
- 170th of 30024.7 min
People
- Population
- 957,376
- Population change
- +10.1%
- Median age
- 40.6 yrs
- Foreign-born
- 5%
- Broadband
- 92.4%
Environment & risk
- Air quality (AQI)
- 248th of 30052
- Natural-hazard loss
- 121st of 300$11/$10k
Health
- Fair/poor health
- 205th of 30020.3%
- Uninsured (18–64)
- 11%
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
- + Job market
Watch-outs
- – Air quality
- – Health
Climate
30-year normals (1991–2020) from the nearest station — oak ridge atdd.
What jobs pay in Knoxville
Median annual wage by occupation (BLS OEWS 2025) — half of workers in each role earn more, half less.
- Family medicine physicians
- $460,080
- IT managers
- $143,650
- Financial managers
- $133,570
- Pharmacists
- $132,460
- Lawyers
- $126,520
- Software developers
- $121,750
- General & operations managers
- $104,590
- Civil engineers
- $96,320
- Web developers
- $80,710
- Registered nurses
- $77,240
- Accountants & auditors
- $75,380
- Secondary school teachers
- $63,130
- Elementary school teachers
- $61,980
- Plumbers
- $59,860
- Truck drivers (heavy)
- $59,100
- Electricians
- $58,640
- Police officers
- $56,380
- Carpenters
- $50,400
- Maintenance & repair workers
- $46,170
- Construction laborers
- $46,130
- Customer service reps
- $38,840
- Janitors
- $31,200
- Retail salespersons
- $31,150
- Cashiers
- $29,110
- Waiters & waitresses
- $28,100
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 Knoxville 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.
- Florida3,444
- California2,179
- Georgia1,933
- Texas1,498
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2022 Migration Flows (5-year).
Cities like Knoxville
Closest matches across cost, income, size, education, and age — tap to compare.
Knoxville metro — frequently asked
- What is the median rent in the Knoxville metro?
- Median gross rent across the Knoxville, TN Metro Area is $1,219 a month (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024). That figure covers the whole metro area, not just the city of Knoxville.
- What is the median household income in the Knoxville metro?
- A typical household in the Knoxville, TN Metro Area earns $74,184 a year (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024).
- Is Knoxville expensive to live in?
- The overall cost of living in the Knoxville, TN Metro Area runs about 7% 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 Knoxville metro?
- After adjusting for local prices, the median household income is worth about $80,139 (versus its face value of $74,184). CityLedger rates the Knoxville, TN Metro Area moderately affordable for what residents earn.
- What is the typical home value in the Knoxville metro?
- The median home value across the Knoxville, TN Metro Area is $351,400 (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024).
- What is the unemployment rate in the Knoxville metro?
- The unemployment rate in the Knoxville, TN Metro Area is 3.1% (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024).