City · Benton County, Tennessee

Camden, Tennessee

Camden is a city in Benton County, Tennessee. It has 3,678 residents. Camden, Tennessee has a quality-of-life score of 17 out of 100 (very low), ranking #13,012 of 15,651 US cities and towns. Within Tennessee it ranks #198 of 305 cities and towns. It ranks best on homicide rate (low), effective property tax rate (low) and drinking water violations (low). It ranks worst on depression (high), mental health providers (low) and frequent mental distress (high).

17Very low

Quality-of-life score: #13,012 of 15,651 cities and towns
Tennessee: #198 of 305 in TN
Population: 3,678 (2020-2024)
Land area: 6 mi²
Density: 647.9 /mi²
FIPS code: 4710560

Percentile-based score (100 is the best in the country) from 72 of 80 indicators, with the default “Explorer” weights.

Open in the map

Scores by category

Each category averages its indicators' percentile scores among US cities and towns.

Safety59#6,467/15,637
Economy18#12,816/15,631
Housing68#4,788/14,977
Health3#15,108/15,609
Healthcare6#14,769/15,650
Environment64#5,532/15,453
Education27#11,352/15,649
Infrastructure23#12,029/15,650
Community13#13,552/15,651
Leisure & amenities16#13,211/15,651

Strengths · Weaknesses

Indicators where Camden, Tennessee ranks highest and lowest among US cities and towns (score = percentile, 100 = best). Values marked “Benton County value” are the county’s: the source publishes no figure for this city or town, and the county holding most of its residents stands in.

Strengths

Homicide rate · low0.0 /100k
94/100Tennessee 7.1 /100kUnited States 4.8 /100kMay 2025–Apr 2026Centers for Disease Control and PreventionProvisional dataBenton County value
Effective property tax rate · low0.46%
90/100Tennessee 0.52%United States 0.94%2020-2024U.S. Census Bureau Census table B25090
Drinking water violations · low0
86/100Tennessee 0United States 02024University of Wisconsin Population Health InstituteBenton County value
Students per teacher · low11.9×
84/100Tennessee 15.1×United States 15.2×2023National Center for Education StatisticsBenton County value
Average commute time · low17.0 min
84/100Tennessee 25.7 minUnited States 26.4 min2020-2024U.S. Census Bureau Census table B08013
Property crime rate · low628 /100k
82/100Tennessee 1,637 /100kUnited States 1,535 /100k2025Federal Bureau of InvestigationBenton County value

Weaknesses

Depression · high31.2%
3/100Tennessee 29.0%United States 20.7%2023Centers for Disease Control and PreventionModel-based estimate
Mental health providers · low37 /100k
3/100Tennessee 212 /100kUnited States 348 /100k2025University of Wisconsin Population Health InstituteBenton County value
Frequent mental distress · high22.6%
3/100Tennessee 22.0%United States 18.6%2023University of Wisconsin Population Health InstituteModel-based estimate
Life expectancy · low70.6 yrs
4/100Tennessee 73.8 yrsUnited States 77.6 yrs2021-2023University of Wisconsin Population Health InstituteBenton County value
Injury deaths · high148 /100k
4/100Tennessee 122 /100kUnited States 87 /100k2019-2023University of Wisconsin Population Health InstituteBenton County value
Premature death · high14,877 /100k
4/100Tennessee 11,427 /100kUnited States 8,123 /100k2021-2023University of Wisconsin Population Health InstituteBenton County value

Trends

The largest changes over about five years, next to the country's over the same periods.

Broadband subscriptionsImproving
70.9% (2015-2019) → 87.9% (2020-2024)
+17 pts5 yearsCensus table B28002US 82.7% → 91.0%
Median household incomeImproving
$30,912 (2015-2019) → $55,029 (2020-2024)
+78%5 yearsCensus table B19013US $65,712 → $81,604
Child poverty rateImproving
40.3% (2015-2019) → 30.0% (2020-2024)
−10 pts5 yearsCensus table B17001US 16.8% → 15.5%
New homes permittedWorsening
1.1 /1k (2021) → 0.8 /1k (Sep 2025–Aug 2026)
−26%5 yearsUS 5.2 /1k → 4.2 /1k
Rent-burdened householdsImproving
50.4% (2015-2019) → 46.3% (2020-2024)
−4.1 pts5 yearsCensus table B25070US 49.6% → 51.1%
Bachelor's degree or higherWorsening
16.4% (2015-2019) → 12.5% (2020-2024)
−3.9 pts5 yearsCensus table B15003US 32.1% → 35.7%

What changed in five years

How each measure moved between two periods about five years apart, read against whether more or less is better, the published margin of error and the same change in other places.

Over about five years, Camden, Tennessee improved on 3 of 13 measures with a comparison and declined on 0. 10 moved within the margin of error and 0 barely changed.

Earlier (2015-2019)
Latest (2020-2024)
Lower standingHigher standing

Position is the place's standing among cities and towns: further right is better, whichever way the measure counts.

Improved3

Household income+78%$30,912 → $55,029
Inequality−0.0910.499 → 0.408
Broadband+17 points70.9% → 87.9%

Declined0

No measure declined by more than its margin of error.

All 13 measures

Change of every measure of Camden, Tennessee between two periods about five years apart
Measure	Before	After	Change	Reading	Favourable vs peers
Average commute time	16.6 min2015-2019	17.0 min2020-2024	+0.4 min	Within the margin of error	42%
Bachelor's degree or higher	16.4%2015-2019	12.5%2020-2024	−3.9 points	Within the margin of error	9%
Broadband subscriptions	70.9%2015-2019	87.9%2020-2024	+17 points	Improved	85%
Child poverty rate	40.3%2015-2019	30.0%2020-2024	−10 points	Within the margin of error	82%
Effective property tax rate	0.71%2015-2019	0.46%2020-2024	−0.2 points	Within the margin of error	67%
High school diploma or higher	85.3%2015-2019	88.4%2020-2024	+3 points	Within the margin of error	68%
Home price to income ratio	3.1×2015-2019	2.8×2020-2024	−0.3×	Within the margin of error	88%
Income inequality (Gini index)	0.4992015-2019	0.4082020-2024	−0.091	Improved	94%
Median household income	$30,9122015-2019	$55,0292020-2024	+78%	Improved	96%
Poverty rate	23.7%2015-2019	19.8%2020-2024	−3.9 points	Within the margin of error	75%
Rent as share of income	30.5%2015-2019	29.1%2020-2024	−1.4 points	Within the margin of error	65%
Rent-burdened households	50.4%2015-2019	46.3%2020-2024	−4.1 points	Within the margin of error	69%
Uninsured residents (under 65)	7.9%2015-2019	11.3%2020-2024	+3.4 points	Within the margin of error	17%

“Against peers” compares the change with the same change in the 14640 cities and towns that have the same two periods. It describes how common a change is, not why it happened.

Sources: American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates. Values are the latest and the one five years earlier of the same publisher dataset; datasets that changed publisher in between are never compared.

Survey estimates (American Community Survey) compare the two most recent 5-year windows that do not share years, so the margin of error of the difference holds. The 2015-2019 window predates the pandemic and 2020-2024 includes it.
A change counts only when it is larger than 1.645 times the square root of the two standard errors squared, summed (a 90% margin). Measures published without a margin must change by at least 5% to count.
“Against peers” compares the change with the same change in the 15651 cities and towns that have the same two periods. It describes how common a change is, not why it happened.
Standing is a percentile among the same places: 0 is the lowest value on the measure (or the worst when lower is better), 100 the best.

Cities and towns like Camden, Tennessee five years ago that improved

The places whose measures looked most like those of Camden, Tennessee in the earlier period, ranked by how many measures improved beyond the margin of error, minus how many declined. A comparison of published data, not a forecast and not advice.

For comparison, Camden, Tennessee itself moved +13.6 points in standing on average over the same 10 measures (standings of all places average about zero).

How the ranking works

Similarity is the root-mean-square difference of standings in the earlier period over the measures most places have. Places are ranked by measures that improved beyond the margin of error minus those that declined (a count that estimation noise in small places cannot inflate), then by the mean change of standing over the measures a place has in both periods. Only places with more improvements than declines and a rise in standing are listed. Standings are relative, so a place can improve in absolute terms and still lose standing.

Who lives here

Age, race and education of residents, from the American Community Survey. Shares are of all residents (age), residents of every origin (race) or adults 25 and over (education).

Age and sex

3,678 residents (±26)

Men
Women

80 and over†
70–79†
60–69†

Income

How household income is spread, not just the middle: each bar is the share of households in that income range.

Household income

1,442 households (±146)

Camden, Tennessee
Tennessee share

Under $25k26%†379
$25k–50k23%†326
$50k–75k

Homes

Who owns and who rents, what homes cost, and what the housing stock looks like.

Owners and renters

1,442 households (±146)

Camden, Tennessee
Tennessee share

Own66%956
Rent34%486

No change since 2015–2019 is larger than the margin of error.

Table view

Getting to work

How workers travel to their job and how long it takes them.

How people get to work

1,369 workers (±208)

Camden, Tennessee
Tennessee share

Drive alone82%1,123
Carpool5.8%†80
Public transit0.0%0

Local businesses

Employer businesses and sole proprietors by industry, per resident and against the state and the nation. Counts of businesses next to counts of people, not a measure of demand.

The Census Bureau publishes business counts by county, not by city, so these are the figures of Benton County, the county holding most of Camden's residents.

Benton County has 293 employer establishments, 181 for every 10,000 residents (0.73× the US rate of 248; 0.86× Tennessee's), with 3,530 paid employees at an average annual pay of $39,026. The Census Bureau also counts 1,149 nonemployer businesses, mostly sole proprietors.

Establishments: 293; 1,149 nonemployers
Per 10,000 residents: 181; US 248 · Tennessee 210
Paid employees: 3,530
Average annual pay: $39,026; US $68,342

Employer establishments, employees, average pay and nonemployers of Benton County by industry, with the density per resident against the nation

Restaurants and other eating places	25	15.5	0.84×About typical	460	$14,167	4
Ambulatory health care services	20	12.4	0.59×Fewer than typical	284	$49,630	25
Religious organizations	17	10.5	1.90×More than typical	61	$25,049	—
Limited-service restaurants	14	8.7	1.08×About typical	309	$12,686	—
Truck transportation	12	7.4	1.47×More than typical	80	$49,038	48
Specialty trade contractors	11	6.8	0.44×Fewer than typical	163	$23,822	141
Full-service restaurants	10	6.2	0.81×About typical	148	$17,155	—
General merchandise stores	10	6.2	3.50×More than typical	289	$31,055	8
Banks and credit unions	9	5.6	1.72×Too few to compare	90	$34,589	—
Gasoline stations	9	5.6	1.72×Too few to compare	84	$23,810	—
Offices of other health practitioners	8	5	0.81×Too few to compare	47	$33,596	9
Automotive repair and maintenance	7	4.3	0.86×Too few to compare	35	$33,400	26

Rank places for an industry Open Benton County

County Business Patterns (2023); Nonemployer Statistics (2024)

Per-resident figures divide by the population estimate of 2023: 16,160 residents here, 336,755,052 in the United States. County Business Patterns counts establishments in 2023; the Nonemployer Statistics count businesses in 2024.
“More than typical” is a density at least 1.25 times the nation's per resident, “fewer” at most 0.8 times, with at least 10 establishments. It compares counts of businesses with counts of people: it says nothing about demand, incomes, size, quality or profit, and visitors and commuters are not residents.
The Census Bureau adds noise to employment and payroll to protect confidentiality, and withholds some figures: an industry with few establishments can show employees or pay as unavailable.
Industries overlap: a narrower industry (full-service restaurants) is part of a broader one (restaurants), so the rows do not add up.
Industries follow the North American Industry Classification System; the two surveys use different editions (NAICS 2017 and 2022), which this page matches industry by industry.

Federal contracts performed here

In FY2026, an estimated $645 of federal contract obligations were for work performed in Camden, Tennessee: $0.18 per resident (US $1,994).

Obligations: $645; −96% vs FY2025
Per resident: $0.18; US $1,994
Sole-source: 100%; US 30%
Single offer: 0.0%; US 8.8%

A signal is a reason to look closer, not evidence of wrongdoing: most sole-source awards are lawful and justified.

Top buying agencies

Department of Veterans Affairs$43567%
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service$21133%

Top recipients

CAMDEN OPERATOR, LLC$43567%
THOMPSON MACHINERY COMMERCE CORPORATION$21133%

Spending by fiscal year

51.6KFY2017
34.1KFY2018
31.6KFY2019
9.5KFY2020
25.4KFY2021
21.5KFY2022
16.9KFY2023
4.6KFY2024

Top industries (NAICS)

Source: Federal contract transactions (Federal Procurement Data System) (U.S. Department of the Treasury, USAspending.gov), data current to Oct 3, 2026, loaded Oct 3, 2026.

How this is estimated

Agencies report each contract action's place of performance as a county and a ZIP code. A ZIP code's money is split among the cities it covers by the share of its land inside each (Census 2020 ZIP code tabulation areas); the part outside city limits stays with the county.

The place of performance is what the contracting agency reports, often the contractor's office rather than where the work happens.
Shares are of land, not of people or businesses: a ZIP code that is mostly rural land but has its offices in town gives the town less than it should.
ZIP codes that are not mapped areas (post office boxes, the unique ZIP codes of large federal sites and companies) stay with their county, unless one city covers nearly all of it.
Counts of actions and awards include those only partly in Camden, Tennessee, so they do not add up across cities.

Camden, Tennessee's figures are part of those of Benton County, TN ($16.7K in FY2026), never added to them: 3.9% of that total.

Grants and other federal assistance are counted by county here, not split among cities: Camden is mostly in Benton County.

See federal money in Benton County

Representation in Congress

Members serving today, with their record in the current Congress (party-unity votes cast with their caucus, roll calls missed). Not a grade.

Camden, Tennessee is split between congressional districts: each representative is shown with the share of its residents in their district (current boundaries).

House

Senate

County

A city can lie in several counties. Some indicators are published for counties only: the page marks them.

Benton County15100% of residents

Other cities and towns in Benton County

Largest first.

Similar cities and towns

Closest indicator profiles across the country (no model: score distances).

Data and sources

Latest published value of each indicator; periods differ by source. Values flagged by their publisher are marked.

PLACES: Local Data for Better HealthCenters for Disease Control and Prevention · release 2025
Local Area Unemployment StatisticsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics · release 2025
American Community Survey 5-Year EstimatesU.S. Census Bureau · release 2017-2024
Building Permits SurveyU.S. Census Bureau · release 2026-08
Population Estimates ProgramU.S. Census Bureau · release 2025
Small Area Health Insurance EstimatesU.S. Census Bureau · release 2024
Small Area Income and Poverty EstimatesU.S. Census Bureau · release 2024
County Health Rankings & RoadmapsUniversity of Wisconsin Population Health Institute · release 2022-2025+2026-03-supplement

JSON · /api/v1/places/4710560

Scores by category

Strengths · Weaknesses

Strengths

Weaknesses

Trends