Lafayette is a city in Macon County, Tennessee, part of the Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin, TN metro area. It has 5,727 residents. Lafayette, Tennessee has a quality-of-life score of 8 out of 100 (very low), ranking #14,372 of 15,651 US cities and towns. Within Tennessee it ranks #276 of 305 cities and towns. It ranks best on effective property tax rate (low), time spent in the emergency room (low) and income inequality (Gini index) (low). It ranks worst on mental health providers (low), preventable hospital stays (high) and arts, entertainment and recreation (low).
8Very low
Quality-of-life score
#14,372 of 15,651 cities and towns
Tennessee
#276 of 305 in TN
Population
5,727 (2020-2024)
Land area
5 mi²
Density
1,074.7 /mi²
FIPS code
4740160
Percentile-based score (100 is the best in the country) from 72 of 80 indicators, with the default “Explorer” weights.
Each category averages its indicators' percentile scores among US cities and towns.
Safety27#11,343/15,637
Economy12#13,690/15,631
Housing73#4,076/14,977
Health3#15,182/15,609
Healthcare5#14,804/15,650
Environment72#4,338/15,453
Education23#12,035/15,649
Infrastructure1#15,505/15,650
Community3#15,207/15,651
Leisure & amenities4#15,005/15,651
Strengths · Weaknesses
Indicators where Lafayette, Tennessee ranks highest and lowest among US cities and towns (score = percentile, 100 = best). Values marked “Macon 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.
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.
Cities and towns like Lafayette, Tennessee five years ago that improved
The places whose measures looked most like those of Lafayette, 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.
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).
Income
How household income is spread, not just the middle: each bar is the share of households in that income range.
Homes
Who owns and who rents, what homes cost, and what the housing stock looks like.
Getting to work
How workers travel to their job and how long it takes them.
Jobs and pay
What the largest occupations here pay, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes pay by metro area, not by county or city. The metro area page lists its largest occupations and lets you look up any job.
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.
Federal contracts performed here
Grants and other federal assistance are counted by county here, not split among cities: Lafayette is mostly in Macon County.
Over about five years, Lafayette, Tennessee improved on 4 of 14 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.
Improved4
Property tax−0.6 points0.91% → 0.35%
Effective property tax rate
0.91% → 0.35%2015-2019 → 2020-2024
−0.6 pointsBeyond the margin of error (±0.5 points)
Standing among cities and towns: 62 → 97 (0 lowest, 100 highest)
More favourable than 93% of cities and towns
Household income+67%$30,960 → $51,736
Median household income
$30,960 → $51,7362015-2019 → 2020-2024
+67%Beyond the margin of error (±$16,855)
Standing among cities and towns: 6 → 18 (0 lowest, 100 highest)
More favourable than 93% of cities and towns
Broadband+17 points64.3% → 80.9%
Broadband subscriptions
64.3% → 80.9%2015-2019 → 2020-2024
+17 pointsBeyond the margin of error (±6.6 points)
Standing among cities and towns: 9 → 10 (0 lowest, 100 highest)
More favourable than 84% of cities and towns
Bachelor's++5.9 points5.9% → 11.8%
Bachelor's degree or higher
5.9% → 11.8%2015-2019 → 2020-2024
+5.9 pointsBeyond the margin of error (±5.8 points)
Standing among cities and towns: 1 → 8 (0 lowest, 100 highest)
More favourable than 73% of cities and towns
Declined0
No measure declined by more than its margin of error.
All 14 measures
Change of every measure of Lafayette, Tennessee between two periods about five years apart
Measure
Before
After
Change
Reading
Favourable vs peers
Average commute time
27.2 min2015-2019
28.1 min2020-2024
+0.9 min
Within the margin of error
37%
Bachelor's degree or higher
5.9%2015-2019
11.8%2020-2024
+5.9 points
Improved
73%
Broadband subscriptions
64.3%2015-2019
80.9%2020-2024
+17 points
Improved
84%
Child poverty rate
42.9%2015-2019
27.7%2020-2024
−15 points
Within the margin of error
89%
Effective property tax rate
0.91%2015-2019
0.35%2020-2024
−0.6 points
Improved
93%
High school diploma or higher
75.1%2015-2019
79.5%2020-2024
+4.4 points
Within the margin of error
78%
Home price to income ratio
3.1×2015-2019
4.1×2020-2024
+1.0×
Within the margin of error
21%
Income inequality (Gini index)
0.3902015-2019
0.3472020-2024
−0.043
Within the margin of error
81%
Median household income
$30,9602015-2019
$51,7362020-2024
+67%
Improved
93%
Poverty rate
30.2%2015-2019
27.6%2020-2024
−2.6 points
Within the margin of error
67%
Public transit commuters
0.0%2015-2019
0.0%2020-2024
0 points
Within the margin of error
60%
Rent as share of income
30.2%2015-2019
27.2%2020-2024
−3 points
Within the margin of error
74%
Rent-burdened households
50.2%2015-2019
41.2%2020-2024
−9.1 points
Within the margin of error
81%
Uninsured residents (under 65)
19.5%2015-2019
14.1%2020-2024
−5.4 points
Within the margin of error
88%
“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.
For comparison, Lafayette, Tennessee itself moved +11.9 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.
Lafayette, Tennessee is represented in the 119th Congress by these members.
The Census Bureau publishes business counts by county, not by city, so these are the figures of Macon County, the county holding most of Lafayette's residents.
Macon County has 333 employer establishments, 124 for every 10,000 residents (0.50× the US rate of 248; 0.59× Tennessee's), with 3,977 paid employees at an average annual pay of $44,919. The Census Bureau also counts 2,004 nonemployer businesses, mostly sole proprietors.
Establishments
333
2,004 nonemployers
Per 10,000 residents
124
US 248 · Tennessee 210
Paid employees
3,977
Average annual pay
$44,919
US $68,342
Employer establishments, employees, average pay and nonemployers of Macon County by industry, with the density per resident against the nation
County Business Patterns (2023); Nonemployer Statistics (2024)
Per-resident figures divide by the population estimate of 2023: 26,868 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.
In FY2026, an estimated $0 of federal contract obligations were for work performed in Lafayette, Tennessee: $0 per resident (US $1,994).
Obligations
$0
Per resident
$0
US $1,994
Sole-source
—
US 30%
Single offer
—
US 8.8%
A signal is a reason to look closer, not evidence of wrongdoing: most sole-source awards are lawful and justified.
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 Lafayette, Tennessee, so they do not add up across cities.
