City · Greene County, Tennessee

Tusculum, Tennessee

Tusculum is a city in Greene County, Tennessee, part of the Greeneville, TN metro area. It has 3,337 residents. Tusculum, Tennessee has a quality-of-life score of 40 out of 100 (low), ranking #9,392 of 15,651 US cities and towns. Within Tennessee it ranks #60 of 305 cities and towns. It ranks best on rent as share of income (low), effective property tax rate (low) and homicide rate (low). It ranks worst on drug overdose deaths (high), injury deaths (high) and depression (high).

40Low

Quality-of-life score: #9,392 of 15,651 cities and towns
Tennessee: #60 of 305 in TN
Population: 3,337 (2020-2024)
Land area: 5 mi²
Density: 686.4 /mi²
FIPS code: 4775560

Percentile-based score (100 is the best in the country) from 73 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.

Safety40#9,457/15,637
Economy46#8,468/15,631
Housing94#952/14,977
Health15#13,249/15,609
Healthcare19#12,621/15,650
Environment98#264/15,453
Education54#7,156/15,649
Infrastructure51#7,680/15,650
Community6#14,745/15,651
Leisure & amenities15#13,275/15,651

Strengths · Weaknesses

Indicators where Tusculum, Tennessee ranks highest and lowest among US cities and towns (score = percentile, 100 = best). Values marked “Greene 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

Rent as share of income · low15.9%
98/100Tennessee 29.5%United States 30.6%2020-2024U.S. Census Bureau Census table B25071
Effective property tax rate · low0.36%
95/100Tennessee 0.52%United States 0.94%2020-2024U.S. Census Bureau Census table B25090
Homicide rate · low0.0 /100k
94/100Tennessee 7.1 /100kUnited States 4.8 /100kMay 2025–Apr 2026Centers for Disease Control and PreventionProvisional dataGreene County value
Natural hazard risk · low4.8
92/100Tennessee 37.82025Federal Emergency Management AgencyGreene County value
Mammography screening · high54.0%
88/100Tennessee 46.0%United States 46.0%2023University of Wisconsin Population Health InstituteGreene County value
Rent-burdened households · low9.6%
86/100Tennessee 48.8%United States 51.1%2020-2024U.S. Census Bureau Census table B25070High uncertainty

Weaknesses

Drug overdose deaths · high37.2 /100k
5/100Tennessee 27.1 /100kUnited States 18.4 /100kMar 2025–Feb 2026Centers for Disease Control and PreventionProvisional dataGreene County value
Injury deaths · high143 /100k
5/100Tennessee 122 /100kUnited States 87 /100k2019-2023University of Wisconsin Population Health InstituteGreene County value
Depression · high29.3%
5/100Tennessee 29.0%United States 20.7%2023Centers for Disease Control and PreventionModel-based estimate
Life expectancy · low71.8 yrs
7/100Tennessee 73.8 yrsUnited States 77.6 yrs2021-2023University of Wisconsin Population Health InstituteGreene County value
Premature death · high13,507 /100k
7/100Tennessee 11,427 /100kUnited States 8,123 /100k2021-2023University of Wisconsin Population Health InstituteGreene County value
Hospital quality rating · low2.0
9/100Tennessee 3.1United States 3.2Jul 2026Centers for Medicare & Medicaid ServicesGreene County value

Trends

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

PopulationRising
2,726 (2015-2019) → 3,337 (2020-2024)
+22%5 yearsCensus table B01003US 328,329,953 → 340,003,797
Rent-burdened householdsImproving
61.3% (2015-2019) → 9.6% (2020-2024)
−52 pts5 yearsCensus table B25070US 49.6% → 51.1%
Rent as share of incomeImproving
42.5% (2015-2019) → 15.9% (2020-2024)
−27 pts5 yearsCensus table B25071US 29.8% → 30.6%
Child poverty rateImproving
18.3% (2015-2019) → 0.0% (2020-2024)
−18 pts5 yearsCensus table B17001US 16.8% → 15.5%
Broadband subscriptionsImproving
76.4% (2015-2019) → 88.1% (2020-2024)
+12 pts5 yearsCensus table B28002US 82.7% → 91.0%
Bachelor's degree or higherImproving
28.2% (2015-2019) → 39.3% (2020-2024)
+11 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, Tusculum, Tennessee improved on 2 of 10 measures with a comparison and declined on 0. 8 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.

Improved2

Rent / income−27 points42.5% → 15.9%
Bachelor's++11 points28.2% → 39.3%

Declined0

No measure declined by more than its margin of error.

All 10 measures

Change of every measure of Tusculum, Tennessee between two periods about five years apart
Measure	Before	After	Change	Reading	Favourable vs peers
Average commute time	15.8 min2015-2019	19.7 min2020-2024	+3.9 min	Within the margin of error	15%
Bachelor's degree or higher	28.2%2015-2019	39.3%2020-2024	+11 points	Improved	92%
Broadband subscriptions	76.4%2015-2019	88.1%2020-2024	+12 points	Within the margin of error	68%
Effective property tax rate	0.46%2015-2019	0.36%2020-2024	−0.1 points	Within the margin of error	35%
High school diploma or higher	86.9%2015-2019	95.8%2020-2024	+8.9 points	Within the margin of error	94%
Home price to income ratio	3.4×2015-2019	3.8×2020-2024	+0.4×	Within the margin of error	54%
Income inequality (Gini index)	0.4932015-2019	0.4142020-2024	−0.079	Within the margin of error	92%
Median household income	$61,2502015-2019	$70,6942020-2024	+15%	Within the margin of error	24%
Rent as share of income	42.5%2015-2019	15.9%2020-2024	−27 points	Improved	100%
Uninsured residents (under 65)	9.4%2015-2019	14.8%2020-2024	+5.4 points	Within the margin of error	9%

“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 Tusculum, Tennessee five years ago that improved

The places whose measures looked most like those of Tusculum, 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, Tusculum, Tennessee itself moved +19.4 points in standing on average over the same 9 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

3,337 residents (±18)

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

1,083 households (±135)

Tusculum, Tennessee
Tennessee share

Under $25k12%†132
$25k–50k20%†221
$50k–75k

Homes

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

Owners and renters

1,083 households (±135)

Tusculum, Tennessee
Tennessee share

Own88%954
Rent12%†129

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

† Wide margin of error (more than 30% of the estimate): read with care.

Table view

Getting to work

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

How people get to work

1,327 workers (±167)

Tusculum, Tennessee
Tennessee share

Drive alone72%957
Carpool7.0%†93
Public transit1.0%†13

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.

Pay in the Greeneville, TN

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 Greene County, the county holding most of Tusculum's residents.

Greene County has 1,257 employer establishments, 173 for every 10,000 residents (0.70× the US rate of 248; 0.83× Tennessee's), with 23,957 paid employees at an average annual pay of $46,881. The Census Bureau also counts 5,044 nonemployer businesses, mostly sole proprietors.

Establishments: 1,257; 5,044 nonemployers
Per 10,000 residents: 173; US 248 · Tennessee 210
Paid employees: 23,957
Average annual pay: $46,881; US $68,342

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

Restaurants and other eating places	112	15.4	0.84×About typical	2,076	$18,341	28
Ambulatory health care services	98	13.5	0.65×Fewer than typical	980	$53,218	144
Specialty trade contractors	84	11.6	0.75×Fewer than typical	524	$52,286	649
Limited-service restaurants	58	8	1.00×About typical	1,448	$17,842	5
Religious organizations	58	8	1.44×More than typical	345	$19,412	—
Gasoline stations	52	7.2	2.21×More than typical	459	$25,168	—
Full-service restaurants	44	6.1	0.79×Fewer than typical	553	$19,984	14
Lessors of real estate	38	5.2	0.43×Fewer than typical	184	$40,897	331
Offices of physicians	33	4.6	0.70×Fewer than typical	250	$67,152	31
Services to buildings and dwellings	33	4.6	0.67×Fewer than typical	164	$33,524	505
Automotive repair and maintenance	30	4.1	0.82×About typical	169	$49,515	79
Truck transportation	29	4	0.79×Fewer than typical	2,096	$67,085	146

Rank places for an industry Open Greene County

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

Per-resident figures divide by the population estimate of 2023: 72,518 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 $8,184 of federal contract obligations were for work performed in Tusculum, Tennessee: $2.45 per resident (US $1,994).

Obligations: $8,184; −99% vs FY2025
Per resident: $2.45; US $1,994
Sole-source: 0.0%; US 30%
Single offer: 51%; 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

Federal Bureau of Investigation$2,51531%
Defense Logistics Agency$2,20927%
United States Mint$2,10126%
Agricultural Research Service$1,36017%

Top recipients

Spending by fiscal year

3.6MFY2017
3.4MFY2018
3.1MFY2019
3.8MFY2020
3.8MFY2021
3.8MFY2022
2.7MFY2023
2M

Top industries (NAICS)

Navigational, measuring, electromedical, and control instruments manufacturing · 3345$3,87447%
Nonferrous metal (except aluminum) production and processing · 3314$2,16426%
Aerospace product and parts manufacturing · 3364$1,41017%
Spring and wire product manufacturing · 3326$1,18715%
Other textile product mills · 3149$7018.6%
Fishing · 1141$610

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 Tusculum, Tennessee, so they do not add up across cities.

Tusculum, Tennessee's figures are part of those of Greene County, TN ($3.8M in FY2026), never added to them: 0.2% of that total.

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

See federal money in Greene 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.

Tusculum, Tennessee is represented in the 119th Congress by these members.

House

Diana HarshbargerR-TN-1 · 100% of residentsWith party 99%Missed 1.3%

Senate

Explore Congress The 2026 races

County

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

Greene County25100% of residents

Metro area

The metro or micro area the city belongs to.

Greeneville, TN19

Other cities and towns in Greene 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/4775560

Scores by category

Strengths · Weaknesses

Strengths

Weaknesses

Trends