Advanced manufacturing
Plastics, metals, automotive supply and specialty fabrication anchor the county's largest private employers.
Roane ECD · Data & Demographics
The numbers behindthe decision
Population, labor shed, wages, taxes and training capacity — the Roane County data a site selector actually needs, in one place.
- 58,030
- County population
- 400k+
- Workers in the labor shed
- 20%
- Below national cost of living
- 0%
- State personal income tax
Population & households
A county of 58,030 that lives like a region of a million.
Roane County sits at the center of the Knoxville–Oak Ridge metro area, so its day-to-day economy is far larger than its residency suggests. Families here get small-town cost and pace with metropolitan healthcare, retail, research and airport access inside a half-hour drive.
Steady household formation, a working-age median and a strong homeownership rate give employers a stable, rooted labor base rather than a transient one.
- 58,030
- Roane County population
- 38.6
- Median age
- 23,600
- Households
- 2.35
- Average household size
Labor shed
Hire from a metro, not just a county.
Draw an hour circle around a Roane County site and you capture Knoxville, Oak Ridge, Crossville, Lenoir City and Harriman — more than 400,000 working people, including one of the densest concentrations of scientists, engineers and technicians in the Southeast.
That reach, paired with wage rates below coastal and Midwest peers, is why manufacturers and energy firms consistently pencil out favorably here.
- 30k+
- Workers within 30 minutes
- 400k+
- Workers within 60 minutes
- 1M+
- Residents within 50 miles
- 75%
- Of U.S. population within a day's drive
Employment base
Six sectors carry the local economy
Diversification is the story: no single employer dominates, and the mix of industrial, technical and service work keeps the county resilient through national cycles.
Nuclear & energy
Decades of Oak Ridge adjacency built a workforce fluent in nuclear services, decommissioning and energy technology.
Healthcare
Regional hospitals, clinics and senior-care providers make health services one of the steadiest employment bases.
Logistics & distribution
Eight I-40 exits and I-75 proximity support carriers, warehousing and third-party logistics operators.
Education & research
Roane State, TCAT and the Oak Ridge research corridor employ thousands and feed the technical pipeline.
Retail & small business
A daytime population well above residency keeps main-street retail and services in demand.
Cost & tax climate
Tennessee keeps more of it on your ledger
No state personal income tax, a flat 6.5% excise tax on net earnings and a franchise tax of 25 cents per $100 of capital property. Combined with utility rates and real estate costs below the national average, operating expense in Roane County lands materially under comparable metro locations.
- 6.5%
- TN corporate excise tax
- 7%
- State sales tax
- $0.25
- Franchise tax per $100 of capital
- 20%
- Below the national COL index
Talent pipeline
Training built around what employers actually hire for
Roane County's education partners build and rebuild curriculum with local industry at the table — from high-school work-based learning through short-cycle technical credentials and two-year degrees.
Roane State Community College
8,000+ students across 100+ programs of study, with campuses and centers throughout the region.
Tennessee College of Applied Technology
Industrial maintenance, welding, machining and mechatronics — short-cycle credentials aligned to employer demand.
Education Matters
K-12 to career pathway alignment, work-based learning and employer partnerships across every district.
Tennessee Promise & Reconnect
Tuition-free community and technical college for graduating seniors and returning adults statewide.
Quality of life
The numbers people relocate for
Wages that stretch further, housing within reach, and 700 miles of shoreline and tens of thousands of protected acres out the back door.
- $61,000
- Median household income
- $228k
- Median home value
- 700+
- Miles of lakefront shoreline
- 56k+
- Acres of public recreation land
Need the data cut a different way?
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