ZIP code 37861

ZIP 37861 is a mid-size town in Grainger County, Tennessee, with 8,578 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #229 of 638 ranked by population — larger than 64% of them. The median age here is 47.4 years against 39.1 nationally, a markedly older profile that usually tracks retirees staying put and younger households leaving for work. Places under 65,000 residents only appear in the five-year release, never the one-year file, so these values pool sixty months of responses and lag the current year by design.

Households in ZIP 37861 earn a median of $53,797 a year, 31.5% below the national figure of $78,538. The median is the midpoint household, not an average, so a handful of very high earners cannot drag it upward the way they distort a mean. Poverty reaches 15.9% of residents here, above the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in ZIP 37861 is valued at $202,200, 33.4% below the national figure, while median gross rent runs $634 a month, 54.9% below the national figure, or roughly $7,608 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 14.1% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is cheap relative to what people here earn. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 3.8×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is easier here than in the average US market. 82% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, an owner-dominated market where rental listings are scarce and rent medians rest on a thin sample. Gross rent folds in the utilities a tenant pays separately, so it is closer to the real monthly outlay than a headline rent figure.

All values below were released by the Census for this exact geography, with no gap-filling on our side. Small-area estimates still carry wider margins of error than state or national figures, so check the linked ACS tables before relying on them for lending, appraisal or legal work.

ZIP 37861 is tabulated inside Grainger County, Tennessee, one of 6 ZIP areas the Census publishes for that county and 638 across Tennessee. Population sits in the small-town band, typically one main street plus the addresses that feed into it. County assignment on this page follows the largest share of the ZIP's land area, which matters where a delivery route crosses a county line: mail addressed to 37861 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 37861 reports a median household income of $53,797, 3% above the $52,120 county median, and 9% below the $59,143 typical TN ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $202,200, 25% above the county figure and 4% above the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $634 a month, which is why it reads higher than the advertised rent on a listing for the same unit.

Tennessee charges 7% statewide, and local governments overlapping 37861 may add county, city or special-district levies on top. We publish the state floor for this ZIP rather than guessing a combined figure, because ZIP boundaries and taxing-district boundaries were drawn for different purposes and do not line up.

Everything above comes from the Census Bureau American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates for this ZIP Code Tabulation Area, with sales tax rates traced to the state revenue agency. Five-year estimates pool sixty months of responses, so they are stable enough to compare 37861 with its neighbours but always trail the current year, and any value the Census suppressed for sample size is shown as unpublished rather than filled in with a model.