Charleston vs McDonald

A side-by-side comparison of Charleston and McDonald: population, income, housing, and more.

Charleston and McDonald are places in Tennessee. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Charleston has the higher population (816 vs 541 in McDonald). Charleston has the higher median household income ($72,208 vs $56,492 in McDonald). Charleston has the higher median home value ($185,000 vs $180,900 in McDonald).

Population, income & housing

	Charleston	McDonald
Population	816	541
Median age	48.6 yrs	51.1 yrs
Median household income	$72,208	$56,492
Median home value	$185,000	$180,900
Median gross rent	$871	—
Housing units	419	247
Homeownership rate	78.9%	83.8%
Bachelor's degree or higher	9.6%	30.3%
Unemployment rate	1.6%	9.6%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Charleston	McDonald
Population	745 → 816 (+9.5%)	478 → 541 (+13.2%)
Median household income	$53,125 → $72,208 (+35.9%)	$80,964 → $56,492 (-30.2%)
Median home value	$122,400 → $185,000 (+51.1%)	$253,800 → $180,900 (-28.7%)
Median gross rent	$688 → $871 (+26.6%)	—

Charleston

Population

745816

Median household income

$53,125$72,208

Median home value

$122,400$185,000

Median gross rent

$688$871

McDonald

Population

478541

Median household income

$80,964$56,492

Median home value

$253,800$180,900

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Charleston	McDonald
Under 5	4.5%	2.8%
5 to 17	8.5%	6.1%
18 to 24	5.3%	10.7%
25 to 34	18.4%	2.6%
35 to 44	8.1%	11.5%
45 to 54	14.5%	33.6%
55 to 64	27.1%	11.6%
65 to 74	7.7%	17.6%
75 and over	6.0%	3.5%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Charleston	McDonald
White (non-Hispanic)	74.4%	89.5%
Black or African American	13.8%	0.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.0%
Asian	0.5%	3.1%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	1.5%	7.4%
Two or more races	6.9%	0.0%
Hispanic or Latino	2.8%	0.0%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Charleston	McDonald
No high school diploma	9.4%	4.6%
High school graduate	48.3%	44.1%
Some college or associate's	32.7%	20.9%
Bachelor's degree	4.6%	19.3%
Graduate or professional degree	4.9%	11.0%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Charleston	McDonald
Drove alone	87.4%	86.9%
Carpooled	9.7%	5.9%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	0.0%	2.1%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	2.8%	5.1%
Other means	0.0%	0.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Charleston	McDonald
1-unit, detached	79.2%	98.0%
1-unit, attached	1.0%	0.0%
2 to 4 units	11.2%	0.0%
5 to 19 units	0.2%	0.0%
20 or more units	0.0%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	8.4%	2.0%

Poverty & households

	Charleston	McDonald
Poverty rate	7.0%	3.9%
Average household size	2.30	2.19
Mean commute (minutes)	26	20
Median year structure built	1990	1953