Haywood County vs Polk County

A side-by-side comparison of Haywood County and Polk County: population, income, housing, and more.

Haywood County and Polk County are counties in Tennessee. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Polk County has the higher population (17,702 vs 17,672 in Haywood County). Polk County has the higher median household income ($60,227 vs $43,513 in Haywood County). Polk County has the higher median home value ($136,400 vs $119,600 in Haywood County).

Population, income & housing

	Haywood County	Polk County
Population	17,672	17,702
Median age	43.1 yrs	46.2 yrs
Median household income	$43,513	$60,227
Median home value	$119,600	$136,400
Median gross rent	$725	$668
Housing units	8,247	8,856
Homeownership rate	57.3%	84.1%
Bachelor's degree or higher	13.1%	14.7%
Unemployment rate	6.6%	4.2%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Haywood County	Polk County
Population	17,623 → 17,672 (+0.3%)	16,814 → 17,702 (+5.3%)
Median household income	$37,905 → $43,513 (+14.8%)	$43,306 → $60,227 (+39.1%)
Median home value	$100,700 → $119,600 (+18.8%)	$112,700 → $136,400 (+21.0%)
Median gross rent	$651 → $725 (+11.4%)	$688 → $668 (-2.9%)

Haywood County

Population

17,62317,672

Median household income

$37,905$43,513

Median home value

$100,700$119,600

Median gross rent

$651$725

Polk County

Population

16,81417,702

Median household income

$43,306$60,227

Median home value

$112,700$136,400

Median gross rent

$688$668

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Haywood County	Polk County
Under 5	5.5%	4.6%
5 to 17	16.8%	14.5%
18 to 24	7.5%	7.2%
25 to 34	11.7%	10.9%
35 to 44	11.9%	11.2%
45 to 54	11.6%	15.0%
55 to 64	14.8%	15.8%
65 to 74	12.6%	12.4%
75 and over	7.6%	8.3%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Haywood County	Polk County
White (non-Hispanic)	42.9%	90.4%
Black or African American	50.0%	0.8%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.1%
Asian	0.1%	0.3%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.5%	0.2%
Two or more races	1.8%	6.1%
Hispanic or Latino	4.7%	2.1%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Haywood County	Polk County
No high school diploma	17.2%	14.3%
High school graduate	46.2%	38.0%
Some college or associate's	23.4%	33.0%
Bachelor's degree	8.2%	9.2%
Graduate or professional degree	4.9%	5.5%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Haywood County	Polk County
Drove alone	82.2%	80.4%
Carpooled	8.4%	9.4%
Public transit	0.0%	0.1%
Walked	1.4%	1.7%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	4.4%	8.0%
Other means	3.6%	0.5%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Haywood County	Polk County
1-unit, detached	72.0%	69.1%
1-unit, attached	2.5%	0.3%
2 to 4 units	8.4%	2.2%
5 to 19 units	4.4%	2.4%
20 or more units	0.5%	0.1%
Mobile home & other	12.2%	25.8%

Poverty & households

	Haywood County	Polk County
Poverty rate	22.8%	13.3%
Average household size	2.44	2.45
Mean commute (minutes)	27	31
Median year structure built	1977	1991