Haywood County vs Wayne County

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

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

Haywood County has the higher population (17,672 vs 16,251 in Wayne County). Wayne County has the higher median household income ($52,824 vs $43,513 in Haywood County). Wayne County has the higher median home value ($126,600 vs $119,600 in Haywood County).

Population, income & housing

	Haywood County	Wayne County
Population	17,672	16,251
Median age	43.1 yrs	44.3 yrs
Median household income	$43,513	$52,824
Median home value	$119,600	$126,600
Median gross rent	$725	$619
Housing units	8,247	7,205
Homeownership rate	57.3%	81.5%
Bachelor's degree or higher	13.1%	12.5%
Unemployment rate	6.6%	3.8%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Haywood County	Wayne County
Population	17,623 → 17,672 (+0.3%)	16,693 → 16,251 (-2.6%)
Median household income	$37,905 → $43,513 (+14.8%)	$41,427 → $52,824 (+27.5%)
Median home value	$100,700 → $119,600 (+18.8%)	$95,200 → $126,600 (+33.0%)
Median gross rent	$651 → $725 (+11.4%)	$560 → $619 (+10.5%)

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

Wayne County

Population

16,69316,251

Median household income

$41,427$52,824

Median home value

$95,200$126,600

Median gross rent

$560$619

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Haywood County	Wayne County
Under 5	5.5%	3.8%
5 to 17	16.8%	13.4%
18 to 24	7.5%	6.9%
25 to 34	11.7%	13.7%
35 to 44	11.9%	13.7%
45 to 54	11.6%	14.8%
55 to 64	14.8%	14.4%
65 to 74	12.6%	11.4%
75 and over	7.6%	7.9%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Haywood County	Wayne County
White (non-Hispanic)	42.9%	88.7%
Black or African American	50.0%	4.2%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.1%
Asian	0.1%	0.1%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.2%
Some other race	0.5%	0.1%
Two or more races	1.8%	4.1%
Hispanic or Latino	4.7%	2.6%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Haywood County	Wayne County
No high school diploma	17.2%	16.5%
High school graduate	46.2%	46.1%
Some college or associate's	23.4%	24.9%
Bachelor's degree	8.2%	8.4%
Graduate or professional degree	4.9%	4.1%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Haywood County	Wayne County
Drove alone	82.2%	82.9%
Carpooled	8.4%	7.3%
Public transit	0.0%	0.2%
Walked	1.4%	0.1%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.1%
Worked from home	4.4%	8.9%
Other means	3.6%	0.5%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Haywood County	Wayne County
1-unit, detached	72.0%	70.2%
1-unit, attached	2.5%	0.5%
2 to 4 units	8.4%	2.7%
5 to 19 units	4.4%	1.2%
20 or more units	0.5%	0.8%
Mobile home & other	12.2%	24.5%

Poverty & households

	Haywood County	Wayne County
Poverty rate	22.8%	18.5%
Average household size	2.44	2.51
Mean commute (minutes)	27	31
Median year structure built	1977	1981