Assets
Can you deliver the power, water, and connectivity we need? Can you deliver the people? Can we get product in and out? Will the people we relocate here be willing to stay? This page answers those questions for Overton County.
Location and Transportation
Overton County sits in the Upper Cumberland region of Middle Tennessee, roughly twenty miles north of Cookeville and Interstate 40, positioned between Nashville and Knoxville and within reach of Chattanooga, which places a business here inside a day's drive of a substantial share of the United States population while keeping the cost structure of a rural county.
Interstate 40 access: 20 miles
Nashville: approximately 90 miles
Knoxville: approximately 107 miles
Nashville International Airport (BNA): approximately 94 miles
Local aviation: Livingston Municipal Airport (FAA identifier 8A3) is a city-owned public-use airport two miles northeast of Livingston, with a single asphalt runway designated 3/21 measuring 5,152 by 75 feet and rated in good condition, medium-intensity runway edge lighting, runway end identifier lights on both ends, a two-light PAPI on Runway 21, and published RNAV (GPS) instrument approaches to both runway ends. The field carries 100LL and Jet A available around the clock through self-service credit card fueling, offers both hangar and tiedown storage, and has AWOS-3 weather on 126.175. The airport is attended Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., with after-hours service available through the airport manager.
State routes: State Routes 52, 84, 85, 111, and 136 serve the county, with SR 111 functioning as the primary north-south corridor connecting Livingston south to Interstate 40 at Cookeville.
Motor freight: Twelve motor freight carriers serve the county, with one terminal facility located here.
Rail: No rail service in the county.
Navigable water: The Cumberland River provides a nine-foot channel, with the nearest port facility at Gainesboro roughly 24 miles away.
Utilities and Infrastructure
Electric: Upper Cumberland Electric Membership Corporation distributes power throughout both the city and the county, drawing from the Tennessee Valley Authority. The local district office is at 320 Celina Highway in Livingston.
Natural gas: The City of Livingston is the local distributor, with supply provided by Symmetry Energy Solutions. Three fuel oil suppliers and four LP gas suppliers also serve the county.
Water: The City of Livingston operates the water system, drawing from the Cumberland River, which has been the primary source since August 2009. The treatment plant is designed for 4.0 million gallons per day, and the system holds 4.5 million gallons of finished water storage.
Wastewater: The City of Livingston operates the collection system and the domestic wastewater treatment plant, which uses an activated sludge process.
Broadband: Twin Lakes Telephone Cooperative operates a fiber network reaching essentially the entire county, with business service tiers at 600 Mbps, 1 Gig, 5 Gig, and 8 Gig, all symmetrical. Comcast provides cable service reaching speeds up to 1.2 Gbps within its footprint, which covers a portion of the city. Fiber availability at this level is unusual for a county of this size and is one of the stronger arguments the county can make.
Solid waste and industrial services: The county operates a recycling center and convenience center system for municipal solid waste.
Industrial support services available locally include tool and die, heat treating, foundry work, sheet metal, welding supplies, and lubricants, with heavy hardware and abrasives available in Cookeville within roughly sixteen miles.
Workforce
County population: 23,787, 2025 Census estimate, reflecting 5.7% growth since the 2020 Census
Regional labor draw: 125,072 residents age sixteen and older within a forty-five-minute drive of Livingston, of whom 63,762 are employed
County labor force: 19,103 residents age sixteen and older, with 9,791 employed and 298 unemployed, producing a county unemployment rate of 3.0 percent against 4.3 percent for the wider labor market area
Median age: 44.4 years
Educational attainment: 82.8 percent of adults twenty-five and older hold a high school diploma or higher, 20.9 percent hold a postsecondary degree, and 15.0 percent hold a bachelor's degree or higher
Manufacturing employment and wages: 34 manufacturing establishments employing an annual average of 953 workers, at an average weekly wage of $1,035, which works out to roughly $53,800 annually
Employment by industry: Manufacturing accounts for 17.2 percent of employment, well above the national share, with services at 42.6 percent, retail trade at 10.5 percent, transportation and utilities at 7.4 percent, and construction at 7.4 percent
The county's workforce is anchored by a manufacturing tradition that goes back generations, and it is supplied by TCAT Livingston, by career and technical education programs at Livingston Academy, and by Vol State Community College and Tennessee Tech University within commuting distance.
Education
Overton County Schools serves the county's K-12 population across seven schools with 2,802 students and 179 classroom teachers, producing a sixteen-to-one student-teacher ratio and a 93.8 percent graduation rate, with Livingston Academy as the county high school and a career and technical education program that produces industry-credentialed graduates.
TCAT Livingston provides technical certificates and diplomas across eighteen fields of study, along with customized employer training, and operates a main campus in Livingston supported by an extension site and two instructional centers housing its power line construction and diesel technology programs.
Tennessee Tech University in Cookeville and Vol State Community College, which maintains a presence in Livingston itself, provide four-year and two-year pathways within commuting distance, along with research and technical assistance capacity including the Tennessee Center for Rural Innovation.
FastTrack Job Training Assistance is available for qualifying projects.
Healthcare
Livingston Regional Hospital is a 114-bed facility serving a seven-county primary care area, with more than 350 staff, approximately 75,000 square feet on campus and more than 20,000 additional square feet off campus. The hospital has served our community for over half a century and remains one of the county's largest employers. The county is additionally served four clinics, a 125-bed nursing home, and three assisted living facilities with 65 beds combined.
Financial Institutions
Overton County is served by five banking institutions operating six offices, with combined countywide deposits of approximately $621 million as of June 30, 2025, up from $557 million two years earlier. Local decision-making authority matters in a rural market, and it is a genuine advantage here.
Quality of Life
The reason people stay in Overton County, and the reason relocated employees tend to stop looking elsewhere, is a combination that is hard to assemble anywhere else.
Dale Hollow Lake reaches into the northern end of the county and is regarded as one of the clearest lakes in the eastern United States, with marinas, campgrounds, and the largest federal trout hatchery east of the Mississippi River.
Standing Stone State Park protects 855 acres surrounding a 69-acre lake, adjoined by an 11,000-acre state forest, with hiking, camping, cabins, and a swimming pool.
The Cumberland Plateau rises to the south, and the county's rural landscape supports hunting, fishing, riding, and a working agricultural economy.
Downtown Livingston offers a historic courthouse square that has anchored community life since the 1800s, a city park, an outdoor performance stage, local restaurants and retail, and a calendar of community events.
Cost of living in Overton County runs meaningfully below both state and national averages, and housing costs in particular remain within reach of the wages paid here, with a median home value of $173,200 and a median gross rent of $832 according to recent Census estimates.
Taxes and Incentives
State corporate excise tax: 6.5 percent of Tennessee taxable income
State franchise tax: 0.25 percent of apportioned net worth, with a minimum tax of $100. The alternative property measure was repealed for tax years ending on or after January 1, 2024, so the tax is now computed on net worth alone.
Local property tax rate, Overton County: $1.3373 per $100 of assessed value, 2025
Local property tax rate, City of Livingston: $1.1396 per $100 of assessed value, 2025
Assessment ratios: 40 percent for commercial and industrial real property, 30 percent for personal property and equipment, and 25 percent for residential and farm property
Sales tax, combined: 9.50 percent, consisting of the 7 percent state rate and a 2.50 percent local rate, with food and food ingredients taxed at 4 percent at the state level
No state personal income tax
Available incentive tools include state FastTrack grants, tax increment financing, PILOT arrangements, Opportunity Zone treatment, and federal rural development programs. Overton County carries an At-Risk economic status designation from the Appalachian Regional Commission, which increases both the value of the Tennessee Job Tax Credit and the job-creation thresholds a project must meet to claim it, and also improves the county's position for federal and state grant programs that weigh economic distress. The standard Job Tax Credit is $4,500 per qualified job against franchise and excise liability, with enhanced credits layered on top for counties in the higher enhancement tiers.
Additional tools worth naming include the state and local sales tax exemption on industrial machinery, the sales tax exemption on qualified warehouse and distribution equipment, the reduced state sales tax rate on utilities at qualified manufacturing facilities, and the Tennessee Department of Transportation's State Industrial Access program, which funds highway access improvements for new and expanding industry.
Talk to Us
Contact Zach Stephens, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Livingston/Overton County Chamber of Commerce at (931) 823-6421 or zach@overtonco.com.