Another notable thing is that Gatlinburg is a major vacation destination. Much of the city’s population is seasonal: many people own second homes and only live there part-time, during the vacation season. The effect on the local economy is that many of the businesses are dependent on tourist dollars, and may operate only during the high season. As the vacation season ends, Gatlinburg’s population drops significantly, such that year-round residents will notice that the city is a much quieter place to live.
The city is relatively quiet, having a combination of lower population density and few of those groups of people who have a tendency to be noisy. For example, Gatlinburg has relatively fewer families with younger children, and/or college students. Combined, this makes Gatlinburg a pretty quiet place to live overall. If you like quiet, you will probably enjoy it here.
Compared to the rest of the country, citizens of Gatlinburg spend much less time in their cars: on average, their commute to work is only 18.29 minutes. This also means that noise and pollution levels in the city are less than they would otherwise be.
For a small city, Gatlinburg has a lot of people who use public transit to get to work, and those that do mostly ride taxis. This suggests that a real need for low-cost transportation in Gatlinburg exists, and local transit is helping to meet that need.
The overall education level of Gatlinburg is somewhat higher than in the average US city of 21.84%: 28.34% of adults 25 and older in the city have at least a bachelor's degree.
The per capita income in Gatlinburg in 2018 was $27,682, which is middle income relative to Tennessee, and lower middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $110,728 for a family of four. However, Gatlinburg contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
Gatlinburg is a very ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Gatlinburg home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Gatlinburg residents report their race to be White, followed by Asian. Gatlinburg also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 12.90% of the city’s residents. Important ancestries of people in Gatlinburg include English, German, Scottish, Irish, and Scots-Irish.
Foreign born people are also an important part of Gatlinburg's cultural character, accounting for 17.16% of the city’s population.
The most common language spoken in Gatlinburg is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Chinese.
