Mount Carmel is a city in
Hawkins County, Tennessee
Hawkins County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 census, the population was 56,721. Its county seat is Rogersville. Hawkins County is part of the Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is a component of the J ...
, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 5,429,
an increase of 634 since the 2000 census. It is part of the
, which is a component of the "
Tri-Cities" region.
History
Mount Carmel is in Hawkins County, which was once called Spencer county, and was a part of the State of Franklin. The State of Franklin comprised eight counties in western North Carolina in the late 1700s. Governed by John Sevier, it operated as an independent state for four years before it ultimately rejoined North Carolina.
Mount Carmel once garnered national attention in the mid-2000s because of a
CBS News
CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio broadcaster CBS. It is headquartered in New York City. CBS News television programs include ''CBS Evening News'', ''CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs ''CBS News Sunday Morn ...
story stating the town's geography is situated on only one side of the main highway through the area. Since then, the city has secured property on the other side of the road and has built a cemetery.
Since the 1980s, the community has faced economic hardship due to political turmoil in its government operations, and the
outsourcing
Outsourcing is a business practice in which companies use external providers to carry out business processes that would otherwise be handled internally. Outsourcing sometimes involves transferring employees and assets from one firm to another ...
of its retail and municipal services to neighboring Church Hill and Kingsport. In 2020, the city would begin discussions of connecting to either of the two cities' sewer systems following the Mount Carmel sewer plant going insolvent. Calls for Mount Carmel to
merge
Merge, merging, or merger may refer to:
Concepts
* Merge (traffic), the reduction of the number of lanes on a road
* Merge (linguistics), a basic syntactic operation in generative syntax in the Minimalist Program
* Merger (politics), the comb ...
into Kingsport or Church Hill have been raised since 2021 because of the financial instability.
Geography
Mount Carmel is located in eastern Hawkins County at (36.565666, -82.653265).
It is bordered to the east by the city of
Kingsport
Kingsport is a city in Sullivan and Hawkins counties in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It lies along the Holston River and had a population of 55,442 at the 2020 census. It is the largest city in the Kingsport–Bristol metropolitan area, w ...
and to the west by the city of
Church Hill.
U.S. Route 11W is the main highway through the town, leading east into Kingsport and southwest to
Rogersville, the Hawkins
county seat
A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...
.
According to the
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...
, Mount Carmel has a total area of , of which , or 0.11%, are water.
Demographics
2020 census
As of the
2020 United States census, there were 5,473 people, 2,184 households, and 1,614 families residing in the town.
2000 census
As of the
census
A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...
of 2000, there were 4,795 people, 1,935 households, and 1,499 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 2,078 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the town was 98.27%
White
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...
, 0.54%
African American
African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...
, 0.13%
Native American, 0.15%
Asian, 0.04%
Pacific Islander
Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...
, 0.23% from
other races, and 0.65% from two or more races.
Hispanic
The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...
or
Latino of any race were 0.58% of the population.
There were 1,935 households, out of which 31.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 67.1% were
married couples
Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...
living together, 8.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 22.5% were non-families. 20.3% of all households were made up of individuals, and 8.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.48 and the average family size was 2.84.
In the city, the population was spread out, with 22.2% under the age of 18, 6.7% from 18 to 24, 30.7% from 25 to 44, 28.4% from 45 to 64, and 12.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females, there were 92.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 94.1 males.
The median income for a household in the town was $36,599, and the median income for a family was $43,604. Males had a median income of $34,844 versus $24,340 for females. The
per capita income
Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year.
In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...
for the city was $16,702. About 5.5% of families and 9.4% of the population were below the
poverty line
The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...
, including 16.0% of those under age 18 and 16.8% of those age 65 or over.
Education
Mount Carmel has one school, Mount Carmel Elementary School, which provides teaching for pre-kindergarten through 4th grade children. The school is part of the Hawkins County School District.
Children in fifth and sixth grade attend Church Hill Intermediate School. Seventh and Eighth graders attend Church Hill Middle School. High school students attend Volunteer Comprehensive High School.
Parks and recreation
The Parks and Recreation department is a joint effort between the City of Mount Carmel with fellow Hawkins County cities of Church Hill and Surgoinsville.
[https://www.mountcarmeltn.gov/boards_commissions/board_pdfs/joint_rec.pdf ]
References
External links
*
Municipal Technical Advisory Service entry for Mount Carmel— information on local government, elections, and link to charter
{{authority control
Cities in Hawkins County, Tennessee
Cities in Tennessee
Kingsport–Bristol metropolitan area
Populated places established in 1961
1961 establishments in Tennessee