Nashville’s suburb, Rutherford County, saw pop of 44-percent in population
Factors that weigh in
Randy Gustafson, director of the Tennessee State Data Center at the University of Tennessee, attributes the boom to the county’s proximity to the state capital 30 minutes north.
County Mayor Ernest Burgess has another view: “We attribute it to the great quality of life in Rutherford County and the great economic opportunities and the opportunity for people to raise their children and send them to excellent schools.
“You don’t have to go out of the county to shop, to find a great restaurant. People like us because we have all these great amenities and we’re still not a major city.”
He says people are drawn by employment opportunities at places such as the Nissan plant in Smyrna and by the education options offered by Middle Tennessee State University.
Tennessee stats for other cities and communities
Nashville, in the center of such growing suburbs, saw a healthy 10% growth in the past decade, a trend also fueled by a rise in immigrant labor and international refugees.
Memphis, the state’s largest city, saw a 0.5% decline.
Overall, Tennessee’s population grew 11.5% to 6,346,105. “The suburban counties that are like a donut around the big cities in Tennessee, especially Nashville, are the ones that show the most growth,” Gustafson says.
Among other large counties, Shelby grew 3% to 927,644, Knox 13% to 432,226 and Hamilton 9% to 336,463. Gustafson said that growth was powered by people moving inward from other parts of the state and outward from the cities.
There were declines in 117 cities. “A lot of those are really small,” Gustafson says. “Most of them are around 1,000 people or less, and they’re mostly rural areas. In some respect, the decline is due to an aging population that doesn’t have as many children.”
The Volunteer State’s expansion was driven largely by immigrants. Tennessee’s Hispanic population grew faster than any other group — 134% to 290,059 — more than doubling to almost 5% of the population.
Resources
# Tennessee local county, city data
# Interactive map shows your state, county, locality census numbers
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Source: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/census/2011-03-17-tennessee-census_N.htm
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