NEWS
CHART FROM CENSUS.GOV
NASHVILLE SHOWS RECORD GROWTH IN 2020 CENSUS BY RIDLEY WILLS II In recent decades it has been appropriate to measure the size of America’s largest cities by the size of their Metropolitan Statistical areas (MSAs). This is because our largest cities tend to spill over into increasingly large metropolitan areas. A striking example is the Atlanta MSA, which in 2020 sprawled over 28 counties. In Tennessee, the Nashville MSA, the state’s most heavily populated, included these 12 counties: Davidson, Cannon, Cheatham, Dickson, Macon, Maury, Rutherford, Smith, Sumner, Rutherford, Williamson and Wilson. The Memphis MSA was the second largest. In 2020, it included Fayette, Shelby and Tipton Counties in Tennes-
see; DeSoto, Marshall, Tate and Tunica in Mississippi; and Crittenton in Arkansas. Chattanooga has six counties in its MSA. They include Hamilton, Marion and Sequatchie in Tennessee; and Dade, Catoosa, and Walker County in North Georgia. The Knoxville MSA includes Anderson, Knox, Blount and Union Counties while the Clarksville MSA includes Montgomery and Stewart Counties in Tennessee and Christian and Trigg Counties in Kentucky. The largest MSA in Tennessee in 2020 was the Nashville MSA, which was the 36th largest in the country. It grew by 20.86 percent since 2010. Only two MSAs in the country that were larger than Nashville grew faster
between 2010 and 2020: the Austin, Texas, MSA, which is the 28 th largest in the country and grew by 33.04 percent and the Orlando, Fla., MSA, which is the 22nd largest in the country and grew by 25.25 percent. The five largest MSAs in the country in 2020: 1. New York City 20,140,670 6.58% 2. Los Angeles 13,206,998 2.90% 3. Chicago 9,140,000 1.66% 4. Dallas/FortWorth 7,637,387 19.96% 5. Houston 7,122,240 20.30% In Tennessee, African Americans are the largest minority group. In
the state’s five largest cities the % of African Americans citizens were as follows in 2020: 1. Memphis 64.11% 2. Chattanooga 31.36% 3. Nashville 27.14% 4. Clarksville 23.80% 5. Knoxville 17.0% The percent of people 25 years and older in Tennessee’s five largest cities who held bachelor's degrees in 2020 is also interesting. Here are those percentages: 1. Nashville 25.79% 2. Chattanooga 19.38% 3. Knoxville 19.28% 4. Clarksville 18.69%
September 29 - October 13, 2021 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE | PAGE 5
5. Memphis 15.27% The poverty rates in Tennessee’s five largest cities in 2020 were 1. Clarksville 14.50% 2. Nashville 15.09% 3. Chattanooga 17.64% 4. Knoxville 24.26% 5. Memphis 25.11% The average household incomes in Tennessee’s five largest cities in 2020 were 1. Nashville 83,348 2. Chattanooga 69,147 3. Memphis 62,588 4. Knoxville 58,801 5. Clarksville 56,295
