Skip to content

The Data Reporter

Menu
  • Stories
    • Nashville growing, but only in patches, analysis of new Census data shows
    • Twenty-two Rutherford bridges need repairs, feds say
    • Nashville’s June unemployment lowest among state’s metro areas
    • Benghazi, deleted e-mails were key themes in critical, sometimes vulgar tweets bearing popular anti-Clinton hashtag
  • Data Visualizations
    • Growth tapering off in Metro Nashville
    • A three-year decline in the Nashville MSA unemployment rate
    • Renter demographics by tract, Rutherford County, Tennessee
    • Tracy won 4th District money race despite losing at polls
    • Accounting profs are MTSU’s best-paid faculty members
  • Maps
    • Population change in Nashville-area counties, 2013-2018
    • Nashville MSA public school demographics
    • Disrepair among Rutherford bridges
    • Trump wins TN counties by pluralities, Clinton, by majorities
    • How Rutherford Countians feel about Trump & Clinton
    • MTSU-Vandy Game Crowd Keeps Campus Police Busy
    • Which schools could MTSU’s “Regional Scholars” tuition discount lure students away from?
  • Videos
    • Nashville-area employment update, May 2017
Menu

Nashville growing, but only in patches, analysis of new Census data shows

By Ken Blake

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Nashville is growing, but most of it isn’t, the latest released Census data show as counties across the state and nation prepare for the 2020 U.S. Census count this spring.

• Davidson County grew by nearly 46,000 people between 2013 and 2018, a larger gain than any other county in Tennessee.

But most of that growth showed up in a relative handful of tracts either to the southeast, along the border with Rutherford County, or downtown. Countywide, 80 percent of tracts saw no significant change in population.

• Rutherford and neighboring Williamson County, which posted the next two largest population gains in the state, grew more uniformly, growing by nearly 37,721 and 29,713 residents, respectively. Just under half of Rutherford’s 49 tracts saw significant growth, most in the county’s western half. Growth was more evenly distributed in Williamson, where 57 percent of the county’s 37 tracts showed significant growth.

• Shelby County, long the state’s most populous county and home to Memphis, gained a modest 4,086 residents for a 2018 total of 937,005. Davidson remains the state’s second-largest county, with 684,017 residents.

The analysis was produced using figures released in December by the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey.

This interactive map shows which tracts in Davidson, Rutherford and Williamson counties have seen significant population changes.

Clicking a tract will show the tract’s estimated population for each year from 2013 to 2018, the total change in population, and the percent change in population. Maps are also available for Shelby, Knox, and Hamilton counties.

Nearly all tracts in the counties examined registered some degree of population change in the Census data. To be considered “significant,” the change had to be large enough relative to the tract’s population to meet Census guidelines for ruling out random sampling variation as a likely cause of the change.

A file containing raw data for the tracts analyzed is available for download.

Statewide, eight counties – Davidson, Rutherford, Williamson, Knox, Montgomery, Hamilton, Sumner, and Wilson – each gained more than 15,000 residents since 2013, according to the data. The ninth-ranked county, Maury, gained a notably smaller 7,995 residents, and the rest either gained fewer or lost residents. For example, Lauderdale County, on Tennessee’s western border, north of Memphis, dropped from 27,794 residents in 2013 to 26,297 in 2018. The 1,497 loss marked the largest for any county in the state during the time period.

The 2020 census count begins this spring, with households receiving invitations via mail beginning in mid-March in advance of the April 1 Census Day across the nation. For the first time ever, respondents can fill out the questionnaire online while also having the options of phone and mail. More information can be found online at www.2020census.gov.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • Reddit
  • Tumblr
  • Email
  • More
  • Print
  • LinkedIn
  • Pocket

Ken Blake

The Data Reporter demonstrates data journalism techniques I teach in reporting courses at the Middle Tennessee State University School of Journalism. Free, online, video-based tutorials covering many of these techniques are available at drkblake.com.
Follow The Data Reporter for examples of data-driven news and information relevant to people in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and the Rutherford County area. More in About The Data Reporter.

Recent Posts

  • School map
  • Renter demographics by tract, Rutherford County, Tennessee
  • Twenty-two Rutherford bridges need repairs, feds say
  • How Rutherford Countians feel about Trump & Clinton
  • Trump wins TN counties by pluralities, Clinton, by majorities

Categories

Subscribe via Email

Enter your email address to receive e-mail notifications of new posts.

©2025 The Data Reporter | Built using WordPress and Responsive Blogily theme by Superb
loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.