Tennessee’s Best and Worst Cities Rankings
Here are the 361 U.S. metropolitan areas that Kiplinger’s Personal Finance considered for its list of Best Cities: It’s All About Jobs. See where your city ranks by sorting our criteria. The Cost of Living Index is based on 100 being the national average. To learn more about the creative class, click here. Salary Growth is the increase in household income from 2004 to 2008. Employment Growth is the growth in jobs on a per capita basis from 2000 to 2007. (Source: Kevin Stolarick of the Martin Prosperity Institute)
Click on the following link to see all 361 U.S. metropolitan areas . Full City Rankings 2009
Best and Worst Cities in Tennessee
Below is data for Tennessee metropolitan areas that has been extracted from the list of 361 cities.
The data for a given column below that is highlighted in Green is the best for the Tennessee metropolitan areas mentioned below. If the data is in Red, then that metropolitan area has the lowest or worst data for the metropolitan areas below.
The rank is stated below within parenthesis ( ) and shows the rank as compared for all 361 U.S. metropolitan areas. A rank of 1 would be the best and a rank of 361 would be the worst
In the table below, we can see that the Kingsport area has the highest cost of living, the lowest household income, and the worst job growth.
|
Metro Area |
Population |
Cost of Living Index |
Percentage of Workforce in Creative Class % |
Median Household Income $ |
Salary Growth % |
Job Growth % |
| Johnson City, TN | 191,320 | 88 | 26.8 | $36,853 (337) |
4.2 (313) |
1.45 (153) |
| Morristown, TN | 132,267 | 88 | 20.2 | $37,368 (331) |
2.8 (341) |
1.30 (166) |
| Jackson, TN | 111,893 | 90 | 27.4 | $38,352 (323) |
12.5 (21) |
1.08 (208) |
| Cleveland, TN | 109,555 | 91 | 22.3 | $38,605 (318) |
6.4 (230) |
1.47 (151) |
| Chattanooga, TN-GA | 508,031 | 88 | 30 | $42,801 (245) |
5.5 (277) |
1.36 (105) |
| Memphis, TN-MS-AR | 1,269,637 | 86 | 26.7 | $44,495 (210) |
5.4 (279) |
1.18 (186) |
| Knoxville, TN | 669,962 | 89 | 29.8 | $44,511 (208) |
6.5 (224) |
1.50 (145) |
| Clarksville, TN-KY | 255,401 | 88 | 24 | $44,531 (206) |
7.2 (192) |
2.47 (54) |
| Nashville-Davidson–Murfreesboro–Franklin,TN | 1,486,442 | 88 | 29.4 | $49,979 (110) |
6.5 (222) |
2.10 (85) |
| Kingsport-Bristol-Bristol, TN-VA | 301,803 | 100 | 24.6 | $36,017 (347) |
6.2 (246) |
0.38 (304) |
Those are horrible numbers for Kingsport, but it shouldn’t surprise anyone that lives here. When Kingsport BMA’s only plan for job growth in the city is to spend another 15 million dollars of tax payer money on a cement pond to go along with the other city failures at Meadow View. Until the BMA corrects its anti-jobs mindset these number will continually get worse.The people always gets the government they deserve. How does it taste so far Kingsport? I have lived in several cities, but this city government is the most Socialist I have seen. The BMA should concentrate on bringing jobs to this area or they should resign.