Top Tennessee Counties Ranked on Eight Different Criteria
Below is a series of ranking tables that compares the top 20 Tennessee counties that had the largest retail sales in 2008. The top 20 counties listed below had retail sales that were $71,443,928,487 out of a total $90,007,566,528 for all 95 counties. The entire data set can be viewed for all counties at this link: 2008 Retail Sales
Sullivan County is highlighted because of its declining population, low median wages, and young adults leaving Sullivan County. The major cities in Sullivan County are Kingsport and Bristol. Sullivan County has one of the largest private employers in the state (Eastman Chemical) and as well as the Bristol Nascar race.
The tables below will show that there are many counties that are doing much better than Sullivan County without having an Eastman Chemical or the Bristol races.
The problems as I see it have been ongoing for several decades. As an elected leader or involved in economic development, is this something that you are proud of? This blog will continue to point out the problems and if elected leaders fail to respond to the problems….at least the world will know about Sullivan County. The bottom line is that the Northeast Tennessee needs good paying jobs!!
Sullivan County has a history of being controlled by Republicans. It just might be that this may be the problem. Maybe we need Democratic leadership to get something done.
Also in Table 1 are links for the county websites. Some county web pages are well done and project a good image for the county and some are rather plain and are lacking in information such as access to public documents (minutes, etc.). You can be the judge as to which counties have the best website by clicking on the links below in Table 1.
Table 1
| Table 2
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The top 20 counties below in Table 3 had retail sales that were $71,443,928,487 out of $90,007,566,528 for all 95 counties. The entire data set can be viewed for all counties at this link: 2008 Retail Sales
Nine counties did better than Sullivan County in the Retail Sales per Person column and four of them were in East Tennessee.
Table 3
| Table 4
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Tables 5 and 6 below show the Estimated Current Property Values for the counties and shows how strong the property taxes are for a county. The property values below include industrial and commercial, residential, farms, etc.
The property vales used in table 5 were taken from the 2008 Tax Aggregate Report of Tennessee. The Estimated Current Property Value column in Table 5 includes the county and municipalities property values and are added together for one property value for the county in Table 5.
Williamson and Sevier Counties are clearly the big winners in Table 6. Washington County which does not have an Eastman Chemical but has more Property Value per Person than Sullivan County and is a smaller county in square miles.
In the above Tables 3 and 4, Bradley County rank was 17 for both retail sales and retail sales per person. In Table 6, Bradley County has a rank of 5 and would indicate a strong manufacturing base. Also Bradley County will be getting the $1 billion Wacker Chemie AG plant which will employ 500 – 600 people.
Hemlock Semiconductor Corp., plans to build a $1.2 billion facility near Clarksville (Montgomery County). That project is expected to open in 2012 and create 800 jobs.
Volkswagen plans to employ about 2,000 workers and invest about $1 billion in Chattanooga.
Eastman Chemical and the Bristol Nascar Races have been good for Sullivan County, but in my opinion the county, Kingsport, and Bristol have relied on it for far too long and have become complacent when it comes to economic development.
Table 5
| Table 6
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Sullivan County in Table 7 has the worst rank of the top 2 retail sales counties for population growth. Over an eight year period from years 2000 to 2008, Sullivan County only gained 850 in population.
Sullivan County death rate is higher than the birth rate and the county gained only 850 in population in the time span of 2000 to 2008. The gain has come from new arrivals to the area.
Sullivan County is considered one of the larger populated counties in Tennessee. In 1994, Sullivan County was the fifth most populated county. Because of the growth in other counties and the declining population in Sullivan County, the rank of Sullivan County is estimated to be 11 in year 2030
Table 7
| Table 8
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All data used in the above tables are from the links highlighted above in blue.