Recently, the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce released data on GDP growth in the Middle Tennessee Economy. This blog post explores these findings in greater detail.
The bureau of economic analysis (BEA) released figures for GDP at the metro and county level December 7th for 2022. GDP or gross domestic product is the value of the output of the goods and services produced by an economy. It’s an important indicator into how the economy is performing and is especially relevant given the rise in interest rates in recent months.
The chart above shows how the economy has performed in the last few years. GDP shrunk in 2020 due the economic shutdown brought by the pandemic and has quickly recovered.
Nashville’s economy was not as impacted by the pandemic-induced recession as much as the nation. A major strength of Nashville’s economy is its diversity which means that the impacts of national recessions are softened in the Nashville region. Recessions are shallower in Nashville and the local economy recovers relatively quickly. The evidence for this ability to absorb recessions is in the next chart.
How does Nashville’s GDP growth rank?
Looking at gross GDP, Nashville ranks 6th highest growth rate from 2021 – 2022. However, when we adjust for inflation, Nashville ranks 2nd highest in the country with metros with at least 1M in population.
Below is an interactive map of the top 50 metros and their GDP growth. Hover to see the metro areas and their GDP growth.
Tennessee Counties
When we focus on the state of Tennessee, there are 26 counties in the state that have GDP growth in the top 15%. This is the state with the third most counties in the top 15% behind Texas (38) and Georgia (36).
Nashville Area counties show robust growth.
When we think about the region, it’s easy to assume that the growth in Middle Tennessee is driven mostly by Davidson County; it is true that Nashville-Davidson is the epicenter of the economic activity in the region. However, when we dig deeper into the GDP data, we see a surprising story. Yes, Davidson County’s growth in GDP is significant and strong. Davidson County grew its real GDP by 6.9%. However, it wasn’t just Davidson that saw incredible growth. Sumner County grew by 9.1% and 4 other counties in the region grew by 5% or more (Williamson grew by 5.7%, Rutherford & Maury grew by 5.6%, and Wilson by 5.0%).
