by Jon Styf
The metropolitan area that stretches between Nashville, Murfreesboro and Franklin added more than 17,000 residents to cross the threshold of 2 million residents, according to data the U.S. Census Bureau released this week.
The information included more detailed data from its annual population estimates, recording changes in headcount from July 1, 2020, to July 1, 2021.
The Nashville-Murfreesboro-Franklin area went from 1,995,343 residents in 2020 to 2,012,476 in 2021.
More than 73% of counties in the U.S. experienced a natural decrease in population over the year, meaning more deaths than births occurred.
“The patterns we’ve observed in domestic migration shifted in 2021,” said Dr. Christine Hartley, assistant division chief for estimates and projections in the U.S. Census Bureau’s Population Division. “Even though over time we’ve seen a higher number of counties with natural decrease and net international migration continuing to decline, in the past year, the contribution of domestic migration counteracted these trends so there were actually more counties growing than losing population.”
Overall, Tennessee was estimated as growing from 6.92 million in population to 6.98 million.
Davidson County’s population dropped from 715,486 to 703,953 in the new estimates. Williamson County grew from 249,424 to 255,735, and Rutherford County grew from 343,128 to 352,182.
Rutherford County added the most residents year-over-year, followed by Montgomery, Knox, Williamson and Wilson counties.
Montgomery County grew from 221,160 to 227,900 over the year, while Knox County went from 480,126 to 486,677, Hamilton County went from 366,991 to 369,135 and Wilson County went from 158,564 to 151,917.
– – –
Jon Styf is an award-winning editor and reporter who has worked in Illinois, Texas, Wisconsin, Florida and Michigan in local newsrooms over the past 20 years, working for The Center Square, Shaw Media, Hearst and several other companies.
Photo “Nashville, Tennessee” by Derrick Brutel. CC BY-SA 2.0.
