Think tank’s 2026 version of the dashboard expands resource to more than 92,000 data points and provides a new economic mobility framework for Tennessee’s 95 counties
NASHVILLE – Released today by nonpartisan think tank ThinkTennessee, the 2026 State of Our Counties Dashboard is a significantly expanded and enhanced interactive tool designed to help local leaders, policymakers, and Tennesseans better understand economic well-being and opportunity across the state. This second edition of the dashboard includes more than 92,000 data points (a nearly 870% expansion of data from its original iteration) in an interactive, cross-sector, and comprehensive online dashboard that illustrates how Tennessee’s 95 counties rank across 132 metrics and nine issue areas.
“This tool is about more than accessible data – it’s about helping Tennesseans build stronger, more prosperous communities,” said Erin Hafkenschiel, president of ThinkTennessee. “By compiling interdisciplinary, robust, and longitudinal data in one place, the State of Our Counties Dashboard empowers local leaders and residents to better understand where their county’s strengths and weaknesses are at a glance, which will help leaders prioritize where to focus limited resources to create meaningful, lasting change.”
ThinkTennessee launched the State of Our Counties Dashboard for the first time in 2024 as a response to requests from leaders across the state for more localized data. The dashboard provides data and rankings in nine issue categories: economic opportunity, county economy, elections & civic life, criminal justice & courts, housing, transportation & infrastructure, education, health, and energy & environment. The 2026 iteration represents a significant expansion of data, enhanced visuals, and increased user interactivity compared to the previous version. Notable new features include:
- County and Regional data, including 9 Regional Development Districts and 18 Commuting Zones
- Longitudinal data, including the five most recent years, where available
- Disaggregated data by gender, age, and disability status, where available
- Rankings and data points for all counties, viewable in both an interactive map and bar chart
- Multiple prepopulated reports, including an updated County Overview and All-Metrics report, and downloadable charts and maps
A central focus of this update is the addition of robust regional data – one of the most requested enhancements since the dashboard first launched two years ago. Including regional data on a statewide dashboard poses many challenges: for instance, four of Tennessee’s Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) cross state lines. Instead of using MPOs, the State of Our Counties Dashboard includes data for Commuting Zones, which help us understand the economic dynamics of rural areas, and Regional Development Districts, which reflect established planning and collaboration regions across the state.
“Time and again, we heard from users across Tennessee that they wanted to better understand how their communities fit into a broader regional context,” said Erin Hafkenschiel, president of ThinkTennessee. “This new edition is responsive to that feedback in a meaningful and methodologically sound way, though we recognize the additional need to include counties from outside Tennessee’s borders for regional analysis to be even more meaningful for many of our state’s regions.”
The dashboard also incorporates ThinkTennessee’s Charting Tennessee’s Prosperity framework, which identifies 15 key metrics proven to improve economic mobility. These metrics reveal both encouraging trends and ongoing challenges across the state.
Areas of Progress:
- Poverty rates are declining: In nearly two-thirds of counties, the share of residents living below the poverty line fell between 2016–2020 and 2020–2024. The county average dropped from 14.3% to 13.4%, and one-third of counties fall below that average.
- Homeownership is up, especially in rural areas: Two-thirds of counties (66) saw homeownership rates increase between 2016–2020 and 2020–2024, with rural counties leading the trend.
- Educational attainment is rising: In 86 out of 95 counties, post-high school educational attainment increased over the past five years — rising on average from 34.6% to 38.9% (2016–2020 to 2020–2024).
- Counties outperform statewide civic engagement benchmarks: 77 out of 95 counties exceeded the statewide registered voter turnout average of 64.0% in the last presidential election. In more than half of the counties (50 out of 95), volunteering and community group membership rates exceed the statewide average of 6.7%.
Persistent Challenges:
- Rent costs are burdensome for both urban and rural residents: At least two-in-five renters (44.3%, on average) spend 30% or more of their income on housing costs, with both rural and urban counties posting higher-than-average renter cost burdens.
- Healthcare costs are a widespread burden: On average, Tennessee families spend 21.6% of their median income on healthcare costs, and residents in 74 out of 95 counties spend more than that average.
- More young children are not enrolled in early education: The share of young children not enrolled in school rose from 60.7% to 62.1% (2016–2020 to 2020–2024), and in 61 counties the share of children not in school exceeds the statewide average.
- Jail incarceration rates remain high: The average jail incarceration rate has increased from 3.65% in FY2021-22 to 3.87% in FY2024-25, and 54 out of 95 counties exceeded this average in FY2024-25.
This dashboard and the Charting Tennessee’s Prosperity framework are designed to help policymakers, community advocates, and Tennesseans identify where progress is happening and where more work remains. The Dashboard can be accessed on ThinkTennessee’s website: thinktennessee.org/state-of-our-counties.
