State of Our State

How Does Tennessee Stack Up?

Now in its fifth year, ThinkTennessee’s State of Our State dashboard provides an at-a-glance look at how our state ranks nationally across more than 100 of the indicators that matter most.

Watch our new video for a preview of the recent findings.

WATCH: ThinkTN 2021 Dashboard Video

While Covid-19 certainly disrupted the well-being of Tennessee’s communities, many of the challenges we see today existed long before March 2020. The 2021 dashboard rankings paint a picture of how our state was doing on the eve of the pandemic and point to the long-term solutions still needed to move Tennessee, and the people who call it home, forward.

Covid-19 put many Tennesseans’ health in peril. But the damage it caused, and the changes it forced, went far beyond the physical. From unleashing an economic recession that compounded the financial burdens many Tennessee families already faced, to requiring children to engage in distance learning and leaving parents to figure out the logistics, to changing the means through which many Tennesseans cast their ballots, the pandemic impacted nearly every aspect of our daily lives.

Now, as businesses reopen and life begins to return to normal, policymakers’ attention must turn from mitigating the disaster to undoing the harm it has caused so many. To do that, our policy interventions must shift from the short- to the long-term, building our communities, our economies and our election system back stronger than they were before.

Interested in ideas about how to move our state forward? Our research shares success stories from other states and includes pragmatic recommendations about how Tennessee can continue to make progress.

Note: For the sake of consistency, rankings have been standardized so low numbers always reflect positive outcomes. In other words, being ranked first is always better than being ranked 50th. Additional detail on research methodology can be found below the rankings.

High School Graduation

Public School Teacher Salary

Adults Without a High School Diploma

Public Library Funding

Student Loan Debt

Student-Teacher Ratio

Black Fourth-Grade Reading Proficiency

Black Post-High School Educational Attainment

Fourth-Grade Reading Proficiency

Hispanic/Latino Fourth-Grade Reading Proficiency

Hispanic/Latino Post-High School Educational Attainment

Post-High School Educational Attainment

Young Children Not in School

Notes on Methodology:

Metrics were compiled using publicly available data and are current as of Jan. 31, 2021. Where possible, we favored U.S. government data over other sources for consistency and reliability.

Some debt- and voting-related indicators will be updated throughout the year as newer information becomes available.