State of Our State

How Does Tennessee Stack Up?

ThinkTennessee’s State of Our State Dashboard is an interactive tool designed to help decisionmakers, advocates, and the public learn more about policy outcomes in Tennessee. Now in its 7th year, the dashboard includes more than 56,000 data points in an engaging and comprehensive dashboard that illustrates how Tennessee ranks nationally on 143 metrics across nine issue areas.

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This update comes during an exciting period of growth for Tennessee. In 2023, Tennessee ranked #1 in the country in GDP growth and road quality. While we are no longer ranked #1 in those categories, there are a number of rankings where Tennessee is in the top 10, including high school graduation rate (#2), road quality (#6), population growth (#8), residential electricity rates (#9), and social connectedness with neighbors (#10). There are also some indicators that should raise alarm bells, including the share of adults who are avoiding healthcare due to costs (#46), voter turnout (#47), and the share of young children not in school (#44). We hope this tool highlights the need for us to work together to preserve Tennessee’s quality of life, competitive cost of living, and ensure all Tennesseans can benefit from the state’s prosperity.

The 2025 State of Our State Dashboard represents a significant expansion of data, enhanced visuals, and increased user interactivity compared to previous iterations. Notable new features include:

  • A list of the “15 Metrics that Matter Most” for Tennesseans’ economic mobility
  • Longitudinal data (includes the three most recently available years, where available)
  • Disaggregated data (by race, gender, and age where available)
  • Metric ranks and data points for all states and DC/District of Columbia, viewable in both an interactive bar chart and map
  • Multiple prepopulated reports (by issue category and subgroup) and downloadable charts and maps

The new dashboard empowers policymakers, community advocates, and engaged Tennesseans with the data needed to make informed decisions and drive positive change in our state.

Charting Tennessee’s Prosperity: 15 Metrics that Matter Most

As the dashboard has grown to over 56,000 data points, we recognize it can be overwhelming to sift through the rankings and figure out where Tennessee is doing well and where improvement is needed. As a result, ThinkTennessee felt it was important to identify a subset of metrics that Tennesseans should be tracking to better understand how Tennessee is faring when it comes to economic mobility and access to opportunity.

Following a review of peer frameworks and academic research, ThinkTennessee has identified 15 key metrics shown to improve economic mobility. These metrics cover a range of issue areas, including overall state economic performance, the environment, health, economic opportunity, housing, infrastructure, education, and civic participation. We’ve compiled (here) the extensive research that has proven these 15 trackable outcome measures have a strong influence on economic mobility and access to opportunities. By measuring them every two years, we illuminate where Tennessee is performing well and where more resources and attention are still needed to ensure Tennesseans are thriving.

  • Currently, Tennessee is performing relatively well on a third of these key metrics, including Home Ownership (#25), Air Pollution (#26), Renter Housing Affordability (#29), and Workers Earning Living Wages (#29).
  • Some of these indicators have shown improvement. Post-High School Educational Attainment (#41) increased from 38.7% in 2019 to 41.2% in 2022 and Borrowers with Severely Delinquent Debt (#42) decreased from 18.9% (2020) to 17.7% (2022).
  • Our lowest rankings illustrate where more focused attention and intervention is needed to catch up to our peer states, such as Poverty (#42), Young Children Not in School (#44), Adults Avoiding Care Due to Cost (#46), Total Incarceration Rate (#44), and Voter Turnout in Presidential Elections (#47).

Improving these outcomes requires deliberate statewide efforts and prioritization. By providing this data resource, we aim to provide a blueprint to address the persistent challenges faced by our state’s working families.

To learn more about success stories from other states and pragmatic solutions about how Tennessee can continue to make progress in these issue areas, please visit our research page.

Note: For the sake of consistency, rankings have been standardized so low numbers always reflect positive outcomes. In other words, being ranked 1st is always better than being ranked last (e.g., 51st).

How to Use This Tool

Data in the State Dashboard can be viewed and analyzed in a variety of ways:

Compare Tennessee’s Performance Across Metrics and Levels on a Single Issue Area

By selecting one of the nine (9) issue areas from the dropdown menu, the user can compare Tennessee’s performance on the metrics associated with the issue area through its national ranking, absolute value, and positioning relative to its peer states and the U.S. state average. Additionally, users can filter Tennessee’s rankings by different demographic groups or sub-categories by selecting different options on the “View by” dropdown menu.

Compare Tennessee’s Performance on a Single Metric Through Bar Charts and Maps

Once within one of the Issue Area sections, each metric can be explored further by selecting the “Learn More” option. In the expanded version of each metric, users can view Tennessee’s performance for the metric at different levels through a bar chart or a U.S. map.

Explore Tennessee’s Performance Over Time with Longitudinal Data

In the same “Learn More” option, users can explore Tennessee’s performance over time in the given metric-level combination through the “Tennessee’s Performance Over Time” line chart. The dashboard shows up to three years of the most recent data, where available.

Collect Information on Tennessee’s Performance Across Metrics and Sub-Categories

Throughout the Dashboard, the user has the option to save and share downloadable images and PDFs.

  1. In each Issue Area section, there are downloadable reports summarizing Tennessee’s performance across all metrics in the given issue area.
  2. In the “Learn More” expanded metric view, users can download the card illustrating Tennessee’s ranking for the given metric.
  3. In the “Downloadable Reports” section, users can download any of the Issue Area reports, dedicated reports for specific demographic groups, a report including all 143 metrics, and a special report for our 15 Metrics that Matter Most.

State of Our State Dashboard Tutorial

View the video to the right for an in-depth walk-through of the dashboard’s features. We encourage you to explore the data yourself to find the information that is most valuable and useful to you.

Notes on Methodology

Metrics were compiled using publicly available data and are current as of January 2025. Where possible, we favored U.S. government data over other sources for consistency and reliability. Additional details on research methodology can be found in the Technical Documentation download on the Dashboard or by clicking the button below.

Methodology

Archive

To visit the archived 2023 version of the State of Our State Dashboard, click here.

The State of Our State Dashboard is a research product of ThinkTennessee, a nonpartisan, results-oriented research and advocacy think tank.

Research Contributors: Helen Souki Reyes, Policy Associate; Amy Gore, Policy and Research Director; Matthew Kenny, Policy Associate; and Solmin Kim, ThinkTN intern

App Design & Development: Helen Souki Reyes, Policy Associate

If you have questions about the data presented in this dashboard, its charts/maps, or the methodology used in this resource, please email us at info@thinktn.org.