Unpopular opinion: Tennessee isn’t always No. 1, contrary to what its residents believe in their heart of hearts.
While Tennessee’s economy might be faring well, in other areas – such as education, health care and crime – the Volunteer State isn’t doing as well.
There are countless websites and reports that measure where we stand as a state + we’ve rounded up details to see how Tennessee compares. 👇
Let’s start with the good news.
✅ Bright spots
From a 2019 US News & World Report (rankings out of 50), which used data from McKinsey Global Institute:
- #1 in Fiscal Stability
- #12 in Economy
- #13 in Infrastructure
- Compared to 2018, Tennessee improved in fiscal stability, jumping from #5 to #1.
- Infrastructure also got better, moving up two spots from #15 to #13.
And now for the bad news.
Tennessee comes in low in these categories. 👇
✅ Areas that need improvement
- #26 in opportunity to succeed
- #35 in education
- #43 in health care
- #43 in crime & corrections
In 2018, Tennessee ranked #28 for education – so we’ve dipped down seven spots.
Last year, we ranked #43 in both health care and crime, so while we didn’t fall any spots, we also didn’t make improvements, based on these metrics.
✅ More rankings
- In other reports, Tennessee consistently ranks as a great place to retire.
- WalletHub ranked Tennessee as the fifth most sinful state.
- Tennessee ranks as a leader in the auto industry.
- WalletHub ranked Tennessee #23 on its list of 2019’s Most Fun States in America.
- Tennessee ranked in the top 5 for highest variety of arts, entertainment, and recreation establishments.
Check out this link for additional rankings.
