Income, Health Insurance, Housing, and Education Measures in Tennessee’s Counties

by Rod Williams, Jan. 23, 2026- I love data. Being a student of political science and economics and having worked in a field where I had to work with data in securing grants, and simply caring about facts, and being analytical by nature, I like exploring data and seeing where it leads me. I also simply like knowing stuff.

I like fact-based arguments. It is not that two people cannot look at the same data and draw different conclusions, but at least when conclusions are based on data, there is a rational basis for one's opinion. It seems that more and more people take the view that an uninformed opinion is as valid as an informed opinion. Sadly, it seems, we are living in a post-truth era in which fewer people base their opinions on facts. In fact, it seems that often fact-based views are suspect, and a shared prejudice is more persuasive than a fact-driven opinion.

If you like data, The Sycamore Institute has released a treasure trove of data about Tennessee gleaned from analysis of U.S Census data. It is searchable and easy to use. One can look at poverty rates, homeownership rates, public assistance rates, housing cost-burdened rates, education levels, and much more, and compare them across grand divisions, or counties, or urban vs rural, and look at data broken down within these comparisons by age groups or other factors. 

Here is some information I found insightful:

Income by County: It varies greatly, and that is not a great surprise but interesting. 

• Williamson County, with a median household income of $131,202 is the county with the highest median household income in the state.
• Lake County, with a median household income of $30,500 is the county with the lowest.
• Davidson County's median household income is $75,664.
• Shelby County's median household income is $62,337
• Knox County's median household income is $71,662
• Hamilton County's is $72,568

Education:

• Williamson County is the most educated county in the state, with 61.8% of the people over the age of 25 having at least a bachelor's degree.
• In Hancock County, only 8.6% of the people over the age of 25 have a bachelor's degree. 

Homeownership rates: Having spent most of my career working in the field of promoting homeownership, I was surprised to find the rate of homeownership as high as it is. Also, this is one area that surprised me. There is not as much variation county to county of this measure as in other measures. Also, there is no noticeable correlation with education or income. 

• Van Buren County has the highest rate of  household homeownership at 84.7%
• Lake County has the lowest rate of homeownership at 45.3%
• Davidson County has a household homeownership rate of 53.4%
• Shelby County has a household homeownership rate of 54.6%

 

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