Federal statistical area boundaries were changed in July. The new metro areas, which are used in federal data products and for determining program eligibility, were last updated in 2018. We highlight the changes and what that means for Tennessee communities.

Urban area boundaries from the 2020 Census will be released on December 29, 2022. This decade’s criteria include a number of important changes that may results in fewer, smaller and potentially lower population areas. We look at what’s changed and how the urban area data are used.

5-year American Community Survey data straight to ArcGIS Pro maps and geodatabases. A new tool from Randy Pullen at the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Agency gets tract-level American Community Survey data directly into ArcGIS Pro.

Maps showing more detailed subcounty population change between decades aren’t very common because revisions Census Bureau’s “tracts” prevent direct comparison. Learn how we produced a nationwide made showing tract-level change last decade.

Tennessee’s proposed 2020 Public Use Microdata Area (PUMAs) boundaries were finalized and submitted to the U.S. Census Bureau in late January 2022. Feedback from Tennessee data users drove delineation of the state’s new statistical boundaries.

A new TNSDC web application shows that Tennessee’s 2020 center of population remains located near Murfreesboro in the middle part of the state following the release of updated calculations from the U.S. Census Bureau. Locations for all US states and counties from 2000 to 2020 are featured in the just released site.

Additional details on the experimental data product that will replace the 2020 American Community Survey 1-Year data are now available. A limited number of tables for the U.S. and states will be made available by November 30, 2021.

Population projections for Tennessee’s 345 cities and towns aren’t readily available. So we leveraged the Boyd Center’s county-level population projections and Census Bureau estimates to create a simple approach that can be replicated by communities across the state.

A proposal to increase the urban area population for Metropolitan Statistical Areas from 50,000 people to 100,000 people was published in January. TNSDC was among hundreds of organizations submitting a response to the Federal Register notice.

We used historic census data from the IPUMS National Historic GIS to look at some basic housing unit trends in Nashville/Davidson County including housing unit growth between 1990 and 2020 and changes to housing vacancy rates over the same period.