KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Over the course of a single year, the Tennessee State Data Center said Knox County saw some of the state's largest increases in population.
The data center is a part of the University of Tennessee Boyd Center for Business and Economic Research and provides access to demographic and economic data. In total, they said Tennessee's population added around 83,000 people in 2022.
Rutherford County, near Nashville, saw the largest jump in population with an increase of around 9,400 people from 2021 to 2022. In that same timeframe, they said Knox County's population had the second-largest increase with 7,762 more people in the area.
They said most of those people moved to Knox County from other locations across the U.S. with 7,490 "domestic migrants."
They said that Davidson County and Shelby County, which include Nashville and Memphis, both saw more people leave the counties than move into them. In Knox County, more people moved in than left.
Other East Tennessee counties also saw an increase in population. Blount County added 2,309 people and Loudon County added 1,509 people. Anderson County also added 1,346 people.
The population of Shelby County fell over that timeframe, falling by 6,981 people. Sevier County's population also fell by around 646 people, according to the data center.
Hamilton County also saw a large increase in population, adding 5,655 people.