Nashville Population Demographic Change 2010-2020

Nashville Tennessee has seen an astronomic increase in population over the last decade. There are many positive side effects to this increase. Downtown Nashville is exploding with art, live music, shopping, and cuisine. However, this has also caused a major rift in the racial division of the city along with a sharp uptick in homelessness and daily traffic time. The schooling system has also taken a major hit in its ability to be accessible to all income demographics equally. The civil engineering disciplines of transportation, housing, and environmental sustainability of Nashville are being significantly over-utilized and strained. This study will cover the increase in population, change in racial demographic, and schooling accessibility within Davidson County, specifically downtown Nashville.

As seen by the map below, Downtown Nashville has the most dramatic population density of all of Davidson County. While much of the county lies in the 1% to 25% percent change in population density, Nashville ranges from 101-140%. This higher range is concerning for many reasons, but the main factor is that it causes housing shortages and overcrowding. Moving forward in the presentation, we will compare the percent change groups to the different demographics that populate Nashville.

The graph on the left shows the uptick in the population of Nashville from 1800-2021. The graph takes a large leap in the 1960s from ~150,000 to ~400,000. From then on, the population continued to increase at a fast rate.

The map above divides the earlier map into the census blocks and neighborhoods. It shows how populated the different census blocks are per square mile. This further showcases the density issues in the Downtown area.

When downtown cities become popular in the public eye and overpopulated, companies search for properties wherever they can find them. Oftentimes this means redlining important historical communities away from their homes and into new areas that become underfunded and not given proper educational resources. Below is a breakdown of all the racial demographics and their population, and poverty rates.

The highest poverty rates are that of the Islander, Asian, Hispanic, and Black population. While populations like the Pacific Islanders are low in number, thus skewed in the poverty rate in proportion to other demographics, the injustice of downtown growth is better highlighted by comparing the White and Black populations, which are closer in number. The poverty rate of the White population, the primary group moving into the city, is 9.85% while the Black population is at a startling 21.96%.

The red line represents the growth in the white population from 2010 to 2020 census. This is in keeping with the flight into the city as increased in popularity due to the music scene and nightlife.

The blue line represents the growth, or lack thereof, in the Black population. This is evidence of the primary demographic overcrowding the city is that of the White population.

The orange line is also worth noting. The Hispanic population has seen greater slope in their growth over the past 10 years. While the number of people is still significantly lower than that of the White population, it's interesting to note their growth rate.

The next section discusses the education options depending on neighborhood and the demographics that inhabit them.

Using the slide-bar, it's easy to see that the Black population of Davidson County is primarily living north of Downtown Nashville, while the White demographic is primarily south and in the center of downtown. The legend, which can be accessed in the bottom left hand corner, shows the different types of schools;

1. Metro Public Schools
2. Headstart
3. Private Schools
4. University / College

There are more Public and Headstart schools available north of downtown than south. There are only a handful of private schools available to the neighborhoods with a higher Black concentration. Inversely, the census blocks with a higher White population density have more options and more private schools. Likewise, there are far more colleges within the range of the White demographic.

This presentation has exhibited the housing, educational, and racial divided caused by the exponential increase in the population of Downtown Nashville. All data was sourced either through the National Public Census Data or through pre-assembled spatial data from ESRI.com.

https://www.census.gov/

https://www.hotels.com/go/usa/couples-things-to-do-nashville

https://www.arcgis.com/home/user.html?user=Nashville

https://www.nashville.gov/departments/planning/mapping-and-gis