The white population in America declined last year, according to the latest Census Bureau estimates. But, in Nashville’s metropolitan area, it surged more than anywhere else in the country.
“Yes, the Nashville demographics are changing,” said Shirley Rainey-Brown, a sociologist and the dean of Fisk University’s School of Humanities and Behavioral sciences.
Across America in 2023, the Census counted more than 195 million white people (or 195,432,584 people, exactly) — down nearly half a million, or 0.2%, from the year before. That accounts for just over half the total U.S. population of about 334 million people.
Overall, the country’s population grew by 1.64 million people. Nearly three quarters of that growth came from the Hispanic population, where births outnumbered deaths by a wide margin.
The greater Nashville metropolitan area, however, saw the country’s largest growth in its white population, which increased by 16,858 people, according to the Census.
The Nashville metro area, which in the Census calculation includes Davidson County, Murfreesboro and Franklin, had a total population of about 2.1 million people in 2023, up more than 31,000 people from the year before.
“We are seeing an influx of whites over other minorities, and I think it has to do with the type of jobs and industries that are coming here,” Rainey-Brown said.
More companies around Nashville, Rainey-Brown said, need to recruit minority applicants to increase the area’s diversity.
The California connection
Tennessee has recently seen an influx of people from California, which could also explain the growing white population, said Ken Chilton, a professor of public administration at Tennessee State University.
“A lot of people who are cashing out of California and are selling their homes there for a lot of money are coming here,” Chilton said.
Nashville has been a main Tennessee destination for emigrating Californians, but Chattanooga has also seen an influx from the state, Chilton said.
While real-estate prices in Nashville have climbed, they are still a bargain compared to California. The median home price in California this year was $942,000, while in the Nashville metro area it was $575,000, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
Politics have also driven some conservative leaning Californians to Tennessee.
“We’ve had a lot of California political refugees from Orange County and some of those places,” Chilton said.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: California could be cause for influx of white Tennessee residents
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