Alabama vs Tennessee: two economies side by side

Alabama and Tennessee share a border. Here are the two economies on the same measures, with the rank of each among 51 states and DC.

SoutheastAlabama leads on 2, Tennessee on 9 of 11 measures

Indicator	A · AL	B · TN	Ranks
GDP, 2025	$339.0B	$586.2B	27 · 16
Real GDP growth, 2025	+2.0%	+2.1%	25 · 21
Real growth a year since 2015	+2.2%	+2.9%	22 · 11
GDP per person	$65,286	$80,137	48 · 30
Income per person, 2025	$59,754	$69,274	49 · 32
Real income per person (2017 $)	$52,216	$58,582	48 · 25
Price level (US = 100)	88.8	91.9	45 · 38
Housing costs (US = 100)	61.8	79.1	48 · 33
Unemployment, September 2026	3.5%	3.4%	18 · 17
Population	5,193,088	7,315,076	24 · 15
Population growth a year since 2020	+0.63%	+1.1%	20 · 9

Highlighted: the higher value, or the lower one for prices and unemployment. BEA (GDP, income, price parities), BLS (unemployment).

Fig. 1Real GDP, index 2015 = 100Chained 2017 dollars

AlabamaTennessee

Fig. 2Unemployment rateMonthly, seasonally adjusted, since 2015

AlabamaTennessee

Industry mix, 2025

Share of each state’s GDP. Sorted by the gap between the two.

Industry	AL	TN	Gap, pp	Larger in
Government	15.5%	9.8%	5.7	AL
Manufacturing	14.6%	11.6%	3.0	AL
Health care	7.0%	9.2%	2.2	TN
Transportation & warehousing	2.6%	4.6%	2.0	TN
Information	2.2%	3.8%	1.6	TN
Arts & recreation	0.4%	2.0%	1.6	TN
Utilities	2.9%	1.3%	1.6	AL
Accommodation & food	3.0%	4.3%	1.3	TN
Administrative & waste services	2.6%	3.6%	1.0	TN
Wholesale trade	6.4%	7.4%	1.0	TN
Management of companies	0.9%	1.6%	0.7	TN
Construction	4.8%	4.1%	0.7	AL
Mining, oil & gas	0.9%	0.3%	0.7	AL
Agriculture	1.0%	0.3%	0.6	AL
Education	0.5%	1.0%	0.5	TN
Real estate	12.2%	12.6%	0.5	TN
Finance & insurance	6.6%	6.4%	0.3	AL
Retail trade	7.0%	7.2%	0.2	TN
Professional services	6.6%	6.4%	0.1	AL
Other services	2.4%	2.4%	0.0