Mississippi vs Tennessee: two economies side by side

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

SoutheastMississippi leads on 3, Tennessee on 8 of 11 measures

Indicator	A · MS	B · TN	Ranks
GDP, 2025	$162.8B	$586.2B	37 · 16
Real GDP growth, 2025	+1.3%	+2.1%	40 · 21
Real growth a year since 2015	+1.2%	+2.9%	41 · 11
GDP per person	$55,117	$80,137	51 · 30
Income per person, 2025	$54,433	$69,274	51 · 32
Real income per person (2017 $)	$48,465	$58,582	51 · 25
Price level (US = 100)	87.0	91.9	50 · 38
Housing costs (US = 100)	56.5	79.1	50 · 33
Unemployment, September 2026	3.3%	3.4%	13 · 17
Population	2,954,160	7,315,076	35 · 15
Population growth a year since 2020	−0.03%	+1.1%	45 · 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

MississippiTennessee

Fig. 2Unemployment rateMonthly, seasonally adjusted, since 2015

MississippiTennessee

Industry mix, 2025

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

Industry	MS	TN	Gap, pp	Larger in
Government	16.0%	9.8%	6.2	MS
Manufacturing	14.9%	11.6%	3.3	MS
Professional services	3.7%	6.4%	2.7	TN
Wholesale trade	5.3%	7.4%	2.1	TN
Information	1.7%	3.8%	2.1	TN
Utilities	3.1%	1.3%	1.8	MS
Health care	7.6%	9.2%	1.5	TN
Agriculture	1.8%	0.3%	1.5	MS
Arts & recreation	0.6%	2.0%	1.5	TN
Retail trade	8.2%	7.2%	1.0	MS
Administrative & waste services	2.8%	3.6%	0.8	TN
Transportation & warehousing	4.0%	4.6%	0.6	TN
Management of companies	1.1%	1.6%	0.5	TN
Finance & insurance	5.9%	6.4%	0.5	TN
Accommodation & food	3.9%	4.3%	0.4	TN
Construction	3.7%	4.1%	0.4	TN
Education	0.6%	1.0%	0.3	TN
Real estate	12.3%	12.6%	0.3	TN
Mining, oil & gas	0.5%	0.3%	0.2	MS
Other services	2.2%	2.4%	0.2	TN