Tennessee vs Virginia: two economies side by side

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

SoutheastTennessee leads on 5, Virginia on 6 of 11 measures

Indicator	A · TN	B · VA	Ranks
GDP, 2025	$586.2B	$807.9B	16 · 13
Real GDP growth, 2025	+2.1%	+2.3%	21 · 18
Real growth a year since 2015	+2.9%	+2.4%	11 · 19
GDP per person	$80,137	$90,981	30 · 15
Income per person, 2025	$69,274	$80,903	32 · 12
Real income per person (2017 $)	$58,582	$61,914	25 · 15
Price level (US = 100)	91.9	101.1	38 · 16
Housing costs (US = 100)	79.1	106.8	33 · 17
Unemployment, September 2026	3.4%	3.6%	17 · 24
Population	7,315,076	8,880,107	15 · 12
Population growth a year since 2020	+1.1%	+0.56%	9 · 23

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

TennesseeVirginia

Fig. 2Unemployment rateMonthly, seasonally adjusted, since 2015

TennesseeVirginia

Industry mix, 2025

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

Industry	TN	VA	Gap, pp	Larger in
Government	9.8%	16.2%	6.4	VA
Professional services	6.4%	12.4%	6.0	VA
Manufacturing	11.6%	7.3%	4.3	TN
Health care	9.2%	6.6%	2.6	TN
Wholesale trade	7.4%	4.8%	2.5	TN
Transportation & warehousing	4.6%	2.7%	1.9	TN
Retail trade	7.2%	5.5%	1.8	TN
Accommodation & food	4.3%	2.8%	1.5	TN
Real estate	12.6%	14.1%	1.5	VA
Arts & recreation	2.0%	0.7%	1.3	TN
Management of companies	1.6%	2.6%	1.0	VA
Construction	4.1%	4.9%	0.7	VA
Information	3.8%	4.5%	0.6	VA
Administrative & waste services	3.6%	3.2%	0.4	TN
Utilities	1.3%	1.6%	0.3	VA
Education	1.0%	0.8%	0.2	TN
Agriculture	0.3%	0.3%	0.0
Other services	2.4%	2.4%	0.0
Finance & insurance	6.4%	6.4%	0.0
Mining, oil & gas	0.3%	0.3%	0.0