2020 Census population stats for Shelby County
Shelby County remains the most populous county in Tennessee with 929,744 residents, but its population growth was largely stagnant from 2010-2020, according to results from the 2020 U.S. Census released Thursday.
In that time period, the county grew by just 2,100 people, a change of just 0.2%.
That’s compared to counties like Williamson, which grew by 65,544 residents (35.2%) and Rutherford, which grew by 78,882 residents (30%).
But Shelby County changed in other ways, namely in its demographic data, which was also released Thursday.
Shelby County remains one of the most diverse counties in the state, falling just behind Davidson County in its diversity index of 61.4% (the diversity index measures the probability that two people chosen at random will be
from different race and ethnicity groups). Tennessee as a state has a diversity index of 46.6.
Shelby County remains majority Black or African American (51.1%) with a 34.1% white population.
However, both of those populations, particularly the white population, have declined since 2010. There are 13.3% fewer white people in Shelby County since 2010 and the Black population has declined by 1.3%.
Shelby County has seen an increase in the Hispanic or Latino population, which has risen by 49.2% to make up 8.4% of Shelby County residents. It also has seen growth in the Asian population, which has grown by 31.6% to make up 3% of the population.
Nationwide, overall racial and ethnic diversity has increased since 2010, the U.S. Census Bureau found.
Katherine Burgess covers county government and religion. She can be reached at katherine.burgess@commercialappeal.com, 901-529-2799 or followed on Twitter @kathsburgess.