Talk to any long-time Chattanooga local, and the top complaint you’re most likely to hear about the direction of the region is that we’re simply growing too fast — out of control, even. But there’s a question that needs asking: Is this true?
In recent years, local elected officials have alluded to the affirmative. In two different meetings with the Chattanooga Times Free Press in 2023, city Mayor Tim Kelly said he often hears talk of Chattanooga being “Austin 30 years ago.”
Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp talks often about the rapid growth of the county, particularly in the eastern part, in areas like Ooltewah and Collegedale.
But reality depicts a more sobering picture, one in which the growth is by no means rapid or even out of the ordinary in terms of population upticks.
Since 2020, U.S. Census data show that the population in the Chattanooga metro area — which makes up Hamilton as well as five counties adjacent in both Tennessee and Georgia — has grown by about 3%. That’s about a 1% annual increase in population.