Knoxville Tennessee in Knox County is a city in the state of Tennessee. The city had a population of 182,200 in 2012, making it the state’s third largest city. Knoxville is the principal city of the Knoxville Metropolitan Statistical Area, which in 2012 had an estimated population of 848,350. As such Knoxville Tennessee has nonprofit business that support its city.
First settled in 1786, Knoxville was the first capital of Tennessee. The city struggled with geographic isolation throughout the early 19th century, but the arrival of the railroad in 1855 led to an economic boom. During the Civil War, the city and its residents had division problems over the bitterly divided secession issue. It was occupied alternately by both Confederate and Union armies. Hosting the 1982 World’s Fair helped reinvigorate the city, and revitalization initiatives.
Knoxville, the home of the flagship campus of the University of Tennessee has sports teams, called the “Volunteers” or “Vols,” who are extremely popular in the surrounding area. Knoxville is also home to the headquarters of the Tennessee Valley Authority. The Tennessee Supreme Court for East Tennessee has its courthouse in located in Knoxville. Knoxville has positioned itself in recent years as a repository of Appalachian culture, and is one of the gateways to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
After the arrival of the railroads in the 1850s, Knoxville Tennessee grew to become a major wholesaling and manufacturing center. Following the collapse of the city’s textile industry in the 1950s, Knoxville’s economy grew more diversified. In 2011, 15.9% of the Knoxville Metropolitan Statistical Area’s (MSA) work force worked for government entities. 14.1% were employed in the professional service sector, 14% worked in education or health care, 12.7% were employed in the retail sector, 10.5% worked in leisure and hospitality, and 8.9% worked in the manufacturing sector. The region had an unemployment rate of 7.9% in 2011.
In the 2010 ACCRA Cost of Living Index, Knoxville Tennessee had a rating of 89.6 (the national average was 100). Kiplinger ranked Knoxville at #5 in its list of Best Value Cities 2011 citing “college sports, the Smoky Mountains and an entrepreneurial spirit.” In April 2008, Forbes Magazine named Knoxville among the Top 10 Metropolitan Hotspots in the United States,and thus Forbes named the city among the Top 5 for Business & Careers — just behind cities like New York and Los Angeles.
Finally, 19,000 businesses were registered in Knoxville and were served by the 2,100-member Knoxville Area Chamber Partnership. The Knoxville Chamber is one of six partners in the Knoxville-Oak Ridge Innovation Valley, which promotes economic development
