MONEY

Nashville economy officially tops $100B mark

Lance Williams
lwilliams@tennessean.com

The Nashville area's economy officially crossed the $100 billion mark in 2013, marking a new benchmark for local growth.

The new $100 billion mark was measured by the region's gross domestic product, which is the monetary value of all the finished goods and services produced within the Nashville metro area in 2013.

A new report, released by the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis, ranks Nashville as the nation's 34th- largest economy.

Nashville finished just behind Columbus, Ohio (No. 30); Orlando, Fla. (No. 31); Sacramento, Calif. (No. 32); and Austin, Texas (No. 33).

It finished just ahead of San Antonio (No. 35) and Milwaukee (No. 36).

For perspective, the largest metro economy is New York City at $1.4 trillion annually.

In 2013, the Nashville economy grew 3.6 percent. The rate was more than double the growth rate for metro areas throughout the country.

Since 2008, the region's economy has grown by 23 percent, improving from 2008's total of $820 million annually.

According to the federal study, the fastest-growing industries in Nashville since 2008 have been finance, insurance and real estate (49 percent growth); education and health care (33.5 percent); and professional and business services (30.9 percent).