Nashville—“Best Place to Live” and “America’s Friendliest City”

Quality of life comes to the top of the list for many corporations who have relocated their corporate headquarters to Nashville and Williamson County. Nashville recently ranked among “America’s Top 100 Places to Live for 2010” on the RelocateAmerica.com listing and Men’s Journal’s “Best Place to Live in 2010.”  In 2009, Business Facilities ranked Nashville # 1 in Quality of Life, #6 in Best Cost of Living and #9 in Economic Growth Potential.

Nashville’s own brand of Southern hospitality has earned the city the designation as “America’s Friendliest City” in 2009 by Travel + Leisure magazine.

The Nashville area offers entertainment attractions known around the world, two major-league sports teams, an extensive park system offering a variety of activities, and so much more. The Nashville Convention & Visitors Bureau is a resource to folks from all over the world wanting information on the entertainment possibilities as well a convention and leisure opportunities.

Metropolitan Nashville/Davidson County and the Middle Tennessee region daily is becoming a more globalized economy with an increasing number of foreign-owned businesses in the area. The region boasts a diverse business community, with a wealth of different corporate headquarters, an entrepreneurial spirit that has historically bred numerous small businesses and public companies, and over 22 colleges and universities.

Nashville is the home for live music of all genres and a flourishing recording industry. The city abounds in health care corporations, the automotive industry, financial industry, printing and publishing, religious headquarters and more. Nashville has more leading hospitals that any other city in Thomson Reuters’ 100 Top Hospitals National Benchmarks study, which evaluates hospitals in areas ranging from mortality to profitability. Within a one day’s drive of two-thirds of the United States, Nashville is a major distribution center for numerous manufacturers.

Noted for its high quality workforce, Nashville has ranked high for relocation, including the “3rd Best State for Business” from Chief Executive magazine in 2010, and #1 in “America’s 50 Hottest Cities” by Expansion Management in 2005. Nashville-Davidson County’s consolidated city-county government fosters an alive and growing downtown area, with a strong infrastructure that supports its highly urbanized lifestyle.

Two Metro schools--Hume-Fogg Academic Magnet High School and Martin Luther King Academic Magnet School--ranked high (#41 and #54) in the 2010 rankings of Newsweek’s list of “America’s Best High Schools” of over 1,600 high schools. Hillsboro Comprehensive High School ranked #822, and five Williamson County schools captured slots on the list—Brentwood (#213), Ravenwood (#469), Franklin (#1003), Fairview (#1492) and Centennial (#1605). Nashville was ranked the 18th “Most Literate City” of those with over 250,000 population in a study by Central Connecticut State University, topping all other Southern cities except Atlanta, Georgia; New Orleans, Louisiana; and Austin, Texas.

The greater Nashville economic region is supported through the resources of 10 counties with a population totaling over 1.5 million. The Nashville Metropolitan Airport has flights arriving and departing for some 14 carriers, with approximately 400 average daily flights to direct-service and nonstop markets in North America. A mass transit system is available in the Metropolitan Nashville area with selected services to surrounding communities.

The state of Tennessee continues to be a leading exporter of numerous agricultural products, including soybeans, cotton, tobacco and wheat. The agricultural program at Tennessee State University, as well as the University of Tennessee Agricultural Extension programs in Nashville lead the way in research for more healthy and sustainable ways to grow these products.