Chattanooga, TN vs Knoxville, TN
Side-by-side fiscal comparison · U.S. Census Bureau data (2023)
Summary
Chattanooga spends 34.7% more per capita than Knoxville ($6,223/person difference). Chattanooga, TN has the stronger Fiscal Health Score (B, 78/100).
Fiscal Health Score
Key Metrics
Per Capita Spending by Department
Revenue Breakdown (Per Capita)
| Sales Tax | $82 | $748 |
| Income Tax | $301 | $115 |
| Intergovernmental | $597 | $48,542 |
| Charges & Fees | $0 | $3,851 |
| Other | $13,286 | $6,214 |
Spending Breakdown (Per Capita)
| Fire Protection | $1,061 | $258 |
| Highways & Roads | $212 | $0 |
| Public Welfare | $895 | $573 |
| Health | $436 | $0 |
| Hospitals | $697 | $607 |
| Parks & Recreation | $1,596 | $1,708 |
| Housing | $4,908 | $3,667 |
| Sewerage | $175 | $224 |
| Utilities | $1,629 | $2,554 |
| Interest on Debt | $2,068 | $1,080 |
| Other | $10,474 | $7,255 |
Compare More Cities
The side-by-side above pulls the the Census Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances data for both entity A and entity B. What follows is the interpretation — which specific axes carry the most weight for entity A versus entity B, and which differences are large enough to influence a real decision.
Practical use of the comparison: read the data above, then drill into the individual entity A and entity B detail pages for the underlying breakdown. A pairwise comparison answers the relative question; the per-entity pages answer the absolute question.
Source: Census Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances, 2026.