Some great information about the Asheville area in regard to economic development.

1. I-26 Corridor Summit
May 9, 2013

2. Steady Growth:
Community at the Crossroads

3. Access-Eastern U.S. Markets
Source: Economic Development Coalition

4. Access-Eastern U.S. Markets

5. County Population 2011
1 Buncombe 241,786
2 Henderson 108,371
3 Burke 91,107
4 Caldwell 83,185
5 Wilkes 69,474
6 Rutherford 68,018
7 Haywood 59,484
8 Watauga 52,004
9 McDowell 45,305
10 Jackson 40,848
23.1%
11.8%
11.7%
13.4%
14.6%
25.5%
Percent of Population
by Age Group
0-19
20-29
30-39
40-49
50-59
60+
Population Estimates
WNC Home to Over 1.1M Residents
Source: NC Department of Commerce

6. Population Growth
Source: NC Department of Commerce
11%
5.2%

7. Annual Population Growth
Source: NC Department of Commerce

8. Migration Map
Buncombe County, North Carolina
Source: Forbes.com

9. Migration Map
Wayne County (Detroit), Michigan
Source: Forbes.com

10. • 50% net increase in daytime population change
due to commuting, or an estimated 41,000 people
• 85% of workers commute by car, truck, or van as
means of transportation to work
Daytime Population: Asheville City
Source: US Census Bureau

11. • Of nearly 468,000 workers,
32.4% travel 25 or more
minutes to get to their place
of work
Commuting Time
Source: NC Department of Commerce

12. Asheville Metro Labor Shed
Source: US Census Bureau

13. Steady Growth:
Commerce at the Crossroads

14. Asheville Metro GDP
Source: US Bureau of Economic Analysis
9%
18%

15. Major Employers (1000+)
Company County
1 Mission Health System Buncombe
2 Buncombe County Board of Ed Buncombe
3 Ingles Markets Buncombe
4 Veterans Administration Buncombe
5 County of Buncombe Buncombe
6 Wal-Mart Associates Buncombe
7 City of Asheville Buncombe
8 The Biltmore Co Buncombe
9 A-B Technical CC Buncombe
10 NC Dept of Health & Human Svcs Burke
11 Burke County Public Schools Burke
12 Caldwell County Schools Caldwell
13 Merchants Distributors Caldwell
14 Haywood County Schools Haywood
Company County
15 Blue Ridge Paper Products Haywood
16 Henderson Co Board of Public Ed Henderson
17 Margaret R Pardee Memorial Hospital Henderson
18 Park Ridge Health Henderson
19 Western Carolina University Jackson
20 Baxter Healthcare Corp McDowell
21 McDowell County Schools McDowell
22 Rutherford County Schools Rutherford
23 Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Swain
24 Appalachian State University Watauga
25 Appalachian Regional Healthcare Sys Watauga
26 Tyson Farms Wilkes
27 Lowe’s Companies Inc Wilkes
28 Wilkes County Board of Education Wilkes
Western North Carolina
Source: NC Department of Commerce

16. Asheville Metro Business Locations
Companies with 50+ employees and manufacturers with 5+ employees
Source: Economic Development Coalition

17. Asheville Metro Business Locations
Manufacturers with 5+ employees
Source: Economic Development Coalition

18. Freight / Container Traffic
• Western North Carolina Manufacturers export 10,250+ TEU’s
or twenty-foot-equivalent container units, annually (2009).
• 94% of WNC freight travels to Southern ports
Source: Western Carolina University WNC Inland Port Feasibility Study, 2008

19. WNC Transportation Alliance
Connecting 40+ Manufacturers from across WNC and Eastern Tennessee
• Intra-Company, interstate lane-sharing partnerships
eliminate ‘empty miles’, saving fuel, $$ and emissions
• Annualized Savings for one participating company:
607,000 miles 86,700 gallons / diesel
900 tons / carbon $285,350.00

20. • Buncombe County ranks 5th in the state for
visitor spending, attracting $783 million in
spending that generated $65 million in tax
revenue
Tourism Driving Growth
Source: Asheville Convention and Visitors Bureau

21. • Visitor spending has increased
70% since 2001
• More than 1.5 million hotel
rooms are sold annually, with
room revenue increasing 9%
per year for the last 3 years.
• 750+ new rooms since 2007
Tourism Driving Growth
Source: Asheville Convention and Visitors Bureau

22. Asheville Metro Employment
(employment in thousands)
• March 2013 Asheville
Metro total, non-farm
employment jumped
3.6% (Y-Y) and had
the largest percent
growth rate of the
state metros January,
February, and March
(Y-Y)
Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics

23. Manufacturing Employment
Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics

24. WNC Jan 2013 Employment 467,622
WNC Jan 2013 Unemployment 56,404
WNC Jan 2013 Unemployment Rate 10.8%
AMSA Mar 2013 Unemployment Rate 7.2%
Employment and Income
Source: NC Department of Commerce
12%
11%

25. 2012 Announcements
Western Region: $500M investments & 2,555 new jobs
Source: NC Department of Commerce

26.  Geography
Western Regional Differentiators
 Workforce
 Infrastructure
 Vision

27. For more information please contact:
Clark Duncan, EDC Director of Marketing
Heidi Reiber, EDC Director of Research
www.ashevillechamber.org