11/20/2009 - 4:00 PM

City of Kingsport to Ask Census Bureau, CNN to Change Inaccurate Small Business Data

by Scott Robertson

The city of Kingsport plans to ask both the US Census Bureau and CNNMoney.com to change inaccurate data which was first discovered and reported on earlier this month in developedeconomy.com and The Business Journal of Tri-Cities, TN/VA.

CNNMoney.com had listed the five-county Kingsport MSA as the top MSA in the nation for small business growth from 2004-2007. That listing was based on Census Bureau numbers which showed a large jump in the number of small businesses during that time period.

The Census Bureau, however, had failed to note that small businesses in the Bristol, Virginia MSA were brought into the Kingsport MSA when the two MSAs merged in 2004. In fact, the Census Bureau listed separate numbers for the Bristol MSA through 2006 in one page on its website, while acknowledging that the two MSAs had merged in 2004 on another page on the same site.

CNNMoney.com did not note the Census Bureau error, leading it to interpret the data in such a way as to believe the Kingsport MSA's economy had created over 1,850 new small businesses, when in fact, those businesses were brought into the Kingsport MSA via the merger with the Bristol MSA.

Following a series of conference calls between the city, The Business Journal and developedeconomy.com, during which all three entities exchanged data, Tim Whaley, community and government relations director for the city,  confirmed to The Business Journal and developedeconomy.com that the city will be contacting the Census Bureau and CNNMoney.com to ask that the erroneous data be corrected.

"Making the correction is the right thing to do, first and foremost," said Whaley. "and we also need accurate data sets out there. This could impact on too many other things otherwise."

Whaley also said that prior to the recession, Kingsport was growing its economy, with new jobs being created every year. "We said when this first came out that these numbers were all pre-recession numbers anyway. What we're focused on right now is doing everything we can to ensure success now and in the future."

In the original CNNMoney.com report, the Kingsport MSA was listed as having a small business growth rate of 43.7 percent for the period in question. Taking the MSA merger into account, the accurate figure is 1.2 percent.

Yearly Article Archive