Seventy percent of Clarksville’s growth has come from people moving in from outside the area. A good portion of those are retired military.

-- File Photo By Lyle Graves | The Ledger

Clarksville has become one of the nation’s boom towns, thanks largely to retirees from military service.

Veterans have flocked to the area in recent years for the shopping and health care benefits available at Ft. Campbell.

The latest U.S. Census reported that the multi-county Metropolitan Statistical Area of Clarksville was the second fastest-growing city in the country, with a 3.7 percent boost from July 2011 to July 2012.

The Census also showed that 70 percent of Clarksville’s growth came from people moving into the area, 28 percent from births. According to the Clarksville Chamber, the 2014 projected population is 135,990 with 50,813 households.

Fort Campbell, the home base of the 101st Airborne Division straddles the Tennessee-Kentucky line, is about an hour from Nashville and only 10 miles from Clarksville.

At the time the latest Census was taken, there were an estimated 30,000 soldiers connected to Fort Campbell, with 55,000 family members using their Basic Housing Allowances to live in the area. The typical Clarksville area home at the time was selling for between $150,000 and $175,000.

Currently, the average listing price of a home is $184,174 and the median sales price is $140,301.

Affordable homes to buy and rent, available jobs in a variety of industries, no state income tax, mild climate most of the year, good schools and closeness to attractions in Nashville are listed as reasons that veterans – and anyone else – continue to pick the area to retire or work.

Of course, many of the area’s employers have nothing to do with the base. Trane Company produces heating and air conditioning equipment and employs 1,400 people, while the Wal-Mart Supercenter employs just as many. Jostens Printing and Publishing provides another 700 jobs.