Tennessee is home to 6.2 million people. Almost one-quarter of these are 18 years and younger; about 13 percent are older than 65. Tennessee is 80 percent white and 17 percent black. Three-quarters of Tennesseans have a high school diploma and 20 percent have at least a bachelor’s degree.

Memphis counts 674,000 residents and is the state’s largest city. More than 63 percent of Memphians are African-American, a greater proportion than is found in any other American city. Memphis has the youngest average age of the four major Tennessee cities.

Nashville’s population is 591,000. Some 64 percent of these are white, 29 percent are African-American, and 7 percent are Latino or Hispanic. Nashville’s foreign-born population tripled during the decade between 1990 and 2000, and the city is now 11 percent foreign-born. This includes large populations from Mexico, Vietnam, Laos, and Somalia. Nashville is also home to more than 11,000 Iraqi Kurds.

Knoxville, Tennessee’s third-largest city, has a population of about 183,000. Some 170,000 people live in Chattanooga.