Demographics

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 [1] 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 [2] 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 [3], Tennessee’s third-largest city, has a population of about 183,000. Some 170,000 people live in Chattanooga.