State bird
Northern mockingbird
Sources: Designation & background
Local timeNashville ·
U.S. States / South · Card 042
Tennessee
The Volunteer State
Great Smoky Mountains National Park spans Tennessee and North Carolina.
Tennessee and its surroundings
● State capital · Gold highlights Tennessee.
Map: Natural Earth. Neighboring states use postal abbreviations.
Map: Natural Earth. Neighboring states use postal abbreviations.
At a glance
- Capital
- Nashville
- Postal abbreviation
- TN
- Population
- 7,315,076July 1, 2025 · Census estimate
- Total area
- 109,153 km²42,144 square miles · land and water
- Statehood
- June 1, 1796State number 16
- Region
- South
Sources: Census · population · Census · area
State symbols & traditions
Selected state songs
Tennessee Waltz; Rocky Top
Sources: Designation & background
Geography & flag
01
Location
Neighboring states: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Virginia.
02
Landscape & places
Great Smoky Mountains National Park spans Tennessee and North Carolina. Forested ridges and changes in elevation support a wide range of plants and animals. Historic buildings also preserve evidence of mountain communities.
03
Land and water
The total area includes 106,798 km² of land and 2,355 km² of water, according to Census area measurements.
State flag
Three white stars in a blue circle on red, with blue and white stripes at the fly edge.
Sources: Census · geographic reference · Census · area measurements · National Park Service · Great Smoky Mountains
How the landscape works
The Great Smoky Mountains span Tennessee and North Carolina. Elevation creates different conditions across forested ridges, helping support varied habitats. Historic buildings add evidence of mountain communities. Crossing a state line inside this mountain system changes political jurisdiction, but does not make the physical landscape start over.
History
What the Tennessee Valley Authority was created to do
During the Great Depression, parts of the Tennessee Valley faced poverty, flooding and limited access to electricity. Congress created the Tennessee Valley Authority in 1933 to address several related problems across a river basin that extended beyond one state.
TVA’s dams were intended to control floods, improve navigation and generate affordable electric power. Electricity supported homes, farms and industry, while coordinated river management changed how the valley developed. The project is an example of federal economic planning on a regional scale, rather than a program confined to Tennessee’s state boundaries.
Read more: Historical source ↗
Why this mattered
The Tennessee Valley Authority combined goals such as flood control, electricity generation, and regional development. A dam could serve more than one purpose. Projects also changed the lives of people whose homes or land were affected. Evaluating a public project requires asking who benefited, what problems it addressed, and what costs it imposed.
Key dates
-
Southwest Territory organized
-
Statehood · State number 16
Sources: Congressional Research Service · statehood · U.S. Census Bureau · historical geography · National Park Service
People and place
Indigenous history and communities today
Cherokee history spans the southern Appalachians, including Tennessee, while the Eastern Band’s governmental center is in North Carolina. A shared mountain region and histories of displacement do not fit neatly inside present-day state borders.
Continue with Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. This is one starting point, not a complete account of the peoples connected to this land.
Compare
Tennessee and Alabama
| Measure | Tennessee | Alabama |
|---|---|---|
| Population (2025) | 7,315,076 | 5,193,088 |
| Land area (km²) | 106,798 | 131,171 |
| People per km² of land | 68.5 | 39.6 |
Tennessee has more people per square kilometer of land. Population density divides population by land area. It is an average across the whole jurisdiction, not a claim that residents are evenly spread out.
Calculated from the Census population series and land-area measurements used on these pages. Rounded figures; water area is excluded. Explore Alabama.
Economy
Main activities
In 2025, real estate and rental and leasing was the largest of the broad industry groups compared here by current-dollar output. Other major groups included manufacturing, professional and business services, and educational services, health care, and social assistance.
Total economic output was $589.8 billion in current dollars in 2025.
Largest industry groups · 2025
- Real estate and rental and leasing: 12.4%
- Manufacturing: 11.7%
- Professional and business services: 11.6%
- Educational services, health care, and social assistance: 10.4%
Share of total current-dollar GDP. These figures measure output, not employment.
Sources: BEA · annual GDP by state, SAGDP2
Production, jobs and wages answer different questions
The industry chart measures the value of production. It does not count workers. An industry with a large share of GDP need not employ the most people or pay the highest wages. Employment and wage data would be needed to answer those questions.
Population & economic trends
Population, 2020–2025
Millions of people7.322025 · millions of people
July 1 resident population estimates, using the Census Bureau’s Vintage 2025 series.
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau
View data table
| Year | People |
|---|---|
| 2020 | 6,927,736 |
| 2021 | 6,966,687 |
| 2022 | 7,063,325 |
| 2023 | 7,153,029 |
| 2024 | 7,251,291 |
| 2025 | 7,315,076 |
Real GDP, 2010–2025
Billions of chained 2017 dollars449.362025 · billions of chained 2017 dollars
Real GDP measures economic output adjusted for inflation. The chart uses BEA’s chained 2017 dollars.
Sources: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis
View data table
| Year | Millions of chained 2017 dollars |
|---|---|
| 2010 | 292,687.0 |
| 2011 | 301,508.9 |
| 2012 | 311,754.2 |
| 2013 | 318,347.9 |
| 2014 | 323,879.6 |
| 2015 | 335,461.1 |
| 2016 | 343,544.9 |
| 2017 | 355,417.5 |
| 2018 | 362,363.7 |
| 2019 | 370,197.4 |
| 2020 | 368,057.0 |
| 2021 | 401,673.7 |
| 2022 | 415,451.6 |
| 2023 | 428,276.1 |
| 2024 | 440,200.2 |
| 2025 | 449,356.6 |
Read the trend, then ask what explains it
Tennessee’s population increased by about 5.6% between 2020 and 2025 in this series. That shows the size of the change. The chart alone cannot tell us how much came from births, deaths or migration.
Real GDP adjusts for changes in prices, so it helps compare production over time. Current-dollar GDP includes price changes. Neither measure tells us how income is distributed among residents.
Representation
- Electoral votes
- 112024 & 2028 elections
- Voting U.S. House seats
- 92020 Census allocation
- U.S. Senate seats
- 2
Electoral votes equal the state’s U.S. House seats plus its two U.S. Senate seats. These allocations apply to the 2024 and 2028 presidential elections.
Practice
Test your knowledge
Use the explanations and data on this page to answer ten questions. Hints and links to the relevant sections are available throughout.
10 questions about Tennessee
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Sources & notes
Narrative and quiz updated 5 October 2026. Statistical data prepared 27 September 2026. Population: Census Bureau Vintage 2025, July 1 estimates for 2020–2025. Real GDP: BEA annual state accounts, SAGDP9, millions of chained 2017 dollars; industry shares: SAGDP2, current dollars. Data downloaded 27 September 2026. Area measurements include land and water.
Sources: Census · population estimates · BEA · state GDP · Census · area measurements · Natural Earth · map data
The capital clock shows current local time. Statistical figures are dated estimates and may be revised.
Updated 29 October 2026. Statistics retain the dated series shown in the charts; these are not live figures. Sources are linked beside each topic.