These Are The 10 Best Places To Live In Tennessee

Ahh, Tennessee.

To the untrained eye, it seems as if every town in the state would be a great place to live. What with Tennessee being home to spectacular caverns, the Great Smoky Mountains, and Graceland.

But, like all places, some towns and cities in the Volunteer State are better than others. And here at HomeSnacks, we don’t trust the untrained eye to make these fine grain distinctions. Instead, we look to data to understand the best place to live in Tennessee.

After analyzing over 100 places in Tennessee, we came up with this list as the best of the best that the Volunteer State has to offer:

1. Nolensville (Photos)
2. Brentwood (Photos)
3. Spring Hill (Photos)
4. Franklin (Photos)
5. Green Hill
6. Germantown (Photos)
7. Fairview (Photos)
8. Signal Mountatin
9. Mount Juliet (Photos)
10. Collierville (Photos)

Now follow along as we provide more insight into how we reached our overall best places to live in Tennessee.

If you’re interested, we also wrote a list of the worst places to live in Tennessee.

The Pressing Question: Size

Before we even started to collect data, we had to answer a tough question: Is it fair to pit Nashville with a population of 629,113 against Tellico Plains with a population of 900?

We firmly decided no, that just isn’t fair.

So to create our ranking, we only looked at places with more than 5,000 people. This left us with 104 cities.

We decided, no matter how much anyone loves their small town, the best places have more of everything and therefore you need to have over 5,000 people to truly be “the best”.

How We Calculated The Best Place To Live in Tennessee

Now that we had our set of cities, it was time to rank them.

We ranked each place across a number of criteria from one to 104, with one being the best.

We then took the average rank across all criteria, with the city posting the lowest overall score being crowned the winner of the title “Best Place To Live In Tennessee””.

The criteria we looked at were:

• Population Density (Higher better)
• Unemployment Rate
• Adjusted Median Income (Median income adjusted for the cost of living)
• Education (Expenditures per student and Student Teacher Ratio)
• Home Prices
• Crime
• Weather

Sources of criteria include the Census, the BLS, FBI Crime Data, and Sperling’s Best Places.

If your city or town isn’t among the top 10, jump down to the bottom of the post to see a detailed chart of the best places in Tennessee.

Otherwise, buckle up for a ride down good living lane.

1. Nolensville

Population: 5,812
Median Home Price: $266,100
Median Income: $100,319

2. Brentwood

Population: 37,288
Median Home Price: $501,800
Median Income: $133,304

3. Spring Hill

Population: 28,764
Median Home Price: $183,800
Median Income: $76,011

4. Franklin

Population: 63,117
Median Home Price: $336,700
Median Income: $79,894

5. Green Hill

Population: 6,467
Median Home Price: $186,400
Median Income: $71,729

6. Germantown

Population: 38,954
Median Home Price: $268,000
Median Income: $114,520

7. Fairview

Population: 7,778
Median Home Price: $171,300
Median Income: $54,903

8. Signal Mountain

Population: 7,573
Median Home Price: $276,800
Median Income: $81,302

9. Mount Juliet

Population: 24,557
Median Home Price: $203,900
Median Income: $72,743

10. Collierville

Population: 44,613
Median Home Price: $255,700
Median Income: $102,643

Best Places In Tennessee Data

See all the data here.

City	Population	Best Place Score	Rank
Nolensville	5,812	6.5	1
Brentwood	37,288	7.1	2
Spring Hill	28,764	11.5	3
Franklin	63,117	13.3	4
Green Hill	6,467	14	5
Germantown	38,954	15.9	6
Fairview	7,778	15.9	6
Signal Mountain	7,573	19.1	8
Mount Juliet	24,557	19.4	9
Collierville	44,613	22.3	10
Farragut	20,688	23.1	11
Middle Valley	13,704	24.7	12
Tellico Village	5,700	24.8	13
Lynchburg	6,349	25.4	14
White House	10,243	27.4	15
Hendersonville	51,500	27.6	16
Harrison	7,631	28.9	17
Bartlett	54,452	29.7	18
Arlington	11,108	29.7	18
Collegedale	8,367	31.1	20
Lakeland	12,218	31.7	21
Mount Carmel	5,409	32.3	22
Smyrna	40,118	32.7	23
Millersville	6,181	34	24
Oakland	6,508	35.8	25
Seymour	11,191	36.1	26
Lebanon	26,510	36.6	27
Gallatin	30,449	37	28
Murfreesboro	109,172	37.7	29
Oak Ridge	29,235	37.9	30
Greenbrier	6,420	38	31
Portland	11,454	39	32
Kingston	5,915	39	32
Soddy-Daisy	12,691	39.3	34
La Vergne	32,458	40.7	35
Goodlettsville	15,960	40.8	36
Maryville	27,547	41.2	37
Jonesborough	5,020	41.4	38
Loudon	5,460	41.6	39
South Cleveland	6,189	42.3	40
Church Hill	6,710	43.7	41
Clinton	9,827	43.8	42
Nashville	629,113	43.8	42
Fairfield Glade	6,893	45.6	44
Johnson City	62,998	45.7	45
Alcoa	8,498	47.6	46
Atoka	8,356	47.9	47
Hartsville	7,827	50.3	48
Red Bank	11,723	51.5	49
Clarksville	133,583	51.5	49
Bloomingdale	9,981	52.2	51
Bristol	26,639	52.2	51
Tullahoma	18,769	52.6	53
Munford	5,929	52.9	54
Sevierville	14,971	53.9	55
East Ridge	20,996	55.5	56
Manchester	10,090	55.5	56
Dickson	14,629	55.5	56
Kingsport	50,131	56.5	59
Elizabethton	14,228	57.9	60
Winchester	8,475	59.3	61
Millington	10,377	59.5	62
Springfield	16,445	60	63
Cleveland	41,461	60.3	64
Cookeville	30,439	61.4	65
Chattanooga	167,869	61.5	66
Fayetteville	6,887	63.5	67
Pigeon Forge	5,917	65.3	68
Erwin	6,080	65.8	69
Columbia	34,785	66.2	70
Jackson	66,009	66.9	71
Sweetwater	5,827	67.4	72
Lexington	7,703	68	73
Lenoir City	8,653	68.7	74
Mcminnville	13,567	69.1	75
Rockwood	5,537	69.2	76
Dayton	7,217	69.3	77
Knoxville	179,973	69.9	78
Jefferson City	8,118	70.9	79
Shelbyville	20,312	71.5	80
Savannah	6,983	71.6	81
Greeneville	15,106	72.9	82
Harriman	6,369	73.6	83
Milan	7,842	73.9	84
Henderson	6,263	74.1	85
Mckenzie	5,395	74.3	86
Lewisburg	11,121	74.4	87
Morristown	29,112	74.6	88
Union City	10,878	74.6	88
Martin	11,330	75.6	90
Pulaski	7,850	75.6	90
Memphis	651,050	75.7	92
Bolivar	5,432	76.4	93
Athens	13,492	77.7	94
Paris	10,139	77.8	95
Crossville	10,894	78.8	96
Dyersburg	17,132	80	97
Brownsville	10,223	82.7	98
Newport	6,968	83.3	99
Covington	9,068	86.3	100
Lawrenceburg	10,413	86.9	101
Ripley	8,408	88.5	102
Humboldt	8,452	89.7	103
La Follette	7,447	91.6	104